18" or 21" Passenger cars to pull behind my Big Boy

Personally, I am a huge fan of Lionel's 18 inch extruded aluminum passenger cars.  I have a set of Santa Fe and UP that looks good no matter what I choose to pull them with  and they look great going around my 072 to 099 curves.  I recently acquired my first Lionel 21 inch car and I felt it looked totally ridiculous on my curves.

Good luck on your decision,

Don

I think you answered your own question. 18 it is and probably easier to find. 

rick s posted:

I am looking for Lionel UP Yellow passenger cars to pull behind my Big Boy.  Yes.  I know the Big Boys never pulled passenger cars.  But 4014 will when he gets done.

These will only be run on our club's 18' x 42' layout.  072 and 081 curves.  

Your thoughts please . . . 

If you have access to a layout that large, then GO FOR the 21 inchers

I keep my 21in cars on display and run my lionel 18in cars.  These are great cars and look much better around curves.

The 18 inch cars will look better on that radius track.  I wish Lionel had stuck with the aluminum 18 inch cars instead of the 21. The 18 had passengers and were close coupled together. The last set I bought of the 21 inch I sent back . they should have been advertised as kits as much work needed to be done to them to be ready to run. They really were a disappointment. 

I have 21" K-Line UP cars and love them - but my Challengers go around O-148.  That is barely enough for good appearance.  A scale Big Boy will not look good peering around O-72 corners.  Opinion.

rick s posted:

But 4014 will when he gets done.. . . 

She, all steam engines are female.  4014 will when she gets done.

As for length, I'd actually look at MTH's premier passenger cars.  They are about 19" long (At least the PRR ones I have.) and look good with scale locomotives.  But then I run them on O72 or smaller curves and am fine with it.

If it is RailKing, my vote is for 18". For a scale Big Boy, IMHO only 21" will do.

Just my highly unqualified N&W $0.02.