In all fairness, LIONEL had no idea that PE would be the hit it is and could not see the future (i.e. make a mega loco to pull the umpty ump add on cars that are an ongoing 8 years down the road). Too, the could have stated somewhere early on that all the add ons could not be pulled by the original PE. I have one of the very first sets and I have 2 add on cars in addition to the original 3. How many cars can I add before I have a problem? I think there are 2 or 3 I don't have, not counting scale items and the "Polar RR" stuff.
I wasn't questioning that Lionel should have been able to predict the success of their PE set but rather that to this time they still have yet to print in their catalogs alongside those pictured add-ons, a warning that early PE loco's are capable of only pulling a certain number of PE add-on cars before damage to the engine will occur.
(Incidently, I'm only talking about PE add-on cars and not Polar Railroad cars.)
Also, since the PE loco shell is identical in all respects (including size) for both versions of the engine, it would have been thoughtful if Lionel had modified and kept the original PE frame so that a swap out of the original motor for the new, more powerful and improved motor could be done via a retrofit kit which Lionel could have made available to owners of their original rtr PE sets.
Incidently, I'd collected all the PE add-ons the first time they became available just in case Lionel ever decided to discontinue any of them, I'd still have a complete set. I only discovered the underpowering dilema when I tried running the set for my nephew the first time this past Christmas.
