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Has anyone on here converted a later generation Lionel "Scale" passenger car to 2 Rail i.e. swapped out the trucks etc?  Also, compared to Sunset Models scale length and width do the Lionel passenger cars live up the scale standard with the body width and length?  I'm considering a 2 rail project with a couple cars, but wanted to make sure they were scale length and width first.  The cars in question are the New York Central Empire State Express aluminum coaches.  They appear to be very close to the prototype length, but still hard to tell.   Long term I want the ability to place them in other passenger consists with Sunset / Golden Gate / 3rd Rail cars and they would look the part etc. 

Many thanks and happy railroading!

Howard

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Lionel's 21" cars are scale length and I assume width but don't know what prototype width is. They are actually more accurate than The GGD cars in finish and have the proper full width diaphragms which GGD cars don't.

Lionel did two runs of 21" cars but changed the trucks on the 2nd run so the cars would sit lower so you might have height variations as well as color variations if you tried to mix them with GGD cars. 

Pete

The Lionel ESE observation car was totally incorrect for the ESE.  Not sure about the prototypical accuracy of the other cars.  You may consider looking for a set of K-Line 21" ESE cars, although not 100% accurate either they are the closest.  Nothing in O scale comes close to the accuracy and beauty of the MTH cars in HO scale of a few years back.

The 21" cars are plastic, not extrusions. Most of the cars are actually very close with the exception of the Observation. These were the first 21" cars Lionel did and most were based on the ESE.  I would have preferred these even over the GGD but didn't need another Hudson and you had to buy the engine to get 4 of the cars.

Pete

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