CC Berkshire freight shipping

Apparently (and this was discussed in a recent thread), if an item "disappears" from the Shipping Schedule, it means it has shipped. Not exactly the best way to handle the process,    and not sure why they wouldn't just mark it as "shipped."

In any event, both CC Berk sets have shipped and are at dealers. A couple of folks mentioned getting them at the end of last week.

I called Charles Ro on Friday and they said they would begin shipping to customers this week.

Thank you. I missed the last thread. I thought I saw that some products were marked "shipped" and so I was confused.  Mark

I got mine from Charles Ro yesterday and it is beautiful.  The tank car is grey, not black as shown in the catalog.  The merchandise car has plastic doors, not metal as advertised.  The whistle sounds great and this is one of the best smokers I've seen from Lionel in quite awhile.

Jeff Davis

I can understand them using a 2357 caboose instead of the correct tin 2457 one but why not the correct color on the tank car? The black 2855 is one of the more desirable of the metal single domes.

Pete

The black 2855 is one of the more desirable of the metal single domes.

Since they have the ability to make the car, perhaps Lionel can offer the black 2855 as a separate sale item some day.

For those who have both the passenger and freight sets, do they have two distintive Berkshires?

David

Fortunately this is one car that anyone can duplicate with a can of paint and decals.

Pete

Greenberg guide lists three versions of the 2855 tank car produced in 1946-47:

(A) black

(B) black "GAS/OILS" omitted

(C) gray

A couple of things that no one has mentioned is that the set box should be brown not white and the individual set boxes only have New York and Chicago on them. Everything produced prior to 1950 should have boxes that included San Francisco on them.

The box engineers were definitely busy on this set.  Two of the cars have the plastic "clam shell" in the box.  The merchandise car is wrapped in the brown paper with some foam plates protecting it.  The caboose was just wrapped in the paper and put in the box.  The caboose and merchandise car had the wire ties around the trucks. All the effort they go through to make the packaging correct and then they slap the UPC symbol on top of the box!

Jeff Davis

I just re-read the catalog description. They made what can be considered major changes from the original printed description of the set and its contents. If they knew they could not reproduce the merchandise and tank cars as described they should have issued a correction. This is typical of Lionel.

They probably found out that it was going to be expensive to have die-cast doors on the merchandise car and perhaps they did not have permission to produce the tank car in black. Does the gray version have S.U.N.X on it along with the Sunoco Decal?

Everyone concentrated on if the engine was going to be an exact reproduction but ignored everything else. Even then the final produced engine does not match the description in the catalog.

Does anyone have a photo of the set on display at York in October? I'm curious as to whether they showed the two cars as described in the catalog and then made the changes for the final production.

According to TM Books the 1947 version of the PRR Merchandise car should have black doors.

Also according to TM the 2855 was produced in black in 1946-47 with and without "GAS/OIL" in the decal. The gray version of the 2855 was produced in 1947 only and NO GAS OIL ind decal.

My set just arrived.  After carefully looking it over, I'm very happy with it.  There

is a lot of metal on the merchandise car, I don't know why the doors were overlooked.

While the tank car is grey instead of black, it is very nice looking and heavy.  I also

liked the painted smokestack on the caboose.  The engine and tender were pretty much like I expected.  There is no way they could have made it exactly the same.

I was disappointed that the crates were not marked "Baby Ruth".  Since Nestles'

now owns Baby Ruth there may have been too much hassle using the name.  For the price, I'm very happy to have this set.

David,

They are identical.

Ken

The doors are black...even with the changes from the catalog, I am very happy with this set.

Jeff Davis

Thanks, Ken. Time to open it up. I was really looking forward to this postwar set. Sounds like they got spirit of the set right if not all the details.

Pete, where did you get your decals?

David

Interesting because the separate sale 3854 has brown doors. Marker is probably right that maybe Lionel will offer a black 2855 in the future.

David, Lou Palumbo at the Underground Railroad Shop is the Post War decal guy. He can provide decals for every variation. You can also get his decals at most of the other repro parts sources like Jeff Kane, ttender.com

Pete

Does the gray tank car have 2855 on it or like this:

Pete

And your point is??

Well, where's the pictures of this great set? 

They will say a thousand words.

Here is an unedited video of the Anniversary set and the Berk freight set running on my small carpet central.

Bradfish1

Thanks!!!

Sunrise

No problem! Sorry for the poor lighting and camera work. I just love both of these sets and I think the whistle and bell on the Berk are just amazing! I'd love to have a second Berk.

wow thanks. nice to see the unions shipped!

Bradfish1,

Nice video of some great conventional sets. I got the UP Anniversary Set earlier this week and have been running it non-stop!   The whistles, horns, and clackety-clack sounds of these on the track are really what it's all about.

Bradfish1

Now that is what a toy train layout should look like, way to go.  Now pick up the berk passenger set and you are good to go

Mike

Thanks for posting the pictures and video!

Mike,

  Thanks for the compliment. I have the passenger cars and the Sager Place  from the CC GG1 set so I basically have the passenger set. I just can't run both of them at the same time.

Just finished lubricating my engine and have a few comments and suggestions.

1- You really need to oil the engine, tender and all of the cars prior to running.

2- The oil port for the armature on the Pulmore motor was absolutely dry as a bone so make sure you check yours.

3- Although there is some grease in the gear box I added more to coat the transfer gear of the motor. You need to take off the shell and remove the circuit board to get access to the gear box. Don't disconnect any of the wires from the circuit board except for the headlight wire so you can test run after lubrication.

4- I added a little too much smoke fluid and this caused the unit itself to make a loud clacking sound. Once I cleaned up the excess fluid and dried out the little rubber pad underneath the lever the noise went away.

Also, there is some question as to whether there is enough wicking in the smoke unit itself since it has been reported that the engine does seem to use up fluid rapidly. The pad inside the unit is the new type with two holes in it that correspond to the intake and exhaust openings in the unit itself so I don't know if any more can be added.

BTW: the smoke rings are great and so is the smoke coming out from the smoke chests.  

Another comment. It seems that the engine is set up to be converted to TMCC. The wires on both sides of the engine shell are insulated and would serve as the antenna.

1- You really need to oil the engine, tender and all of the cars prior to running.

Probably a solid idea considering Lionel has been stating "lubricate before using and as required " since the early 1900s.