Lionel PWC versus non-PWC?

I think it's the box and the little medallion on the bottom of the locomotive.

 

PWC has TMCC Conventional Classics does not. Do you have an example of what you are comparing?

That seems to be it...reason I ask is that i saw the PWC Rio Grande AA Units, then found the ABA set...geez, all the stats are the same except for the box!

Confusing confusing confusing...

Of course the Lionel Product finder is 'useless'...pretty bad when a company cannot even find its own products with a part number, yet you can find it for sale at OGR vendors and other places..I just want to verify part numbers but Lionel....well you know..their site...

Yes, can be confusing. There's genuine Lionel PW stuff, then the remakes in the PW Celebration Series. Add in the more recent Conventional Classics line. Did I miss anything?

Just for good measure throw in Scale Post War. GRJ is right though. They must have brought out the SF F3s about a dozen times

 

Pete

And they will continue to, given the enduring popularity of this iconic engine. Many of us are eagerly awaiting the introduction of a Legacy scale Warbonnet F-3 or F-7.

Bear in mind that Lionel has made quite a few different traditional F-3s in liveries other than the PWC series, that have been equipped with Pullmor motors with TMCC and RailSounds (and directional lighting and electrocouplers, etc.). These sets go back to at least 1998, so these have been made since well before the PWC series was ever begun. Milwaukee Road, C&O, Atlantic Coast Line, and Santa Fe are among the different F-3 sets that have been made with Pullmors, TMCC, R/S, etc. that came out before the PWC series even began. And there have been others since, as well, including that Rio Grande set. 

 

These Rio Grande liveries are prototypical. Also, there was a thread just in the past several days about Rio Grande liveries which you might be interested in, and you can google the subject as well to see different RG paint schemes.

it looks like there is a Yellow and a Orange/Yellow Rio Grande paint scheme...that really confused me.

The PWC sets are redos of sets made in the postwar period.  They come with the same cars & accessories as the original sets with TMCC features in the engines. 

Lionel already produced a Postwar Scale Legacy Santa Fe F-3 AA set with optional powered "B" back in the 2010 vol 2 catalog. They are: 6-34573 & 6-34579. Very nice set. Perhaps they will re-introduce them again in the future.

 

Ken

 

Yes, but those were scale reproductions of the Postwar traditional F-3 engines, which engines had certain prototypical things missing. These included no second headlight (the top one would be a MARS light), and the incomplete yellow striping on the nose, among other things. What many of us are waiting for is a remake of the true scale versions. Lionel made two F-3 sets of these with TMCC, plus a conventional version, and a set of similar F-7s with TMCC, but has yet to reproduce these true scale engines with Legacy.  

Beez, Lionel actually made three scale F3 sets with TMCC. Train 16, 18, and 19 had TMCC. Train 17 was conventional but used the same scale bodies.

My remark about dozens of SF F3 sets was meant to be hyperbole and include only the traditional F3s.

 

Pete

I have the PWC Wabash F3 set and it is COOL.  Great running, beautiful classic colors, with dual motor pullmors and great sounds.  Cool cars too, though I still haven't gotten the barrel car to work properly, even though I brought it to a service station to be fixed.  I thinkhre rewired it backward.  Never checked out how the transformer car worked exactly either. 

You're right, three TMCC sets plus the conventional. And the last scale Warbonnet set made was the set of F-7s, no. 24589, (which look essentially the same as the F-3s other than the grills), and that engine no. was 332 for the powered unit, I believe.

What Lionel postwar year do you think was represented the most during the PWC series and why?