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When I decide I want some passenger equipment, I decide what motive power and cars I would like to have to make up my train, then I search to see what is available and I buy whatever I can find first. Sometimes it takes a while and I have to make concessions(very rarely), but I eventually find everything I'm after or something close enough to make me happy.

There was a pre-WW-2 D&RGW train called the Exposition Flyer.  I have only seen B&W photos of it, but think its cars were probably Pullman green.  I have the 3rd Rail "water buffalo" that might have pulled this train, but will probably have to make/letter cars for it.  "Bumble Bee" Grande cars came later.  That train will just sit at the connecting station, as most space is devoted to a free lance 1940  shortline, that moves a lot of Rockies east slope scale length RPO cars, so l pick those up.  It would move some of those early green? Grande cars, when created.  Mostly the major line just runs short mixed trains, and various "critters". So, with the above engine-first exception, l buy what l can find, piecemeal.

For me it is completely about availability.  Sets don't always do it more me but if I can find a good set, I'm happy to get that first and then find all the mismatched cars that went with it.  However by the same token, I'm always excited to build a new train around anything that interests me. 

My 3rd Rail E5 is in town finally and I will be looking for cars to put behind it that aren't necessarily Zephyr cars.  Some heavyweights mixed in would make for a great late era train pulled by the E5. 

Part of the fun of this hobby is the thrill of seeking and learning as you go.  I love putting together passenger trains in such a manner. 

I would need to have some sort of set of matched cars first.  I can pull them with some steam or diesel.  I am not a era correct operator, it just needs to look good to me.  I'll add new release cars or duplicates of original set cars as I find them. 

Most people don't keep track of the names or numbers as they go by.  If they try then my train seems to speed up, like the cruise control isn't working. 

For me things were very simple: I love passenger cars.  I love PRR motive power and PRR "Fleet of Modernism" (1938-48) passenger cars. K4 and streamlined K4s (2 versions), as well as the GG1 pulled them. PRR stuff is easy to find. I bought MTH Rail-king "Fleet" passenger cars on eBay, for the most part. The motive power is Lionel.

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Last edited by Joe Hohmann

I originally had an old Lionel Santa Fe warbonnet engine (probably 1960) and about 6 years ago as I built a 9' by 12' layout. I bought 5 Weaver aluminum Santa Fe passenger cars. Afterwards my local train store (Trainland) would have periodic sales of aluminum passenger cars (Weaver) and I wound up buying 4 more aluminum Santa Fe passenger cars (a total of 9). I found my old Lionel Santa Fe AB could not pull them so I purchased online a Weaver Santa Fe ABA which was able to pull all 9 cars, 

Somewhere along the line I decided to concentrate on Pa. RR engines and cars. I purchased a Pa GG1 and separately 6 matching aluminum passenger cars separately all Weaver.

So in one case I had the engine first then purchased cars and then a second engine after for the Santa Fe cars. For my Pa. passenger cars I purchased the engine (GG1) first then matching color cars.

John F

I have a Williams Santa Fe set with ABA and 3 passenger cars, been looking for more.  Got the set as a whole since the deal was great.

I also have a Great Northern set acquired the same way.  Got the engines (AA I think) and the 3 cars for a great price.  Also all Williams.

I also have 3 Lionel Lines cars that I just kind of stick behind any steam loco I have.   The 3 cars were acquired by themselves.

A  few weeks ago I bought a very nice set of Williams 6 car Pennsylvania and a matching Lionel Trainmaster in the same Penn color scheme, got the whole set for a great price. 

I recently bought two 2 car MTH sets.  A pair of MTH Amtrak cars  and a pair of Pennsylvania cars.  Got all 4 cars for $80, all appear to be new in box.  I'm going to look for more matching cars and then the engines for them later on. 

I buy what appeals to me when its a great deal. 

 

Last edited by bobotech

When starting I purchased a Marx metal set of three passenger cars.  I learned from them I liked freight trains more as they have operating cars and more variety and even 40  years later I only have one passenger train on the layout.

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I always start with passenger cars.  My next passenger cars were made from Lionel 2400 series parts.  I pickup frames or make them, add junk trucks and pick up bodies from junk boxes at train shows.  I buy roofs and windows from parts guys.  I put coupling on the bodies as trucks with long couplings are hard to find and costly.  I use homemade power pickups and add 12 volt (or two 7 volt in series) mini Christmas tree lights that do not pull much power.  I have a couple sets of 3 cars for the famous Lionel Lines railroad and this matches several of my steamer coal tenders as most are Lionel Lines! 

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I have picked up a couple of sets of passenger cars for Santa Fe and Milwaukee rail road.  I have more sets than I run so would only buy more if a real deal falls my way.

Charlie

Last edited by Choo Choo Charlie

When I returned to world of Lionel, I had to have a Southern 4501 due to my family's close ties to the engine.  Passenger cars were required to fulfill that memory.  I found a good deal on a set of Baby Madison Southern cars.  Every time I run them, I remember Dad and I running an excursion from Birmingham to Chattanooga and back.  He gave me some throttle time going North.  I sure shoveled a lot of coal that day.

 

In the last six years I have purchased four complete 12-car passenger trains.

1. A complete Walther HO Santa Fe Super Chief purchased 1 or 2 cars at a time over a 14 month span.  The A-B-B-A F7 were purchased 2 years before the cars.

2. The complete Golden Gate Depot O-Scale El Capitan set.  I had to wait almost 3 years before Atlas O offered F7 A-B-B-B-A Units for power.  I ran that train for six months and sold it as a complete set to a forum member.

3.  I purchased the Atlas O Western Pacific California Zephyr 12-car set and had to wait almost 3 years for the Atlas O Western Pacific A-B-B F-units.

4.  The complete Walther HO Premium Series (fully populated) El Capitan.  The power for these are Athearn Genesis F-units which I have owned for a few years before.

Prior to that all my the other passenger trains were purchased as sets including:

MTH dealer appreciation package CP Passenger train, MTH Northern Pacific,

Well, I have yet to buy the passenger cars 1st and then a locomotive to match.  I've always bought a locomotive I want, and then thought "Hey, I should get some matching passenger cars."  And lucky for me, MTH rotates through their cars often enough I have no worries about getting cars.  I think the only time I bought passenger cars without already having a locomotive was Lionel O27 Pullman cars as I wanted a generic set of passenger cars I could pull behind any locomotive.  And the only cars I'm short on right now are Railking Daylight cars to put behind my K-Line GS-4.  As MTH does those every other year it seems I'll pick them up some time.  Now I have a couple O27 GG1s that I may or may not put passenger cars with, but I haven't decided yet on that one.  And also I might pick up some UP cars to put behind my VL BB or MTH heritage diesels.

My order of purchase is dictated by availability and price. When I decide I want new varnish, I will look for all of the different locomotives and rolling stock available to make up my desired train. The items that are harder to find usually get purchased as soon as I can find them as long as the price isn't crazy. Then I will buy the more common items that are cheaper first, followed by the more expensive items.

I bought the three TCA extruded aluminium cars (baggage, diner and end observation) simply because they appeared simultaneously on eBay from the same seller, and I thought “wow, they look smart!” and the price was affordable. I’ve just bought the (full length) Vista Dome car because I just couldn’t resist it. 

For motive power at club running days, I’d really like a Hudson, but I haven’t quite worked that out yet. I had them behind a #1225 Berkshire and they looked pretty good. 

 

 

The last passenger set I bought was the Northern Pacific F3 AB with 4 dome cars and the baggage car set that had the observation car.

I liked the looks of the color scheme but didn't do enough research on what was available. It would be nice to have some non-dome cars but, alas, none were made that I can find. Lionel, that is.

I would not buy another train unless I knew I could get all the cars and then I'd buy them all at once or not at all. "Not that many shopping days til Christmas"..to quote Jack Nicholson. Ha. 

GVDobler posted:

The last passenger set I bought was the Northern Pacific F3 AB with 4 dome cars and the baggage car set that had the observation car.

I liked the looks of the color scheme but didn't do enough research on what was available. It would be nice to have some non-dome cars but, alas, none were made that I can find. Lionel, that is.

There were no other cars to that set, just the 4 full-length domes, baggage and obervation. There was also a dummy A available.

Mike D posted:

My order of purchase is dictated by availability and price. When I decide I want new varnish, I will look for all of the different locomotives and rolling stock available to make up my desired train. The items that are harder to find usually get purchased as soon as I can find them as long as the price isn't crazy. Then I will buy the more common items that are cheaper first, followed by the more expensive items.

That's what I do as well. One added factor is that in some cases, with some passenger sets, there may be prototypically several different engines that can be run with the cars, which may make matching a bit easier.

I've found that in the majority of cases it seems the car sets are harder to find than the engines. I've seen quite a number of folks who purchased the engine(s) first, only to discover that they were unable to find the cars to with it.

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