I may end up making a small subway loop. What brand is more detailed and worth the price they charge? I would like a NYC style set
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Lionel makes the MTA sponsored sets but you might have to sell your grandkids to afford a set. MTH still make the New York trains without the MTA markings but cheaper. Checkout the dealers site to see what they have.
The lionel versions are much more $$$ and have some more interior details , the MTH has realistic sounds and station anouncements , braking sounds etc, but no real interior details, the lionel has an option where you can remotely operate the doors with I believe TMCC
It's been a while since I purchased my MTH cars. When I did, they had two lines: Railking and Premier. The Railking cars had less sounds, etc. I could not list all the differences. The additional features weren't worth the additional cost to me.
I am a Lionel guy but when it comes to subways I find MTH Rail King are really a good choice. There are some good deals right here on the Forum. Also MTH has many more types of subway cars available. Good luck
Rich in NH
Lionel makes very detailed subways with sounds of a full route but they are expensive and only 3 models were made on the other hand mth makes a handful of subways and now i herd they are planning to remake all of them they are not necessarily scaled except for the few premier that were made but they do look very nice on a city based layout and have a nice station announcement system
I WOULD SAY MTH,BUT LIONEL DOES HAVE OPENING DOORS,BUT ALSO COST ALOT MORE,BUT IF OPENING DOORS IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT TO YOU,THEN MTH IS BEST,THEY HAVE LOTS OF NICE DETAILS THE R-32,R-40 ARE THE NICEST
I like that the mth has the opening door sounds. Does lionel have the same feature? Would I be able to access some of these sound effects with just a conventional transformer ?
Andrew 87:
I use the MTH Z4000 Transformer which has both the horn/whistle and bell buttons. I also use Z4000 Remote Control System that has both the hand held control unit and receiver which plug into the Z4000 and has the same button controls as the Z4000. In this way I can operate and access all of the subway car sounds including the station announcements while walking around my layout. You should be able to use any modern transformer that has both buttons to operate the MTH subway car sets except the Lionel CW-30 and CW-80 Transformers which do not operate any of the MTH engines. Check the instruction booklet that comes with the MTH Subway Sets.
