The LONG-AWAITED Lionel Milwaukee Road Passenger Cars are Shipping!!!

Nicole,

There's nothing more enjoyable than someone adding a bit of "calm" and "common sense" to the discussion.  I only mentioned the windows-issue in my earlier first-peek post, because at one point there was confusion about a catalog description for several passenger car sets that alluded to flush-mounted windows.  And that hasn't always been the case -- particularly with the 18" cars.

Bottom line... these cars will be gone in a heartbeat -- most likely being scarfed up by owners of the S-3 as well as Milwaukee Road diesel or electric locomotive consists to head up a lovely train.

All of this hullabaloo about windows being flawed is in and of itself a flawed and irrelevant discussion... plain and simple.  If these items and many of the earlier predecessor models didn't sell well, we would have seen them being blown out long ago, and Lionel would have re-engineered the approach for what looks to be 6-8 new sets of 18" passenger cars due out within the next 6-9 months.  When all is said and done... whether these cars are on a display shelf or moving along on one's layout, they look absolutely fantastic.

Healthiest outlook...  if you love 'em, buy 'em.  If you don't, leave them on the shelf for the next buyer, 'cause the shelf is gonna be empty soon either way!

David

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Joe  JC642

I believe the prototypical intent of this Lionel car offering is for the purchaser to assemble a replica of the present day excursion train used with the real 261. So if you bought Lionel's 261, the cars would be appropriate.

+1.  Gotta agree all the way with LIRR Steamer! 

Check out this website for lots of great info on 261 and the excursions... http://261.com/

David

Hi David, 

That's your opinion and you're entitled to it; however, the windows do look a little funny when illuminated. If I'm putting down big money for a passenger set, I have certain wants - green alien windows is not one of them.

No doubt the cars are nice, and those of you who are getting them, enjoy the heck out of 'em. But that's absolutely no reason to discount other opinions on the product. 

Thanks LIRR. I forgot about the #261 excursion service. I have the #261 and have been running it with the MTH Hiawatha cars. Love the set. 

Joe   

Wow I don't care about the MR. Magoo glass... you can really tell when the cars are flying by you on the layout... but the colors?

Still looks like a wonderful set and I hope I can get my hands on it for a reasonable price!

Nice looking cars.  Might be the lighting, but the red/maroon looks more like mauve.  Can anyone comment on how well the colors match with motive power? Eg.

Lionel Legacy F7

K-Line F-7

Atlas Erie Builts?

Bob

I tried to stay out of this discussion, until I read this...

quote:

All of this hullabaloo about windows being flawed is in and of itself a flawed and irrelevant discussion... plain and simple.

David,

That is your flawed and irrelevant opinion. Here's mine..

Take a look at a couple of videos that Alex Malliae posted a while back showing his Lionel 18" passenger cars and the green outline around the outside of the windows is so visible it smacks you in the face! There is nothing irrelevant about that!

As for these cars selling well, it only shows you there are people out there that think more of the Lionel name than anything else. If Lionel would have done the right thing, they wouldn't have been able to make these cars fast enough!

As I have said before, there is no excuse for the windows to be the way they are, ESPECIALLY, since they got the vestibule windows RIGHT!

Lionel's engineering is flawed as is their refusal to fix the problem.

The latest Atlas Golden Spike newsletter had a flyer enclosed stating that they were going to fix the blinds painted on the outside of the CZ passenger car windows and how everyone could get theirs fixed. WAY TO GO ATLAS!!! The modeling community needs more good people like you!

Now, mark me off sick!

If anyone has a set of these on order and they do not want them I know somebody that is looking for a set. Thanks.

I like the quality of the Milwaukee Morning Hi and Afternoon Hi Weaver did a couple of years ago, ... with the #1 and #2 AND #3 Atlantics to boot!

And scale length!

I hope the 4 pack is close behind. 

As i type away here in the kitchen I hear my wallet weeping in the next room! I have these cars on order, and have wanted them since I launched my jihad to have the 261 made. 

That said...I'm being hit hard...as this is all coming in at once. I have picked up one Burlington Northern SD45 by MTH and have another one to go. THEN I have the Sacramento Northern SW-1 from Peterson Supply coming out. THEN I also have the Milwaukee Road FP45 being released. AND now the Lionel passenger cars have arrived. 

Who here in the DC area needs a gardener for the next few weekends! 

The windows won't look any better in quantity.   

GOOD ONE!

Did anyone notice the cartoonish,way too thick black pin striping on the sides of the cars?

Do you mean the stripes that set off the odd-looking maroon color that doesn't look like the maroon in the prototype photos? Yep, I noticed them all right. My 21" K-Line cars aren't perfect either, but based on the photos in this thread, I still like them a lot better than the new Lionel. 

Comments on how these would look with the Bi-Polar?

I have the heavyweights that were produced with the Bi-Polar... so when I get a chance, I'll photograph both car types... one heavyweight and one aluminum, and post the images.  That should give us a good answer to your question.

David

This is my favorite diesel for sure. I'm so glad I bought it. It's long so I run just the A-A units. Seems like a good time for Atlas to make another run of them. Don

Scale Rail Don:

Always a treat viewing your modeling and photography work.

This is from your old layout correct?

Charlie

These will go fast, now doubt. The windows are important to some folks, and will keep them from buying the cars. However, (just IMHO, of course) color fidelity trumps windows by a wide margin.

The only cars blown out recently, to my knowledge anyway, were the Shasta Daylights. The problem wasn't the windows, it was that they were the wrong color, and didn't match other Daylight engines, in particular the GS4 and GS2. Otherwise, they'd have been gone pronto.

The colors of these Milwaukee cars are fine, from the comments, and in any case will be mated with a black engine, so color match won't as much of an issue. I'd be curious to hear how they match up color-wise with the Legacy F-7s and other Milwaukee diesels, though. If they don't match the colors of a given set of diesels, those owners probably won't buy them, regardless of the windows.

What passenger cars do you run with them, Don?

It's hard to tell the actual color of the cars from what's posted, of course. As we know, the quality of the photograph and computer screen settings often distort true colors. Just have to see them in person.

Well, let's hope now the windows on the 4-pak are the same!

I run K-line cars behind my FM. 

Here's one alternative, perhaps, for those looking for one. 2006 Vol. 1 catalog. Hard to find, though. Anyone know how the windows were on these cars?

Hiawatha Passenger Car StationSounds Diner

Milwaukee Road "Hiawatha" 18" Aluminum Streamlined Stationsounds Diner Build an impressive Hiawatha consist with matching 18" passenger cars.

FEATURES: Die-cast metal sprung trucks with operating couplers and hidden uncoupling tab  Operating diaphragms between cars Extruded aluminum bodies with flush fitting windows Metal frames Authentically detailed and painted interiors Passenger figures Interior lighting with ON/OFF control STATIONSOUNDS SOUND SYSTEM FEATURES: Accessible with either TrainMaster Command Control or a conventional transformer Custom recordings, featuring multiple characters, allow you to recreate an entire rail journey from departure to arrival at your final destination Arrival/departure announcements, dining reservation calls, and other en route dialog "Clickety-clack" of the cars as they roll down the rails Gauge: Standard O Scale Minimum Curve: O-54 Dimensions: Length:  19" (6-29199) $299.99

Charlie, thank you, yes that's long gone. I should have a article in a upcoming OGR soon on the new layout and a "How to" the next issue. Don

How's the color match?

Lionel got the windows right on the Acela; where they are recessed. So they can do it right.

Not great, unfortunately. The K-Line colors are very dark and saturated, while the colors on the Atlas Olympian are brighter and, to my eye, more prototypical. The K-Line cars match some photos I've seen, as well as what I remember from when I was a little kid in the early 50's. However, those cars were probably dirty, and I think the Milwaukee changed the paint formula in the 50's. Here's a picture of an Atlas Olympian AB with some K-Line cars. They don't look bad together, but it's clear that they don't match. Click on the photo to see a slightly bigger version.

I'm sure those of us not in the trade can't even begin to imagine what it's like getting product out of China right now.  So I guess the last thing Lionel wants to do is introduce changes to existing tooling unless absolutely necessary.

i know it's not the answer that some folks want to hear, but I've made peace with the fact that the window designs are what they are.  For some folks, it's a deal-breaker, and for others (like myself) it's not even one iota of an issue.  Folks have complained this long to no avail.  So the saga lives on!  Is anyone really THAT surprised? 

David

In fact on real railroads unless the entire train was brand new cars and engines seldom matched. Even cars on the same train seldom matched. Don

Very true.

And in that spirit...  In the event Lionel does NOT issue a StationSounds diner for this new set, I grabbed the earlier 2006 StationSounds car last year (see the photos that breezinup posted earlier) to run with this set eventually -- even though the colors and diaphragms aren't an exact match.  

David

I just went on the Canadaian and all the cars matched. Fred

The windows stick up. Here's the Station Sounds diner from that set:

Breezinup

The K-Line color is too dark and too red. I've mixed paint to match a couple of different versions of Milwaukee orange and it's a challenge. K-Line and Lionel orange are too dark, the K-Line is also too red. Lionel's colors on their steam Hiawatha are stunningly bright - they strike me as like a circus wagon. MTH orange is usually too pale and too yellow. The best Milwaukee Road colors I've seen so far (based on the best available period color photos) are from Weaver and Atlas. No surprise there. 

Actually, IMHO the Atlas diesels don't look that bad with the K-Line cars. There's so much maroon on the Erie Built that the discrepancy in the orange doesn't jump out at you. The worst combinations are when you try to match the Lionel steam Hiawatha with something else. I tried the cars with my MTH scale 4-6-4 and the locomotive with my Weaver scale 1934 cars ("Morning Train"). Neither combination was aesthetically pleasing; the colors on the Lionel set are just too bright to go with anything else. If they were going to match the 1938 cars with the 4-4-2, they should have added the maroon half-circle to the tender, which the railroad did to carry the maroon stripe onto the tender. I'm going to do that on mine - some day.

Pssst...aren't both of tenders turned backwards?