Come on Lionel lets make this happen!
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I agree. I just wonder what kind of feature they could add to make it a Vision product. Perhaps some kind of animation and additional sound features in the cars.
One of our club members has been bringing his Phantom set to Kennywood and the last couple of shows we did and it has been a big hit every time it has run. So much so that we were even getting requests to see it run. It definitely gets attention when it is on the track.
Andy
Let's build it...
- DieCast.
- Can Motors w/ Legacy Control.
- Upgraded lighting package to include some futuristic effects.
- Upgraded sound package. Keep the Horn, Bell, and engine sounds just upgrade them then add to them.
- Add a smoke effect of some type.
- Upgrade the passenger cars and their lighting package.
- Personally I would like the passenger cars to follow the contour of the rear of the engine through to the observation car and then round of as it is now.
Cool idea Marty, I'd be interested in that one! 
@MartyE posted:Let's build it...
- DieCast.
- Can Motors w/ Legacy Control.
- Upgraded lighting package to include some futuristic effects.
- Upgraded sound package. Keep the Horn, Bell, and engine sounds just upgrade them then add to them.
- Add a smoke effect of some type.
- Upgrade the passenger cars and their lighting package.
- Personally I would like the passenger cars to follow the contour of the rear of the engine through to the observation car and then round of as it is now.
All PASSENGER CARS WILL HAVE SMOKE EFFECT DOORS, like the Silver Bullet cars.
In passenger car number one THE BIG FEET FAMILY.
In passenger car number two ALIENS.
In Passenger car number three old monsters, WOLFMAN, FRANKENSTEIN, Creature of the Black Lagoon, etc.
that one is probably still my favorite of all the ones i did sounds for. Long live Pratt’s Hollow!
@Railsounds posted:that one is probably still my favorite of all the ones i did sounds for. Long live Pratt’s Hollow!
I really like the sounds. I just did an overview video of the original Phantom on my channel. Playing around with it made me think it needs some Vision Line Respect!
Didn't Lionel relegate the phantom to the Lionchief Batman status?
It might be hard to reverse ,and add hundreds of dollars to the price tag.
Vl phantom is a neat idea though.
While I have zero interest in the Phantom from the original, and wouldn't be interested in a reissue, a VL would be a pretty cool thing. This isn't my cup of tea but I do remember this one being a hot seller.
Imagine if a VL version came out with what features you are all talking about, that would be pretty cool. Wasn't the idea behind the Phantom some mysterious technology or something made this mysterious engine and cars which remained a mystery? I forget the original lines. I remember the store owner of the first place I bought into O Scale Jack explaining all about it, to a degree. Been a long time.
@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:While I have zero interest in the Phantom from the original, and wouldn't be interested in a reissue, a VL would be a pretty cool thing. This isn't my cup of tea but I do remember this one being a hot seller.
Imagine if a VL version came out with what features you are all talking about, that would be pretty cool. Wasn't the idea behind the Phantom some mysterious technology or something made this mysterious engine and cars which remained a mystery? I forget the original lines. I remember the store owner of the first place I bought into O Scale Jack explaining all about it, to a degree. Been a long time.
The Story of the Phantom...
By the 1920s, the automobile was steadily growing in popularity as a means of transporting passengers and hauling freight. It was clear that this revolution would threaten the railroad industry.In Pratt's Hollow, Missouri, a clandestine group of professional railroad designers secretly collaborated to develop a modern locomotive that would triumph over the automobile by employing many new technologies in the design of railroad equipment. To the Pratt's Hollow group, efficiency was paramount in competing with the auto industry, but not at the expense of style. Until the designs were completed and patented, these new ideas were carefully guarded from public knowledge. Mysteriously, this never happened.
@MartyE posted:The Story of the Phantom...
By the 1920s, the automobile was steadily growing in popularity as a means of transporting passengers and hauling freight. It was clear that this revolution would threaten the railroad industry.In Pratt's Hollow, Missouri, a clandestine group of professional railroad designers secretly collaborated to develop a modern locomotive that would triumph over the automobile by employing many new technologies in the design of railroad equipment. To the Pratt's Hollow group, efficiency was paramount in competing with the auto industry, but not at the expense of style. Until the designs were completed and patented, these new ideas were carefully guarded from public knowledge. Mysteriously, this never happened.
Yeah, that's it Marty. I always thought there was a UFO involved for some reason. Maybe around that time they had something going on like Marvin the Martian or something else. Got to admit, that is one heck of a story.
Lionel did 5 liveries:
-Batman
-Red/Yellow
-Gray/Black
-Dark Green/Black
-Silver/Black
I would want Lionel to remake each of the locos with both matching passenger car 4-packs and add-on cars and new futuristic freight car packs. The rolling stock could include the following:
-Radioactive canisters on a flatcar
-Missile launcher car
-Sound cars for both the freight and passenger consists
-Interior lighting in passenger cars
Loco features:
-Mars light and headlight
-Red lights on roof illuminate
-Dual motors
-Legacy control and 4-digit addressing
-Electrocoupler on rear
Didn't the original suffer with it's pulling power, or was that something else around the same time(besides the Hudson Steamers)?
They added traction tires to them with the third version. So it was no longer a problem
Here is an old thread about how GUNRUNNER a JOHN, improved his PHANTOM. There are some good ideas here.
Probably should come with an EpiPen to treat severe allergic reactions amongst scale modelers . I think I'd be in for one however, as I'm a toy train person.
@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:Didn't the original suffer with it's pulling power, or was that something else around the same time(besides the Hudson Steamers)?
I never had an issue with pulling but then again I’ve been running on level tinplate track.
The Phantoms…
Phantom 1
Phantom 2
Phantom 2 cars and Phantom 3
Phantom 4
Batman Phantom
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@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:Didn't the original suffer with it's pulling power, or was that something else around the same time(besides the Hudson Steamers)?
I see LAZ posted my upgrade where I added a second motor. That did wonders for it's pulling power. Even with the traction tires, the single motor in front was no pulling champ.
Here's my Phantom with six cars, note the enhanced lighting. I added the LED headlight, MARS light, and the color changing LED's in the turbine inlet. It also received the ERR AC Commander which greatly increased it's low speed performance.
A low speed pass to illustrate it's slow speed performance after the upgrades
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Here's my Phantom with six cars, note the enhanced lighting. I added the LED headlight, MARS light, and the color changing LED's in the turbine inlet. It also received the ERR AC Commander which greatly increased it's low speed performance.
Love the added lighting effects. I could see the turbine color on the new Vision Line model changing with speed.
@MartyE posted:Love the added lighting effects. I could see the turbine color on the new Vision Line model changing with speed.
That would be a cool effect, mine just changes colors slowly with a color changing LED. I could probably do something voltage controlled from the motors to change it, but that would be a bit of work.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:That would be a cool effect, mine just changes colors slowly with a color changing LED. I could probably do something voltage controlled from the motors to change it, but that would be a bit of work.
At minimum varying intensity. From a dull red to a super bright red.
I remember the original coming out back in the day. I was a kid and thought it was cool. Not sure if it would be something I would get because of the direction I went with model railroading. I think it's definitely a Vision Line worth piece! Particularly with the effects that are available nowadays.
How about this on the front end from EVANS DESIGN a OGR Sponsor.
Night rider LED.
I have a couple of those boards, I was going to put them in the window of one of the cars.
Might even look cool as the ETD.
@laz1957 posted:Might even look cool as the ETD.
Put it under the red lens on top for a Cylon look from Battle Star Galactica.
That would be a neat effect Marty. I always thought the Cylons were the best part of that show.
Meanwhile at Lionel Headquarters Ryan Kunkle balls up the Vision Line Polar Express set plans and tosses them to the garbage and calls down to Dave Olson and asks "what can we do with some new Phantom Tooling?" And a Legend was Reborn!
Yeah, the red lights do remind me of the Cylons or KITT from Knight Rider. Perhaps Lionel could do a Battlestar Galactica themed train set, as well as Star Wars.
Vision or plain ‘ole Legacy, this could be a fun idea, for sure. It won’t appeal to everyone, but I bet it would to a bunch of others.
It's really sad that when Lionel designers were envisioning a future engine they were so way off the mark with the Phantom.
For the first time, I have to diverge with Alan...I love my phase 3 silver and black Phantom set. I really like the back story and I would like to know more of the backstory of with who, and how it came about. Such a wild idea for Pratt's Hollow...
John
@AlanRail posted:It's really sad that when Lionel designers were envisioning a future engine they were so way off the mark with the Phantom.
It was the "imagining" of what "designers in Pratts Hollow Missouri would have come up with in the 1920's.
For it to look like an modern high speed train makes no sense. It resembles the styling of cars in the late 30's. A bit more plausible.
"By the 1920s, the automobile was steadily growing in popularity as a means of transporting passengers and hauling freight. It was clear that this revolution would threaten the railroad industry.In Pratt's Hollow, Missouri, a clandestine group of professional railroad designers secretly collaborated to develop a modern locomotive that would triumph over the automobile by employing many new technologies in the design of railroad equipment."
"It's really sad that when Lionel designers were envisioning a future engine they were so way off the mark with the Phantom. "
As noted, the "future" in this case was the first part of the 20th century, so not actually the future. More whimsy and an inside joke than envisioning new technology is my thought. And judging by its popularity they succeeded. Hiho Phantom away .
@RickO posted:It was the "imagining" of what "designers in Pratts Hollow Missouri would have come up with in the 1920's.
For it to look like an modern high speed train makes no sense. It resembles the styling of cars in the late 30's. ....
That is what I always thought; something out of a 1930s Buck Rogers comic strip/movie.
@AlanRail posted:It's really sad that when Lionel designers were envisioning a future engine they were so way off the mark with the Phantom.
Based on the Pratt's Hollow backstory, they were attempting to design a futuristic locomotive from the perspective of a 1920's designer (streamliner / art deco era), not a late-20th-Century / early-21st-Century designer. Based on a 1920's perspective, I think they did a decent job.
Andy
Maybe a little FLASH GORDON too….
