Amfleet25124 posted:Thanks for information.
PCJ - So based off your notes about the M-7, any ideas that I have of running a 10-car consist (Powered Cab running forward, 2 RTR set Coaches, 4 Add-On Coaches, 2 RTR set Coaches, Powered Cab running in reverse) will just be folly, and just live with the 6-car set? If that's the case, then the 6-car set it is, and I'll direct those funds towards purchasinh a non-overpriced LIRR M7 set + 2 Add-ons, whenever one becomes available.
Not "folly". But you will have to do a bit of parts swapping and/or surgery. Compare your power car with the rear non-powered car, and think about what you'd have to change to have that rear car mid-train, as well as hitch another power car to it. I have the Metro-North set and add-on, and have puzzled over how to do this. It'll be a fair amount of work.
Personally, I thought about scratchbuilding all new pilots with slots for swinging magnetic MU couplers for each married pair. Using the LionChief set to expand the four-car sets raises the problem of having an odd number of cars, which won't look right since the M7 runs as married pairs.
Getting a second four-car set would mitigate that issue, but the existing ones are not too easy to find at a reasonable price, and it looks like any future releases will be three-car sets, unless Lionel re-engineers the power car to have twin motors, which I don't see as likely given the set overall looks like it was just hacked together to satisfy some stipulation in the MTA license (which in itself was probably only pursued to disrupt MTH's success with subways).
---PCJ
