Lionel 2431010 - Vision Line Triplex Steam Locomotive "Erie" #2603

• Road Name: Erie
• Road Number: 2603
• Product Line: Vision Line
• Scale: O Scale
• Length: 27 1/4"
• Minimum Curve: O72

Features:

Premium Features:

• New Wheel Slip! - Tender wheels slip on user command.
• 4-Digital Addressing when using the Base3/Cab3 control system
• Multi-speaker stereophonic sounds
• Smokebox and tender steam
• Whistle Steam
• Swinging Bell
• Rear Electro Coupler
• Optional non-scale front dummy coupler and conversion to scale working couplers
• Road number specific detailing

Legacy Railsounds including:

• Separate boiler and tender chuffs
• Road number specific crew talk

Additional Legacy Features:

• Legacy Control System equipped - able to run in Legacy Control mode, in TrainMaster Command Control mode, or in Conventional mode with a standard transformer
• Bluetooth Control - Operate with Universal Remote or LionelChief App
• Lionel Voice Control (LVC) - run your locomotive by speaking commands into your phone via LionChief App
• Odyssey II Speed Control
• IR Transmitter that works with LCS SensorTrack
• Powerful maintenance-free motors with momentum flywheel
• Directional lighting including operating headlight and back-up light on rear of tender, where applicable
• Bi-color illuminated classification lights on the front of locomotive where applicable. Using a Legacy controller, change the color of the classification lights between white or green
• Traction tires
• Interior illuminated in cab
• Dire-cast metal locomotive body, pilot, and trucks
• Die-cast metal tender body and trucks
• High level of separately applied metal details
• Separately applied builder's plate
• Synchronized fan-driven smoke units
• Adjustable smoke output
• Authentically detailed cab interior
• Cab "glass" windows
• New engineer and fireman figures

Legacy Railsounds sound system featuring:

• CrewTalk dialog with difference scenarios depending on whether the locomotive is in motion or stopped
• TrainSounds that mimic operating dialog when the locomotive is in motion or stopped
• Six official railroad speeds with CrewTalk dialog
• DynaChuff synchronized with 32 levels of intensity as the locomotive gains speed
• Legacy "Real-Time Quilling Whistle" control with instant response for realistic signature "quilling" and correctly timed warning signals
• 5 Difference whistles to choose from for a more customized experience
• Single hit or continuous mechanical bell sounds - 5 levels of bell pitching for customized sounds
• Sequence Control: play the sounds effects of an entire trip, including warning sounds and announcements, base on the movement and speed of the locomotive
• Current speed and fuel dialog, cola or oil loading sounds effects.

Overview:

Erie’s Triplex locomotives - machines so big they inspire, intrigue, and move the
mind as much as they could move freight. Built in an era when the compound Mallet
design was just coming onto the scene, the Triplex took the concept a step further
in attempt to use not only the locomotive’s weight but also that of the tender for
traction. On paper at least, the locomotives could put 89% of their loaded weight to
use and pull a train 5 miles long. They were so powerful that you couldn’t put enough
weight behind them to truly test it without breaking couplers and by some accounts
remain the most powerful locomotives ever built.

The first Triplex entered service in 1914 as number 2603 and named after a prominent and recently
retired engineer on the Erie, Matt H. Shay. The locomotive was as much of a marketing statement for the
Erie as it was motive power. The locomotive performed well enough that two more were delivered in 1916
with only a few minor modifications from the original. The three were assigned as helper engines on the
Susquehanna Division - best known as the line over Starrucca Viaduct.

The Triplex was a compound Mallet, with high pressure steam going to the center pair of pistons
first. The left piston exhausted steam to the front pair of pistons and the right to the rear which powered
the wheels under the tender. The locomotives were also unique in that both the high- and low-pressure
pistons were the same size, using different valve sizes to accommodate the changes in pressure.

Predictably, the problem with these large beasts was not power, but appetite. The boiler would
struggle to keep up pressure against the consumption of six cylinders - even if it was only directly feeding
two. And although there were elements in the design to compensate for variable traction under the tender
as fuel was consumed, as it ran light wheel slipping could be an issue. The locomotives stayed in service until
as late as 1933.

Only the Virginian made another attempt at a Triplex with a single locomotive. It was rebuilt as a
smaller 2-8-8-2 soon after, however. While not a major success, they were certainly not a failure as far as experimental steam designs are concerned. More accurately, they were truly too big for their time. It would
have been interesting to see the concept revisited a few decades later when technology had improved
and train weights increased, but alas it never came to be.

To bring this locomotive back to the O Scale market as anything less than a VISION LINE model
would be a crime! We have packed every inch of this massive machine with amazing features including the
all-new wheel slip simulation. If your labor rate gets too high or the fuel is running low, watch out! Those
rear wheels might just start to slip. Not just a sound effect this time, the tender drive wheels have independent motor control and will actually slip under the right conditions. And when the wheels slip, of course
the sounds and smoke will follow along.

Other notable features include whistle steam effects, a swinging bell, road-number specific crew
talk and 4-digit addressing. We’ve also made several tooling changes to model both the “production”
models of 5015 and 5016 and the prototype Matt H. Shay