Anyone have one and if so how do you like it???
Iam interested in the Great Northern model.

I have that exact model. I love mine. These photos I found are better than the catalog photos so maybe these will help make your decision.

Bill,

I have one in PRR. IMHO, one word description, OUTSTANDING!

AF

I have the Rock Island. You won't be sorry if you buy one. I only wish the dummy had an electocoupler. Maybe I can add that. Great sounds and great runner.

I have the Rock Island Legacy model, and it operates beautifully. The Great Northern model however, is not painted correctly, but should run great.

I have Lionel's NYC and PRR GP-7's and love them. They both run very well and the sounds especially the horn are in my view phenomenal. I"ve been very impressed with their slow speed characteristics. I've got Lionel's newest PRR GP-7 w/Legacy offering on preorder. Bill B.

quote:

Originally posted by Hot Water:
I have the Rock Island Legacy model, and it operates beautifully. The Great Northern model however, is not painted correctly, but should run great.

How is it painted incorrectly? I didn't study it that long but it seems pretty good to me.

I have the Rio Grande and it is one of my favorite Geeps! I am going to repaint it to Bangor & Aroostook. Had a noise in the Trucks when I first got it but Mike Regan sent me the parts and called me to walk me thru the repair. Outstanding service and a great engine!

Gunny

LOL LOL LOL what a testimony to the engines popularity! When I clicked to write a response there were no posts between us. You have your answer. I hope Lionel is looking as well...
The Lionel GP-7 Legacy is one of the best buys for the buck Lionel made. I am glad I got a few before Jerry made his announcement about his vision on what we need in the future from Lionel. I have as many of the $300-$600 Legacy engines as I could and every one of them is a great engine. Good Luck with yours if you are able to get one...

The Engine set in the background is an older TMCC set with Pulmor motors but works well under Legacy control also. Lionel has great lighting in the engines and the cab interior light goes out as you accelerate out of town and comes back on when you stop. The markers change color from green to red depending on direction also. While not prototypical they make it easy to see which direction the engine is about to go when viewed sideways!..

Thanks everyone.I have all Eastern Railroads but I picked up a 5 car set of Great Northern pass cars on EB (cheap) and now I need a Engine to go with them
and for you purist`s out there I don`t care if the GP 7 never pulled pass cars
or even if its painted incorrectly, although its nice to know those things.

bazonkers,

The orange is the incorrect color and you have to look at the top of the model to see the styling error.

Ah, got it. Thanks for the info!

quote:

Originally posted by bill pierce:
Thanks everyone.I have all Eastern Railroads but I picked up a 5 car set of Great Northern pass cars on EB (cheap) and now I need a Engine to go with them
and for you purist`s out there I don`t care if the GP 7 never pulled pass cars
or even if its painted incorrectly, although its nice to know those things.

True, they never were scheduled to pull passenger trains but who knows if they ever did. I've seen some really interesting power on Amtrak trains which made me realize that railroads will put whatever they have handy at the front a train in an emergency. Who knows, maybe GN used a GP-7 one day in the past as well.

Got the Rock Island, my first Legacy, in fact my first Lionel.
Runs good, looks good, and sounds teriffic.

I also have the Rock Island and they are great... you won't be sorry!

quote:

Originally posted by Hot Water:
bazonkers,

The orange is the incorrect color.....

That was my observation also. I found the orange a bit too bright a shade. It was noticably different from my Lionel Great Northern FAs, which I found to be a more correct color. While I sold my Gt. N. Geep for that reason, I don't want to put you off from getting one, Bill. It's still very nice, and anyway there aren't any other Legacy Gt. N. engines available at the present time. By itself, you won't notice any color problem with the engine. It certainly would be a subtle thing to most people.

I have the Union Pacific version, and it's great. I like the MARS light and red flashing warning light in front on this version. It also has a strobe on top of the cab. Makes quite a light show. I did have one issue, though; it ran perfectly out of the box, but later the cruise began to lock in the last setting, and the engine wouldn't respond to power changes (this with TMCC 1/Cab 1). I sent it back last winter; Lionel fixed it and it runs fine.

quote:

Originally posted by RDemo4:
I also have the Rock Island and they are great... you won't be sorry!

Just what RDemo4 said.

Bill

The "gap" looks very small. Can anyone confirm?

Enjoyable purchases despite the massively hosed flange BS that they tried to pull. Sorry, that was just gross.

Bill
Does that mean another new siding
You are going to expand into the crawl space one of these days

The Rock Island GP7's did sometimes pull some passenger trains. They were equipped with a steam generator under the hood.

pennsyk4

Iam working it out (I have a spare siding)

quote:

Originally posted by Norm Charbonneau:
Enjoyable purchases despite the massively hosed flange BS that they tried to pull. Sorry, that was just gross.

Hey Norm, my friend is still turning down the flanges for people that want them fixed. Let me know. I want to pick up the NYC version of this engine and will do the wheels when I get it.

I'm all set Al - thanks though! To be fair to Lionel, they were interested in getting the issue resolved and there were some efforts made on their part. Didn't mean to sound overly harsh...

I have the PRR one purchased used from this forum. Looks and works great. But be careful of the lift rings on the hood. I believe they are just white metal castings and can break. Will have to fix mine with brass ones.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: prrhorseshoecurve,

I was able to pick one up for 300 when they came out. It is awesome!

Here's 2 in a lashup with a SD40...

Enjoy! The Video!

I, too, thought my Lionel GN GP-7's had orange that was too bright and with too much red bias. But, I checked the color against GNRHS Reference Sheet 28 and it wasn't far off for a brand new unit. GN Orange varied widely in real life, especially due to weathering (as the previously pictured photos show). The best example of GN Omaha Orange today is probably the re-painted GN400 Hustle Musle SD-45 at Minnesota Transportation Museum Jackson St. roundhouse.

Regarding passenger operation, GN bought six GP-7's delivered 11/50, road numbers 600 to 605, that were equipped with steam generators and had MARS lights on the long hood end. These would not have been used on the Empire Builder for speed and aesthetic reasons, but they occasionally showed up on many other secondary passenger trains. It was not unusual for a set of them to take a passenger train from Seattle up to Skykomish (for handoff to the electrics), then take a freight train back down to Seattle.

Sorry if this a stupid question but what catalog are these gp-7's out of, i cant seem to find them?

I have the NY Central and UP versions and love them both!

quote:

Originally posted by sidehatch:
Sorry if this a stupid question but what catalog are these gp-7's out of, i cant seem to find them?

Without looking I think 2007 vol.2 and forward.



Doug

quote:

Originally posted by trnluvr:
Without looking I think 2007 vol.2 and forward.

With looking, you are correct.

Marty E,
After watching your video and seeing that "over the edge shot", maybe the large flanges are a good thing after all!

quote:

Hey Lionel Give Me A SD-70 ACE In NYC Lightning stripes!!

Well Doug, Lionel is giving me two PRR/NS SD70ACes so maybe a NYC Lightning Stripe/NS version isn't too far off. They might've had a shot of one at York, or maybe I saw it here online?

I have the Lionel Legacy PRR GP7 and it is on the track most all the time. I also have the new # version on order. I'm sure they'll make a great lashup.

How long ago was it that Lionel made the 2027-2028-2029 PRR geeps (and other roadnames) and owners extolled their virtues, ruggedness, TMCC and very good Railsounds, and affordable price?

I have to wonder though, why the new # GP7 is priced higher than the larger SD70ACe? It's the same lower priced # that was cancelled last year. Maybe it's marketing and the 'gotcha' factor? Geeps do look good in tandem.

I too have the GN and it has been a dependable engine for me. Durning some beta testing awhile back, I had it lashed up with a Big Boy and while it made a strange looking consist it ran very well in a lashup as well as solo.

MArty E. Nice Video! Looks like you like to "live it on the edge!" Eh? I hope you stretch daily for you never know one day you may need to count on some swift reflexes!

Bill, You will love the engine! To get the best performance it should be controlled by the Legacy system. I have the NYC,GP7--Rock Island GP7--Chessie GP30, and all of these run on 031 curves and have OK flanges and will negotiate all brands of turnouts. Its the SD70's Heritage engines, CSX-AC6000's that have the over size flanges. Again, running in Legacy is great, TMCC is also good. There are just more features with Legacy. Enjoy your new engine!!

Another great video Marty. Like the lash-up's and good smoke performance. I wish my Texas Special TMCC F3 had smoke or at least the legacy B unit. Nice job.

Tex

Just to correct a recent poster.

I have a Legacy GP 7, Union Pacific and it most certainly has the large flanges. I would suspect your choice would as well.

It's a great engine except for the flange issue.
The GP 7 will ride "up and over" the frog. Not a smooth transition over a switch. However, if this issue is of no concern to you then you're good to go.

Lionel has recently acknowledged this problem, I'm sure do to a ton of complaints and indicated at last York that the issue will be addressed.

I hope they address it with a fix at their expense............

Regards
Dave

Well just in case anybody want's to get their flanges turned down on their engine. My friend does it on a lathe and charges $30 per engine. You just have to only send the wheels set in, not the entire engine. It only takes a day or two to get them back out to you. Shipping is $4.80. If interested let me know by sending me an email. csxal at earthlink.net