History of Lionel Berkshire models

Made PW too - no?

The berkshires started in 1946 with the 726.

I'd guess the last one was a 736 in 1966. 1968 (according to Tandem Associates).

There are a number of variations.

A fairly detailed article about postwar berks was written some time ago. I think it was written for a TCA publication. In any case, it has appeared in several Greenberg guides.

Cannot help you with the modern era ones.

https://www.tandem-associates...._trains_726_loco.htm

https://www.tandem-associates...._trains_736_loco.htm

The PW Berkshire was  run 7 times in the early modern era starting in 1981 as  a beautifully painted UP engine and 2001 as a NKP Berk, the last locomotive  produced by Lionel in the USA.   It was a Lionel sized locomotive. Not scale or semi scale sized    Not sure if that style casting was ever imported from China  after Lionel ended production in Chesterfield Mi.

Joe 

One of the reasons that K-line went bankrupt was the design of the original Berkshires for the Boston & Albany (Berkshire) and Boston & Maine (Lima) railroads. Lionel brought them out again when they took over a percentage of the K-line product line as part of the legal bankruptcy procedure. I don't know who owns the moulds, etc. now.

Modern era Lionel actually did two Berks in 1980. (I cheated and looked this stuff up)

The 8002 was a grey Union Pacific one in their Famous American Railroad series. It has smoke deflectors (elephant ears)
And the 8003 was a black on with yellow and orange? trim.

I have the 8002, despite the tender having the FARR logo on the side.
I guess some folks like the FARR logo, I thought it ruined the appearance of everything in the series.

The 8003 has a little plastic sign board on the pilot. A lot of the ones I've seen on EBay have the sign broken off.

Art Howes posted:

One of the reasons that K-line went bankrupt was the design of the original Berkshires for the Boston & Albany (Berkshire) and Boston & Maine (Lima) railroads. Lionel brought them out again when they took over a percentage of the K-line product line as part of the legal bankruptcy procedure. I don't know who owns the moulds, etc. now.

Lionel lease all the items to make the K-Line, line. They never owned any of it. it was all part of the legal stuff. Lionel got to use it for a year or two and had the option to continue the lease if they were willing to pay to lease the molds and the name. From what I understood

Of the original Berkshires, the 726 is more appealing to my eyes.  It's the drivers and the tender.  The 736 with it's streamlined tender leaves a bit on the table, so to speak, as far as design.  The streamlined tender lacks, well, detail.  And it's four wheel trucks are disappointing.  

I have the Nickel Plate Berk from 1983 and love it.  

Can someone expand this thread to include the scale berks - what are the differences in them as they produced newer models over the next 10 years?

We had the Erie and now I have a Nickel Plate, both TMCC. I think there was a Virginian, a Pierre Marquette, C&O, and others.

Not the K-Line Berks but the several that started in 2003 or thereabouts.

Thanks for the good information on the PW and subsequent Berks.

Like Sam, I am also interested in what I surmise was Lionel's first O-scale Berkshire, introduced in 2003 or so, from either a Korean or Chinese factory. I believe Lionel has re-run this model 4-5 times since. It is a nice looking engine albeit the die-cast shell is "monolithic" - meaning it is one cast boiler and lower chassis which at track level and good lighting looks not so good. Its best feature is the Legacy system, and it has 2 speakers in tender giving a robust sound system. At some point Lionel will have to upgrade the model so the boiler is more in-line with the recent Lionel steamers that have a see-thru underneath the boiler aspect.

The original shell was derived from a prewar loco, so the heritage goes back a long way.  CTT did an article on it years ago.

Greenbergs Guide to Lionel Trains 1945-1969 Volume 2 Behind the Scenes has quite a detailed chapter regarding the postwar Berkshires.

The original P/W Berkshire engines are definitely not scale. Compare it to the 1/4" scale size Hudson and see. IMO they still look very nice on a layout and the 726 is also my favorite. It also came with a detailed scale or near scale size tender. IIRC, true scale size Berks may have been produced by Lionel in the 2000's

Paul Kallus posted:

. At some point Lionel will have to upgrade the model so the boiler is more in-line with the recent Lionel steamers that have a see-thru underneath the boiler aspect.

Mind me asking which newer Lionel steams have full boiler detail?  I'm curious to know because other then two new locomotives, every Lionel release has been a reissue and are exact duplicates of their original release, nothing added, nothing deleted.  The only scale locomotives I know of from Lionel with full boiler undercarriage detail are a few JLC's, the VL BigBoy and the scale 0-8-0 switcher.  All others have the "cracked egg" undercarriage with its innards exposed and side to side view obstructed...

Joe   

Art Howes posted:

One of the reasons that K-line went bankrupt was the design of the original Berkshires for the Boston & Albany (Berkshire) and Boston & Maine (Lima) railroads. Lionel brought them out again when they took over a percentage of the K-line product line as part of the legal bankruptcy procedure. I don't know who owns the moulds, etc. now.

All the K-Line tooling went to the company’s Chinese manufacturing partner Sanda Kan, which also got the rights to the K-Line as a result of the forced sale by K-Line to Sanda Kan. Sanda Kan extended licensing rights to Lionel to use the K-Line name for a couple of years. The tooling remained with Sanda Kan, which was subsequently purchased by Bachmann’s holding company, Kader.