PRR Passenger cars - Fleet of Modernism question

Hello @c.sam - Anybody home?

Yes, am home. Sorry,  didn't see this post until just now. I think I still have this nice set packed away if anyone wants to write to me using my email in profile.  Will have to go make sure...

MTH also made a Premier set of the PRR Fleet of Modernism.

They also made a RPO car more recently.

Ron

Edited 8/21/2022 with an image with better lighting.

nice Ron...those are the 70' right?   the ones I've got are just the RK in 60'  but they look plenty nice and , while i'm certainly not asking them to run on 0-27, I'm still a bit tight on radius around the Christmas tree  and the PRR gets the #2 outer loop as a B&O premiere set of 70s get the far outside loop.  I usually get 4 ovals down with some older Lionel O-27 on #3 and then the lil Thomas Train holding down the smallest inside loop before you get to the village buildings populated with M&M's Star Wars characters (they've been the traditional village folks for a couple decades after one of the grandkids decided they belonged there.)

Lionel did a nice set of 21” Pennsylvania South Wind cars which were in the Fleet of Modernism livery.

purty...just not a color/lines match for the RK 60s that I've got.

for some reason I'm ok with mix n match in my HO stuff. I'll run B&O heavy and streamline, and even mix some C&O in there, etc.

PRR I've got tuscan and aluminum with just the red logo stripe, being hauled by some long E series engines in the maroon.

I shoulda just gone with standard PRR streamlined cars from MTH but happened across the FOM railkings and thought they looked really nice...with Sam's help now, I'll have more train than I can fit around my Christmas tree ...the loco engineer will be waving at the observation guests (grin). Actually i'll side track some of the cars and have them  lit and pull the rest.. I've only got about 12-14 feet length on the den floor before I hit the curve and come back around.

it's worse with my B&O 70' rig cause that's a 5 car set plus an A-B-B-A FA diesel setup.

my HO version runs a dozen cars and the PA engines in ABBA

That's what the "H" in HO allows you to do!  But, when you have the room, you don't have to squint to enjoy the beauty of the FOM in O.

Chuck

LOL..yep...even in HO, scale length passenger train and those long PA diesels...that makes for a long long track full.   but sure is a little more affordable.  My PA rig includes 5 vista dome cars as well as a dozen other...all in the old AHM/Rivarossi.   as much as I love the HO, you just can't "feel" em run like you can O gauge.

Does anyone know how well MTH's 18" premier set matches up with Lionel's 18" Trailblazer stuff?

@ET posted:

LOL..yep...even in HO, scale length passenger train and those long PA diesels...that makes for a long long track full.   but sure is a little more affordable.  My PA rig includes 5 vista dome cars as well as a dozen other...all in the old AHM/Rivarossi.   as much as I love the HO, you just can't "feel" em run like you can O gauge.

But Pennsy had No dome cars!

Ron

@Magicland posted:

Does anyone know how well MTH's 18" premier set matches up with Lionel's 18" Trailblazer stuff?

I don’t have any MTH cars for comparison, but I recently picked up a NVOS (Very Old!!!) four car set of the Lionel 18” Trailblazer cars from Grzyboski’s (which I haven’t had a chance to run yet). I had a couple of minutes before I head back on the road and opened one and here are 2 pics for comparison…

@Apples55 - Those are nice looking cars.  Is that 4-car set product # 6-29105 released in 2005?

@PH1975 posted:

@Apples55 - Those are nice looking cars.  Is that 4-car set product # 6-29105 released in 2005?

Yes it is.

sorry for the confusion Ron...when I said "PA"  I meant my P series diesels in B&O  But, I'm also first to admit I'm ignorant of actual rail line history.. I was born in Ohio and so that's "my line"  Dad was from Penn...so they live together around the Christmas tree...but I don't have a clue about the real history of either line...I just love trains (grin)

One thing I've noticed is that Lionel's Trailblazer equipment has full car-width diaphragms, while MTH's FOM equipment has door sized diaphragms. Were both styles ran together, or were they segregated? I know the "betterment" cars (old heavyweight equipment "modernized" and painted in FOM livery) had door sized diaphragms, at least from the prototype photos I've seen. I know as modelers we tend to think of passenger "trains" as consisting of nicely matching styles and paint, but in reality, it often wasn't the case. The PRR never had any streamlined baggage cars, despite the many foisted on us by the model train manufacturers.

yeah those full car width diaphragms are really great looking (accurate or not)  I think for me, I like a nicely matched set in the O gauge..can only afford so much of the big stuff...

in HO, I'm ok with some "clutter"  in mix n match what's riding on the same train.

@ET posted:

sorry for the confusion Ron...when I said "PA"  I meant my P series diesels in B&O  But, I'm also first to admit I'm ignorant of actual rail line history.. I was born in Ohio and so that's "my line"  Dad was from Penn...so they live together around the Christmas tree...but I don't have a clue about the real history of either line...I just love trains (grin)

This is rather ironic.  My Dad was born in the Conway, Pa.  Whereas I am a "Buckeye" born just over a year after VE Day.  Dad was home on leave waiting orders for the Pacific Theater when I was made before we drooped the "BOMBS."

MY hometown back in the day was only second to Pittsburg in steel production.  We were served by five Class One railroads.  The Pennsy, NYC, B&O, Erie, and last but NOT least P&LE (The Little Giant).  I saw a lot of steam running around but then was a modern diesel kid.

Must say I always thought B&O's  two tone blue and grey with gold trim are the best looking Cab-Units.  Also  the B&O had the first dome cars east of the Mississippi River.  The domes were a lower profile which MTH did a better then fair job in replicating in the Premier line.

I road the B&O roundtrip to DC one year.  Also road the B&O roundtrip to Chicago sitting up in the dome.  The trip was mostly O-Dark-Thirty in both directions what a joy.

nice...then you'll know Sharon and Clairton PA... my dad was born in the first and raise in the latter.  Grandparents , and my birthplace were East Liverpool OH (bout 30 mins drive from Pitt)_...endless miles of coal trains along the river and the tracks were about 50 yards from our front door my first 3 years of life (Wellsville) .. Mom said she was always amazed that I'd never wake up when those trains were rolling by.

@ET posted:

...ebay of course just brings up the K-line which are nowhere near the quality of the MTH, nor are they a match in the color.

Well, K-Line aluminum passenger cars are certainly a match for the MTH quality-wise. But as you noted, color is the problem. To get a color match you'll have to use the same manufacturer for most passenger car sets. Just a side note - in addition to 18" cars mentioned above, Lionel also made several sets of 15" aluminum FOM Pennsy passenger sets, including the Neil Young Trailblazer set, the most detailed. I have this set, and the cars are very nice.

@Magicland posted:

Does anyone know how well MTH's 18" premier set matches up with Lionel's 18" Trailblazer stuff?

The MTH streamlined cars are 1/2" shorter and a bit narrower than Lionel's.  Not sure of the color match.

@CAPPilot posted:

The MTH streamlined cars are 1/2" shorter and a bit narrower than Lionel's.  Not sure of the color match.

Thanks. I was hoping to piece together an 18" set to go with my T1, but finding one intact, available, and for less than the cost of a subcompact is proving difficult. Especially since it's right on the fringe of the era I model (mid 40's to mid 50's). They just look SO good though. Wish they'd stuck around longer than 10 years, but with Pennsy starting their postwar swoon into irrelevancy, I understand the need to cut costs. And if I stick with solid Tuscan, I can run them with just about anything. Still, I'll keep my eye out, you never know...

A few FOM painted cars were still around in the early 50s.  I run a couple with my 18” PW Tuscan set on my late 40s era layout.  Looking for a GGD one for my scale set.

@ET posted:

ebay of course just brings up the K-line which are nowhere near the quality of the MTH, nor are they a match in the color

OK, I can't sit and read this thread any longer without commenting.  I choose my PRR FOM Consist with forethought (but realize, different strokes for different folks).

If ET was referring to the Streamline series plastic cars, I agree NOT in the same league with MTH.  I think Lionel should be ashamed of what they have "reduced" the K-Line name to represent in that regard.

I have a lot of K-Line Aluminum Cars and to "me" they are the perfect blend between Toy and Prototype.  They are very HIGH Quality and to my failing eyes gorgeous!   Yes with Extruded cars you can't have all the detail of plastic cars But......the paint finish on Metal versus, there is no comparison!  Before someone takes issue with this, go look at the hood of your car on a sunny day and compare to the front bumper cover.  K-Line recognized the detail fact and so when they produced their Heavyweight cars they were Plastic.  In a Heavyweight all the rivet and panel seams need to be there to look right.

Anyhow point of all this is.  My Fleet of Modernism is 18" with 15" on the head-end.  I have the later paint scheme 15" REA baggage between Loco and the RPO.  IMO beautiful, not cheap, but affordable, and the trucks don't disintegrate.

yessir...that K-line plastic stuff was what I was referring to...seems to be all I was seeing on ebay as I was shopping .  I didn't even know about some of the great lionel gear that folks have posted on this thread...very nice.  anyway...for general christmas tree hobby grade stuff, I'm quite happy with the level of detail on the MTH RK and Premiere ABS rigs.

ET - I agree with you that for the money, the MTH RK cars are very nice and far superior to the K-Line Plastic Streamliners (made by Lionel).  For christmas tree running they are very good looking cars.

You might have noticed in my post my 18" cars actually say K-Line by Lionel.  When Lionel first bought K-Line, for a short time, continued the "real" K-Line aluminum cars.  Once they realized they were competing with there own Aluminum cars with interiors things changed.

K-Line as you may or may not know made a lot of different Aluminum Passenger Cars using different dies.  Some are smooth side like the PRR Cars, some are corrugated side.  They also came in 15",18" & 21" lengths, but what railroads came in what lengths seems kinda random (after a while you just know if you get into them).  The cars that really "knock me out" are the shiny cars.  I am attaching 2 photos of a 15" NYC ESE to show you what I mean.  Actually if you are patient the 15" cars can be bought for reasonable money and you can run them around a christmas tree.

oh my goodness..."shiney!"   those really are nice..thanks for sharing the pics..never knew these existed...but that's part of the fun right?...finding the treasures..the hunt!!

If you look enough, SOME of the 15" Aluminum K-Lines can be bought starting at $50 each in good shape.  The Hiawatha 15" Observation I show, if you find one at that price let me know, so I can buy and resell for $100 to $150.  LOL  The 21" Cars are in a whole different price bracket, I have bought only a couple for "Display".

I took a picture of a 15" K-Line Car I thought you might want to add to your hunting list.

shout out to Sam...many thanks for making his Pennsy FOM passenger cars available to me.  And finally got to meet The Man  in person...  They are still in the box, and like the kid that I am, I have to wait til my birthday Dec 1st...to officially be able to get them out..actually Dec 3rd is our tree decorating and the Lionels/MTH will go down that weekend.

again...many thanks Sam...looking forward to  a train so long that the diesels will be waving at the observation car as they make the big loop around the tree (grin).

actually the wife has agreed to get rid of the aquarium, so that'll give me another 3 feet..  so over 12foot run before entering the curve back.

Still, likely have to sidetrack a couple cars, but they'll look nice sitting there lit as well.