Wow!! I had completely missed the fact that the Blue Comet and Southern Crescent have completely different bodies! Am I the only one who never noticed this?
I had assumed that all three - Alton, B.C. and S.C. were basically the same casting and same length, etc., with just some different piping and such added, and of course, different paint. I did note the different tenders pictured in the catalog (B.C.'s appears a little shorter than S.C.'s). Now that I know the locos themselves have totally different bodies, I again looked in the catalog and can see that, yes, it shows some difference in the bodies, but frankly in the catalog the B.C. looks to be the smaller But side by side . . . a remarkable difference: the Blue Comet is much larger, although it has a much shorter tender so overall it is a slightly shorter combination.
Length from tip of cowcatcher to rear of cab roof: Blue Comet, 14 1/8" Southern Crescent 13 1/4"
Length of body of tender (exclusive of couplings, etc.) Blue Comet 7 3/4" Southern Crescent 9 7/8"
I pre-ordered the Southern Crescent and have had if for quite some time (and have repainted it flat black). I only ordered the Blue Comet after seeing F-V Train's.
I did not notice the big difference until I put the Blue Comet on the shelf today after running it again to test the whistle sound and then put the S.C. on the shelf right below it in order to do some track maintenance this afternoon. In the picture below, the tips of their cowcatchers are exactly one above the other (and yes, that is the Southern Crescent on the lower shelf - I repainted it, remember).
I will also note that the catalog seems to show a slightly different tender shape for the B.C., and completely neglects showing the incredible, awesome painted and striped drivers it has (maybe the most beautiful feature on it) - in the catalog (on-line anyway) the drivers as just shown as black metal. I think if Lionel has shown those drivers correctly I probably would have ordered one originally, too.
