El Capitan Makes Inaugural Run-Photos

Brian - That is a beautiful passenger train!  It looks great on your layout where it can stretch it's legs and you can see the entire train on a straightway.  I know you have wanted this train for a long time and it was definitely worth waiting for.  Pardon my ignorance, but what do you call the second car? 

 

Art

I can tell you... I'm jealous! I have lots of Santa Fe power to pull that train if you ever decide it's not for you! :-)

Art:

 

The "current" first car is the Transition car. The second is the Step Down Coach. Note the location of the diaphragm.

 

As I mentioned, as soon as the work is complete, I will add a baggage car, then an RPO followed by the Transition car, etc. This will make a consist of nine. I may add two or three more Hi-Levels if I can find them.

Beautiful set Brian!  There's nothing like a gleaming passenger train with interior lights glowing in low light.  Reminds me of several Christmas Eve nights as a boy running my passenger trains in the chilly basement before I went to bed to wait for Santa.

Looking good Brian.....real good!

 

 

Beautiful train, Brian.  Enjoy running it!

Brian,

  Simply ausome, I love it, I want your train room!

PCRR/Dave

Thanks Brian, Jason, Keith, & Dave.

 

K-Line was way ahead of the market (in it's time) in producing beautiful passenger trains. This has to be one of their best. There has been a good deal of discussion on the Forum lately about achieving a realistic stainless steel look. K-Line also was ahead of the industry in this regard as well.

Looks real nice. I love running loooong trains.

Brian,

   You bet K-line made some great passenger rolling stock and that particular one is probably the very best that was ever made by any company, got to admit my MTH big Silver Pennsy Passenger cars are nice, especially with the GG-1, but your SS look with the K-line Hi-Level passenger cars is even better, top shelf stuff all the way.  Man  what a Railroad Train!

PCRR/Dave

 

Brian,

 

It's a beauty, run it in good health.

 

 

Joe B.

You guys (Brian, Doug, Allan, Marty F.) make me envious with your beautiful passenger cars and a place to run them!

Which PA's are those Brian?

Brian, the train and its surroundings are nothing short of spectacular.

 

     Hoppy

Beautiful!  Thanks for sharing the pictures.  I hope to see it in person someday.  

 

- Mike

Sam:

 

They are Lionel PAs from about 2004. They have been parked on a siding for many years waiting for a passenger train to be pulled.

 

I have a set of F units (ABBA) that are now assigned to the Super Chief. I am considering making a switch.

I have a set of Williams El Capitan passenger cars that are not seeing any usage if you are interested in them. It's a six car set from the Crown Edition era with lighted interiors and opening knuckle couplers. Also a set of ABA Santa Fe F-7's by Williams.

 

Lee Fritz

Hmmm... Are those the double-deckers?  If he isn't interested, I may be!  

One thing that comes to mind is:

 

How much current does it draw?

 

---PCJ

Looks great Brian. I hope you and Elizabeth had a lot of fun watching them go round and round and round. It really can be sort of mesmerizing. And there's nothing like a gleaming Santa Fe.

 

I've been doing some work on my layout and recently had an opportunity to take a closer look at the 1991 Lionel Santa Fe set. I knew I loved them when I bought them. They have window silhouettes rather than people in the cars. But after looking at them again, I STILL LOVE THEM. They don't have the level of detail of the new ones (I have the new 18" Lionel Santa Fe passenger cars), but it sort of goes back to that childhood wish list and the place of the gleaming Santa Fe in it. Still beautiful after all these years.

 

Gerry

Brain, absolutely gorgeous!

 

Peter

These are not double deckers, but have two vista dome passenger cars in the set. I have to measure the cars for the best answer but I think that they are either 15 or 16 inches long. There is one baggage car and one combo car(baggage & passenger) and three passenger cars with one being a vista dome, and one observation car at the end that has a vista dome as well and the end car has only one knuckle coupler.

 

Lee Fritz

railride:

 

I have no idea what the power draw is for this set. I do however have sufficient power to handle what is soon to be a nine car set. A future project would be to change the lighting in the cars to LEDs, but honestly, I am in no rush to do it. I like the yellowish lighting effect form the current lighting, but I am sure it could be closely duplicated with LEDs.

 

Gerry:

 

I love the Lionel passenger cars, with or without silhouettes. You should treat that 1991 set like gold. Two of my regular main line runners have silhouette windows, the Sante Fe Super Chief from the early nineties and the Texas Special from 2001.

 

Peter:

 

Many thanks for your comments. I have looked for this set for a long time.

We had a similar discussion on several of my passenger trains and the power draw was not nearly as bad as we thought.  That being said, I agree that LED's are definitely the way to go.  Now that they have all the different color balances available, you can replicate the warm incandescent glow and not have to settle for a stark white.

 

My worst power draw was my total K-Line Union Pacific City of Los Angeles.  It has an ABA set of E-8's that have two motors each and that is the big electrical draw.

 

Art

Great looking train!

 

I am looking forward to getting a set of the GGD El Capitan cars now that they are available for pre-order.  The choice for me now is Amtrak or Santa Fe?  I am leaning towards Amtrak, but the clean stainless look of Santa Fe is pretty appealing as well. 

Tough call Jonathan. If it were me, it would be the Sante Fe hands down. The pulling options are far more available, and the Sante Fe just looks cool.

 

Good luck with your decision.

Jonathon - It seems like it depends on whether you are running modern or period.  I switch out between modern and 50's - 60's.  Hard to get the right modern paint job with the engines though.

 

Art

I prefer to run Amtrak in the three rail world and I don't worry as much about era as I run three rail for the most part at a club operating for the public.  Colorful trains rule the road. At home I am mostly strict PRR / CNJ 1954-1957 in two rail with two exceptions. 

 

The question is the one of road power.  I just picked up an MTH FP45 in the Modern SF Warbonnet scheme with the idea of converting it to an SDP40F.  Not an easy conversion if anyone has followed the threads on the 3RS forum.  I actually kind of like the FP45 as is with a few less drastic upgrades and I am looking for a second where I might back date them to 1968 which would work well for a late combined Super Chief / El Capitan. 

 

However, I do have 7 single level GGD cars in Amtrak and a combined train at close to 20 cars would be out of this world.  I could go with a pair of F40PHs in Phase II paint and it would be passable too however I am having a hard enough time finding even a single F40PH in VIA Rail Canada to pull my soon to arrive Canadian.  Choices, choices!   

 

Regardless, K-line really did hit a home run with their set of cars.  They simply look great on a train.

Hi Brian, sorry it took so long in posting to the tread but the flu hit me like a ton of bricks.  Beautiful photo's and what a great passenger train consist. 

 

I got some dirt if you ever need some.

 

Steve, Lady and Tex

Wow Brian, what a beautiful set.  I have always been drawn to all forms of the el Capitan. My return foray into model railroading was with a Lionel RTR El Capitan set.  Yours is simply the best I have ever seen.  Your layout is super-nice.  

 

Hoppy, there is an anniversary set on eBay for $1599.99 right now.

Good looking train!

That is one handsome looking train.  Enjoy it and post more pictures if you can.

Thanks to Bob, Hoppy, John C., Tom, Tex Special Steve, and to Santa Fe Jim. Jim, I just love your passion for the Sante Fe and your knowledge of this famous railroad.

 

Running this set on the layout is a real kick.

Love those PA's. I got an A and B in N-scale for my wife's Penssy passenger set we found at a train show couple of years ago. Now she wants one in O. I think I created a monster lol.

The train, room, and station look terrific! Fred

Many thanks RickA & audi.

Wow Brian!

That is one beautiful train!! Your layout is looking really good also.

Hope to see it in person one day.

 

I also noticed you mentioned you may be coming in for a DuPage show in the near future... let me know when and that's one show I'll be sure to make.

Thanks Rich. Look forward to seeing you together with the other great train guys in the Chicagoland area.