Product Description
Announced Date:
Oct 2023
Released Date:
Jan 2025
Individually Boxed:
Yes
Road Name: Erie
Road Number: 3131
Product Line: Vision Line
Scale: O Scale
Length: approx. 183 1/2"
Minimum Curve: O72 loco, O31 rolling stock
Features:
Set Includes:
Vision Triplex locomotive and tender
Vision Stock Car
8k Gallon Tank Car
Two Double Sheath Boxcars
Single Sheath Boxcar
Four Woodside Reefers
Hobo Boxcar
Steel Side Boxcar
Three 2-Bay Hoppers
Vision Woodside Caboose
Engine 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.
Stock Car Features:
LEGACY® Control
ElectroCoupler on B end of car, operating coupler on A end
Volume control
Max/Min switch
LEGACY® RailSounds® including:
3 stop sequences (loading, unloading, cleaning)
Freight and pig sounds in motion
“Quilling” pigs
Rolling Stock Features:
Die-cast trucks
Operating couplers w/hidden tabs
Easy conversion to scale couplers
Opening boxcar/stock car doors
Hobo figure and sounds
Caboose Features:
LEGACY control
LED-illuminated interior and marker lights
Cupola details with figure
ElectroCoupler on front end and operating coupler on rear end
Track IR equipped
RailSounds® equipped:
Plays freight sounds in motion
User-activated crew dialog
User-activated air whistle
Max/Min switch
Volume control
Overview:
Big power like this deserves a big train! The latest in Lionel’s “Super Sets” gives you a great start with 15 cars to run behind your Triplex. The set includes Triplex #5016 in her “as delivered” look with a Russia Iron boiler and all the trim.
The train is made up of 15 scale freight cars including a VISION double-deck stock car and VISION caboose to add even more sounds and action. Also included are many
uniquely decorated freight cars available only through this set including a mix of prototypical Erie cars and some fantasy cars that any Erie fan will appreciate like the “Still Well” tank car, “Dun More” boxcar, “Starrucca Beer” reefer and even “Hoboken Bindle’s” boxcar - complete with “Hobo Ken” riding along! At over 15 feet in length, this set will have your head and your drivers spinning!
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
Usually ships within 2 days. 
