PASSENGER TRAINS - Let's See Them!

Some of the early ones

All MTH Premier.  Sorry it is all from the same angle.

https://youtu.be/QyKi9SiFgok
golden gate depot super chief

Lionel NYC F-7 ABA pulling a consist of MTH 70' passenger cars:

MTH Bipolar pulling an all diner dinner train.

@third rail posted:

MTH Bipolar pulling an all diner dinner train.

The Overland diner started out as a Lionel Polar Express diner with a broken truck and other issues.  Got a n new 6 wheel truck,  removed the hot chocolate dispenser and repainted the car, added new decals.

Acela on the South Fork Railroad.

200 series ALCOs in action.

Bill

Acela departing on the South Fork Railroad showing all doors operating.  Everything on this fantastic train operates properly.

Some of my passenger trains

The Red Train passed through today!

@Ulus Ekerman posted:

Like the super chief step down car too!

Beautiful passenger trains everyone, fantastic videos, wonderful layouts and super nice passenger trains  on display. Here’s an attempt to do a short video of some of my passenger equipment. Happy Railroading Everyone

I decided to stretch the legs of my MTH Freedom Train

My only passenger trains sets. MTH Amtrak Surfliner set, 1992 Lionel ATSF Employee Special, Lionel UP 844 Excursion and Lionel UP Big Boy

Number11 takes a commuter train to Elizabethton.

Now that is a cool passenger train ...well done. I think I would have stopped for the lady in yellow.  Its not like there will be another train in a few minutes.

@Fast Mail posted:

Now that is a cool passenger train ...well done. I think I would have stopped for the lady in yellow.  Its not like there will be another train in a few minutes.

Thanks. It's a lightly-modified Bachmann ten-wheeler and a AMS coach with some modifications, all lettered for the ET&WNC of course.

The lady in yellow is actually waiting for engineer Sherman Pippin on the freight train to hand him some meat from her family's farm, then to meet up with a certain gentleman who's getting ready to join the Army. She's way too dressed up for a shift at the rayon mills!

The museum has re-opened, although only Fri, Sat & Sun from 11am ~ 4pm, at least it is open.

Broke out the R.I. to start running again last Fri the 26th, a long time silent.

@p51 While I love what you did with the Bachmann, the train in general and it being On30- I love the narrative behind it even more! One of my favorite part shows of making a layout is the stories the scenes tell!

Here is my MTH "American Freedom Train" running at a National Capital Trackers show in Fairfax, VA.  This was several years ago.  This passenger train is a crowd pleaser and I use to tell visitors that it was fake and that the real AFT was entirely different, but that sort of killed the excitement.  I don't tell them anymore and just let them enjoy it. I'm thinking of selling these cars and running my Lionel AFT cars from now on so folks know what the real train looked like.

I have a video of my Lionel Freedom Train (FT).  However, it is not a true passenger train.

@CAPPilot posted:

Here is my MTH "American Freedom Train" running at a National Capital Trackers show in Fairfax, VA.  This was several years ago.  This passenger train is a crowd pleaser and I use to tell visitors that it was fake and that the real AFT was entirely different, but that sort of killed the excitement.  I'm thinking of selling these cars and running my Lionel AFT cars from now on so folks know what the real train looked like.

I have a video of my Lionel Freedom Train (FT).  However, it is not a true passenger train.

Ron,

It might not be realistic but it sure is pretty! Feel free to post your Lionel Freedom Train on this thread.
As an aside: If you ever decide to sell these MTH cars, I am looking for the 2-car 70' AFT set to go with my 5-car set (as shown in my above videos).

Bryce

@StevefromPA posted:

@p51 While I love what you did with the Bachmann, the train in general and it being On30- I love the narrative behind it even more! One of my favorite part shows of making a layout is the stories the scenes tell!

Thanks, Steve. My layout is a real labor of love. I'd had this concept in my mind since I was a teenager, and never thought I'd pull it off as nobody made the ten-wheelers of the ET&WNC except in G scale. Just as Bachmann came out with them in On30 and got my back into the hobby, someone came out with very expensive (and very poorly-operating) brass models in HOn3.

In my mind, it's all a huge story, and just like that Payton Manning commercials, I have a back story for most (if not all) of the figures on my layout. I've put a lot of thought into each one and where they should go (and more importantly, why they would be there).

Ron, I bet the Freedom Train organizers wished they'd had a dome car or two for the press and crew. They had some passenger coaches at the back of the train for the crew, press and visitors. A few of them (including the observation car) aren't too far from me, near the old station for the Mt Rainier Scenic RR, having been used on a dinner train which hasn't turned a wheel in many years.

California Zephyr on the Golden Gate Lionel Railroad Club layout this week (Mar 29) at the Hiller Air Museum in San Carlos Ca.

RAY

Here’s a video from 2014.

I was running 2 passenger trains and a post war reproduction freight.

The 6 car pass set is a PRR K-Line heavy weight set that has been modified with the addition of passengers and has had the voltage reduced in each car to enable it to run on 18V track without burning out the bulbs. The 2 locomotives are a Williams scale GG1 and a Williams EP5 running as an MU. Both have been upgraded to TMCC with Lionel Rail Sounds.

The other Passenger set is a Lionel PA1 Santa FE with a B unit and a 4 car passenger consist.

All locomotives are TMCC.

P51 Lee, that’s a cool video and really neat passenger train, I love the steamer and chuffing sounds, and the whistle, neat scenery, a Wow, CAPPilot, now, realistic or not, your Freedom train is simply beautiful, 9 nice cars pulled by a beautiful steamer, wondering if they are 18 inch? Also, that’s a really neat modular layout. Also a Wow. This is great thread.

@p51 aren’t almost all our layouts a labor of love? Ha, but of course, one such as finely detailed as your own, or any of us who go for that level of prototypical detail, will find that the labor is 5 times as intense- I’ve found when that’s the case, the Love ends up being 10 times that!

love your devotion to figures and placement- as a person who likes a very ethnically and economically diverse crowd on the layout, in addition to toy soldiers to deal with issues and conflicts such that themes of scenes or even the layout can go from bomb threats at the station to border issues, repressed nations receiving relief from a multinational force, then integrating figures(not just soldier) and vehicle placement to deal with that, military vehicles protecting RR vehicles and key infrastructure projects- man I love this hobby! I will say, all that said, your devotion to figure placement seems to exceed my own!(that’s a compliment!)

@leapinlarry what a beautiful layout and wonderful pictures! The Pas and Santa Fe F3s(?) are absolutely stunning- as is the subway consist. Great stuff!

HOPING THIS post comes through! FOr some reason I’vas   Ali a  of  the double posting to this thread.

i wanted to post these about 2 weeks ago- the week that they arrived or I bought them from a LHS

FIRst is from the LHS and something I don’t have pics of on the mainline...yet. I’ve run them behind my MTH proto 2 LV Alco C628(snowbird). Not prototypical, but it’s tough not to have the snowbird on the rails! That said- here’s my MTH LV John Wilkes passenger set- also have an add-on car:

Scored from ebay- 5 railking 60’ Amfleet and- the one I love the most- K-Line 18” heritage baggage(I believe that’s to scale

The k-line goes with my smaller(baggage & 3 18”+ amfleet) mainline passenger consist. Smaller because it shares the mainline with a larger intermodal freight consist. Headed up by an MTH Proto 2 Phase IV Amtrak F40PH(most of the time), followed by a dummy AEM-7, the K-line heritage baggage, MTH premier 70’ sleeper(more in this car in a bit), and 2 Lionel 18” Amfleets(HHP-8 set or its add-on)

inner loop consist. Headed by a K-line Amtrak Phase III F40PH with TMCC, RS & K-line Cruise 4.0. This engine is certainly one of my favorites- and my 12 and 8 year old cousins had no problems running the consist on the TMCC remote while visiting for Easter!

As that F40PH is Phase III, for the last year or so it’s pulled K-line PHIII 15” Horizons And MTH RK 16” PhIV amfleets. Buying the above assortment fulfilled three goals- increase the variety(regarding phases) of this inner consist, replenish my PhIV amfleets due to some damage, and decrease the mileage on those Horizons with their streamlighting.  You’ll see the Horizons and MTH PHIII & PHIV Amfleets in the pics below

Let’s look at that MTH 19” sleeper:

Also look at that young lad getting out to stretch his legs in Savannah, Georgia some 19 years ago come this September. After a tearfelt goodbye from his parents and younger siblings at Philly’s 30th Street station the night before,  He boarded that Viewliner into 2 bunk, 3 person sleeper suite with shower, toilet, sink, vanity, and TV with his Grandmother and Great Aunt. If it’s not clear- that’s a young Steve from Pa. after 20 hours, I was sure eager to get out prior to reaching my desitintion in Palatka Florida to be taken to St. Augustine to stay with my cousins- if only to say I set foot on Georgian soil.

That personal story having been said, this early MTH unit and it’s extruded Aluminum extrerior serves as a decent transition between the Heritage baggage and the Lionel Amfleets. More importantly, it’s also a darn good representation of, at the very least, a combo of heritage sleepers, slumber coaches and the Viewliner- if not even a decent representation of a Heritage sleeper(not sure if I have the nomenclature correct, it’s been a minute since I found pictures that looked like that MTH car). My point is, this MTH sleeper unit is really a pretty decent representation of some type of Amtrak sleeper. While not scale, with the exception of possibly K-line, none of the big manufacturers have produced a unit like this and at least tried to decently replicate an Amtrak sleeper. I know GGD or 3rd Rail is coming out with Viewliners- which is great- but if anyone is looking for a cheaper sleeper for their Amtrak consist- I’d recommend this guy. Will try to find some pics showing what I mean.

hope y’all enjoyed- keep the passenger trains coming!

Steve

Following up on my post from above- here is the MTH premier sleeper and some pictures of some sleepers and slumber coaches I found online:

Notice that the sleeper windows for the upper berth are between the the windows for the lower berth or single level roometes.

Phase III sleeper

Phase II slumber coach by BUdd

viewliner 1

Not saying that the MTH sleeper is God’s gift to earth- it’s certainly not entirely prototypical, has window inserts, is undersized, but it’s a decent model in its own right, can be had for cheap, and is comparable to the pics of the posted prototypes. Further, with the modeling skills that so many have on this forum, I’m sure it can be made to look even more prototypical

1st run of new MTH CNW just issued/shipped

@Doug W. posted:

The museum has re-opened, although only Fri, Sat & Sun from 11am ~ 4pm, at least it is open.

Broke out the R.I. to start running again last Fri the 26th, a long time silent.

Beautiful!

Great looking train! JohnA

Here's a video of my New York Central Hudson pulling GGD New York Central passenger cars at a TCA Ft. Pitt Division train meet in Cheswick, PA near Pittsburgh.    

@revolgnad posted:

Here's a video of my New York Central Hudson pulling GGD New York Central passenger cars at a TCA Ft. Pitt Division train meet in Cheswick, PA near Pittsburgh.    

Beautiful consist @revolgnad !

Here's a few

@NYC Fan posted:

That city backdrop is spectacular! Did you create that fro scratch, or is that something that can be purchased?

@pdxtrains posted:

That city backdrop is spectacular! Did you create that fro scratch, or is that something that can be purchased?

The backdrop is a copy of the one used by Clarke Dunham on the Citi Corp Station layout that was in New York City during holiday seasons 1987-2008. I purchased them directly from Dunham Studios in Pottersville, NY.