Anyone have any idea how "good" these will be? Can we trust they will be good old relyable LL? At $70 for an AB set that's a great deal. Any thoughts?
Well done. Typical L-L drive and weight. Just looked and it apears to be upgraded to DCC ready. Now we need a board! Print/paint is up to current standards.
I have an earlier released AB set painted in the orange and marroon MILW scheme. I picked them up in Tacoma this last summer. They are great runners, and being heavy, they pull really well. I'm sure the newer ones are just as good, or probably better.
I have two of the earlier release. Very well done and great runners. I haven't hard-wired decoders into them yet, and am glad to see the new ones are DCC-ready, albeit without a board. Most of the non-DCC ready Lifelikes that I own (GP-20, FA1, FA2, C-Liners, Erie-Builts) share a common architecture, so if you've done one conversion, the others are easy.
Excellent Locos...Very heavy, quiet runners. and, if you need your teeth pulled, attach them to these 'Erie Builts'...They'll do the job.
These are from the first run (I have one more AB set since the photo was taken and am looking for the last set). I'll echo the above....these are great locos with good pulling power. Only gripe (and I have yet to start the conversions on them - probably Aztec milling the frames) is the lack of DCC readiness!!!! Better Views of the pics are here: http://www.railimages.com/gallery/owenkey/aaa http://www.railimages.com/gallery/owenkey/aad
Thanks Owen, I placed my order for the Milwakee Road version - Far and away the most popular color among the women who looked at them. Besides if they go the typical life cycle of a LL they will some day be available at $25.
Not Likely... most of the recent LifeLike products were built to orders received. It is more likely that these will disappear... much like the FM Erie Builts did a few years ago.
Both the first C-Liners and Erie-Builts disappeared quickly. I snared an AB undecorated set of Erie-Builts on eBay just after they sold out, and I'm glad I did. Both are pretty rare these days.
Thanks guys! I feel better I love the Milwalkee Road colors and did not have any on the GandG. maybe by Saturday I can show them on the semi - wired system.
Alright, this is really bugging me now regarding the C-liners. I bought a couple sets of the CP A-B units in block lettering and the decaling on them has proven to be quite worthless. Even before I pulled them out of the box, it seemed, the lettering was all flaking off! And I've been trying to seal the paint with Testors dull coat, but even after multiple coats the decals are still stripping off. Needless to say, I am royally annoyed with this because I bought them specifically because I wanted to have some nice ABBA sets to run around. Now it seems I have nothing but worthless shells on good chassis. For the price I paid, Life-Like is lucky they got absorbed by Walthers, otherwise they have my whole fleet coming back to them. AS it is, I've been checking out the thread on fantasy paint schemes, so maybe the best bet is to repaint them and letter them properly since factory made is about as far from good quality as it seems you can get.
Decals???? That's odd. I don't know of any manufacturer who use decals. Instead they use a pad printing system. Are you sure these weren't custom painted then decaled? I can only find three RR's for which LifeLike made these and they are MILW, NYC, & Pennsy.
No manufacturer uses decals. Life Like's units are pad printed for lettering and numbering. Trust me, I'm trying to strip so SP&S FA's, that printing isn't coming off easily.
I may be mistaken, but I remember reading that the decoder for the Microtrains FT-A or FT-B from Digitrax will work. It may not be a perfect fit, but may be good enough. The part # is DN163MO. Hope this helps. John This is from NScale Supply's site; http://www.nscalesupply.com/DIG/DIG-MobilDecoders.html It is also somewhat confirmed on the Yahoo Msg Boards.
C liners Have one that came with a LifeLike Trainset that I bought a couple years ago. Runs real smooth and quiet with good slow speed.....Mike
