@Richie C. posted:No - but these are not stand alone items. The engines and passenger cars I am referencing are manufactured, advertised and sold as matching sets but, in reality, they are not matching because the passenger cars will not run on the same O-36 curves as the engine was designed for.
Put it another way - does anyone manufacture a twin size bed with king size dressers and end-tables ? Or, kid-size skis with adult-size poles ?
It just makes no sense to me to sell an O-36 locomotive and mate it as a set with matching passenger cars that won't also run on O-36 curves. Why would you make an engine that will run down to an O-36 curve, but matching passenger cars that won't ? Again, it's just disappointing that I can buy a high-end loco that will run on my layout, but not the matching passenger cars that go with it.
I didn't sleep at Holiday Inn Express last night, but I have a feeling that if Lionel can find a way to make a 30" LC+2 Big Boy run on O-31 curves, then they can design an 18"-21" passenger car to satisfy the scale end of the hobby, but still negotiate O-36 curves to go with the engine they were designed to match - (or at least make a secondary matching paint passenger car set in the 14"-16" range to run on O-36 curves with the very engine they were designed to match up with).
I don't think that is a reasonable interpretation of "matching sets." They are matching sets in decoration. The specifications for the minimum diameter curves for the locomotives and the cars reflect their different lengths and construction. You seem to want one of two things:
1. Lionel to make cars in 14-16" length that will negotiate smaller curves. Probably not commercially feasible. So then do you think the alternative should be to not offer the sets at all since they are no longer "matching" by your definition? In other words, restrict the availability of product unless it meets every possible standard for "matching?"
2. Lionel to overcome the laws of physics. As pointed out in my previous post in the comparison to HO, Lionel is already doing an amazing job of getting the diameter down as far as they have. Do you have a solution? Your comparison to a 30" Big Boy is not comparing apples to apples. A Big Boy is articulated and is drawbar-attached to its tender which is a different situation from a passenger car that has couplers at both ends and trucks that, while far apart, are also well inboard from the ends of the cars. Both of these factors lead to wide swing on curves at the end of the cars that needs to be accommodated one way or another. Laws of physics again. Can you point to a single example of any manufacturer that has managed to make 85'-foot passenger cars in O scale that can negotiate O36 curves?
