Alternitive to the Motor city set

I'm no MTH fan, but MTH could conceivably have such a set catalogued and on store shelves before December. I wonder if Lionel can do that?

I've wanted scale auto racks for years, but it seemed that the length is really a turn off to most operators so I wasn't getting my hopes up. 

 

Now that Lionel has announced  theirs, i must admit I'm a bit tempted, but i won't buy any until i see the finished product.

 

I have an entire train of the MTH racks and I just might stick with them, especially with the lionel cars being $150 a pop and the road names I want most only available in a set with a locomotive I do not need or want.

 

Once the MTH cars are lowered properly, the trucks moved in where they belong, and kaydee couplers added, they look great despite their length. IMHO.

Your right Rich I don't need another engine either plus I don't trust Lionel to get the cars right to begin with. If they do I would expect the cars to be big sellers as they should. But I'll be sticking with the MTH cars for now and using what power I do have to pull them. BTW the new auto carriers from MTH do have the trucks inset to their proper location. All we need to do is add the kadee's.

I am building my new layout around these new cars...

 

In general, even smaller rolling stock operate much better at 0-90" curves and larger...  I had a wide radius layout before and 0-82" was my tightest curve...

I was turned off by the MTH car when first released, but several years ago a very talented two rail modeler showed how they could be greatly improved when lowered and with relocated trucks. Like Rich, I did that and added Kadee couplers, and the MTH cars really grew on me despite their short length. There was nothing else available, so over time I built a small fleet.

 

I'm interested in the Lionel cars, and will likely buy some if I like them. Whether I replace the fleet of MTH cars, I don't know. The MTH cars do make for a nice train. Short, though, they are, I even mix them in with true to scale length 89 foot flats. For folks who like corrguated racks but are wary of the Lionel car, these will indeed remain an option. Here's one of my favorite videos, Santa Fe train V-BACH (vehicle train from Barstow, CA to Chicago, IL):

 

I already mentioned this over on the other thread... namely, I'm still a bit amazed that the Lionel cars are getting so much attention here on the forum, given the small number of folks who own layouts that do cars of this length any justice (i.e., the 89' versions).

 

Unless the Lionel versions turn out to be absolute "must have" quality and performance, I think lots of folks right now are getting caught up in the fact that they're new... and when folks come back down to earth, they'll realize they just may not have the right kind of layout to support cars whose length is 22"+.

 

So from what I read thus far, it appears the MTH versions of these cars are a shade over 20", and they come in at close to half the price of Lionel's recently cataloged cars.  Haven't done enough research yet to properly compare the two, but it sure seems like MTH has an alternative that is quite compelling.  Need to check this out a bit further.

 

Question I have for those of you who have the MTH versions... it appears these have jumped in price over the years... say from the mid-2000's to now:  from about $45 MSRP to $65 MSRP.  And someone commented earlier in this thread that MTH's newest version has the inset trucks.  In which catalog-year do you feel MTH stepped up the production of these cars to be more to your liking?  Thx...

 

David

Nice video Rich. I'm also not sure what year the new auto carriers with the inset trucks were cataloged. Looked at the MTH web site but that was no help, yet!!!

Surprised no one has mentioned the Atlas articulated autoracks. Quite impressive at 35" long, but the articulated center makes them about 17" a side... so even though they're gigantic, they negotiate 072s without looking any more silly than most long modern cars.

Problem is they havent made them in a while and they seem to be non-existent (though Im sure they're hiding in train stores and shows somewhere). Who knows, maybe they'll release new road numbers or something now that lionel seems to have started an auto rack craze.

About the same price as the Lionel cars (~$110 on the street), but you can almost consider it buying 2 cars in one box.  Or you can look at the atlas car being $3.15 per inch vs, $4.58 per inch of the lionel car... if you really want to split hairs.

After checking the MTH web site it looks like the Auto carriers were first cataloged with the inset trucks in 2009 vol. 2. Only 4 cars were cataloged and there were no six packs done in that catalog. If anybody else has info on when these were cataloged or were released please post here.

David, As it turns out the catalogues aren't completely reliable on this. The improved cars weren't announced or catalogued as such; they just appeared as production models. The first ones to appear with relocated trucks were those catalogued in 2008 Vol. I. They also have better grab iron detail. Among them is the all-yellow Conrail car, which I remembered as the first improved one i saw The last of the old style were 2007 Vol. II. I have some from each of those runs and am confident when the improvements first appeared. Even some post-2009 catalogues have illustrations with the trucks misplaced. Those are just catalogue errors. The production models are the improved style. As it is, even on the new models I do surgery to lower the car (and sell off the new long shank trucks to folks converting older cars but who don't want Kadees). RM