6-wheel or 4-wheel trucks on LC's new 710 series cars?

And if you look at the orange 710 cars (same page) they have 4-wheel trucks, on both passenger AND baggage cars.

I'd like to know myself. I have the orange 710 3-car set on order along with the 256 Electric.

The red 710 passenger cars that I have from a previous release have the six wheel trucks under them. I have ordered the add on baggage car to go with my red cars. Being that it is a baggage car, six wheel or four wheel trucks would be fine by me.

I have a 1928 Lionel catalog that shows the 710 cars in a set with the 256 and the cars have 4 wheel trucks. Maybe LCT is trying to make the cars more accurate with 4 wheel trucks. Personally I like the look of 6 wheels.

-Ryan

quote:

Originally posted by johnstrains:
And if you look at the orange 710 cars (same page) they have 4-wheel trucks, on both passenger AND baggage cars.

I'd like to know myself. I have the orange 710 3-car set on order along with the 256 Electric.

_______________________


I too have the orange set on order as well as the matching orange baggage and coach add-on cars.

If it were my decision, I'd install the 6-wheel trucks. I'd also paint the roofs "dark gray", add a maroon stripe through the windows, and stamp "THE MILWAUKEE ROAD" instead of the Lionel Lines in the letterboard area above the windows. I've suggested all of this to MTH including that they should make other railroad specific 710 sets (UP, Penn, etc.), and that they should produce matching 710 combine/club cars and operating RPO cars like those RichArt once made. These operating RPO cars not only had great "play value", i.e., by installing a small clip in the RPO's baggage door an operator can collect small mailbags suspended from trackside hangers along the mainline, but would increase MTH's profits through the selling of "accessory" trackside mailbag hangers.

As a Milwaukee Road operator and collector, I would love to see MTH produce a tri-color (orange, maroon, dark gray) 710 series Olympian Hiawatha set with baggage, RPO, club, coach, diner, parlor, pullman, and observation cars. If Dick Mayer's tiny pre-computer age RichArt company could do this, surely Mike's modern MTH company can today. In fact, being over 90 years old Dick I'm sure would be happy to sell Mike the rights to produce his tinplate prototypical O-gauge twin-can-motor "Cascade" Bi-Polar locomotives. One of these made for use with handheld controls and with Protosound would be fantastic!

Bob

quote:

Originally posted by navy.seal:
..... Unfortunately, MTH customer service has failed to respond to my query on this issue.

We have an answer and there is little doubt in my mind that MTH Management reads this forum as they have finally responded to my email query asking them about what type of trucks they planned to install on their new 710 series cars. Here is what they said:

[QUOTE]
Thank you for contacting MTH Electric Trains. We appreciate your interest in our products. I am sorry for the delay in responding to your email. The separate sale cars (add-on) will match the set cars as listed below.

Two-Tone Blue - 6-wheel trucks
Red - 6-Wheel trucks
Orange - 4 -wheel trucks

Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

Thank you,
Kirstin Martinez
MTH Electric Trains
[UNQUOTE]

Well, there you go. Glad they responded.

So my 710s in the orange livery are going to be 4-wheel. Just what they showed in the catalog.

The 256 Electric Loco and passenger car sets are due in April. C'mon, April.

quote:

Originally posted by johnstrains:
.....So my 710s in the orange livery are going to be 4-wheel. Just what they showed in the catalog. .....

That's right, but as we now know only the orange set and its add-on cars are shown correctly in the 2011 Lionel Corporation catalog. Unfortunately, the catalog shows the two-tone blue set and its matching add-on cars as having 4-wheel trucks but, according to the email from MTH, all are now being delivered with 6-wheel trucks. Similarly, while the catalog shows the red set with 6-wheel trucks and its matching red add-on cars with 4-wheel trucks, according to MTH's email, all are now being delivered with 6-wheel trucks.

It's unfortunate, but the current "pre-ordering" nature of model train industry sales allows manufacturers to not only make production decisions, but also some "design" decisions after they print their catalogs. I realize that "pre-ordering" keeps manufacturers' production costs down, but as a customer it would be nice if manufacturers did a better job of printing catalogs that show precisely what trains I can buy.

Bob