Just got a bonus: Need a new Hudson!

Scale or non-scale?

Go for the VL Hudson and you will be happy that you did.  The hudson has been done to death over the years.  Go VL and you will have the best one ever made.

George, whichever one you decide upon, you have made the right choice about what to do with bonus money.  

No doubt the VL Hudson is the finest running engine but the MTH are not far behind. Besides more detail they are offered with both the early tender or PT tender. If the money hasn't burned a hole in your pocket I would wait until MTH releases their new PS3 Hudsons due out in a few months, then decide.

If their recent Dreyfuss is any indication paint should be impeccable too. 

Pete

It might come down to availability, as I am having a very hard time trying to find a VL Hudson anywhere.

It would be my first VL product.

It depends what your looking for, The VL hudson sounds and runs great and has the most "play value" with the whistle steam and swinging bell.

 However, if you like prototypical detail, the VL leaves much to be desired with its "old fashioned" tooling and blatant errors like the square valve guides.

On the other hand the old K Line hudson is touted as one of the most accurate, but its "dated" sounds aren't the greatest, with an old fashioned puffer smoke unit

Lionels early 2000's j3as are some of their best detail wise, sound is excellent but the drawback  drawback is the inaccurate 2 chuffs per driver revolution and old fashion puffer smoke unit like the K Line.

MTH has made some nicely detailed hudson with fantastic smoke and decent sounds with the accurate 4 chuffs per revolution.

If there is a $ limit, MTH is usually the most bang for your buck. You can get the MTH premier hudson with a set of passenger cars for less than a used black VL hudson.

I'd recommend searching hudson videos on you tube to get an idea of the sound/ appearance package your looking for.IMO there are just too many variables that depend on your personal preference.

Now I'll let resident hudson experts D500 and Norton chime in with the "nitty gritty."

There was a grey at a good price one on the FS forum here: Legacy Trains for sale

There are new ones "on the way" from MTH estimated March delivery, subject to change.

Mr. Muffins Trains has some good prices on these with free shipping, when the arrive.  Mr Muffins Trains/MTH premier Hudson

You can reserve one with no deposit.

Thank You RickO, not sure how I forgot about Mr Muffin.

I will probably reserve one with him tomorrow!

I have the new MTH Dreyfuss and it is a very good engine.  I have a few Hudsons and do like the VL.  That is a tough statement to make as I am an MTH guy first.

You're a funny guy Marty!

Seems to me you could get a nice K line scale Hudson and payto have it upgraded with the electronic goodies.

jeff c

VL Hudson for sure.

Hudsons (even those not of NYC lineage) cannot be "done to death". Impossible! There

are even significant versions of the NYC J1, J2 and J3 4-6-4's that have not shown up in

3RO.

So, needing a new Hudson is, indeed, a good thing.

The VL I, alas, do not have. It's not really he best "model", but I'm splitting hairs.

For the money, the Lionel J3 (plain, Century or ESE) in the used market is my pick.

But, I run TMCC mostly. They are not perfect (and the tender/cab distance on the "plain"

version needs correcting; I've done it), but they "feel" more like a NYC Hudson than

the others, to me.

They are all good. And I want that VL J1e too. Bad.

I have a VL Hudson , never regretted the purchase. Tere was a problem but Lionel fixed it in a jif.

Brent

Well, seems that VL Hudson just is not available.

So other than that one, which others are next in line?

Not sure about the Century Club Hudson as it seems to lack detail and it is also a Pullmor I believe.

I see a few TMCC Hudsons, TMCC with Odyssey.

George, check out Ted Hikel's Hudson thread. Most all are mentioned and many pictured. As for the CC club ESE, its fairly detailed and has a Pittman motor. You might be thinking of the Commodore Vanderbilts which have Pulmores.

https://ogrforum.com/t...71#40849086059118171

Pete

Hi Pete, I was talking about the non-streamlined, the Century Club 773.

I am also looking at these:

Engine Only- http://www.lionel.com/products...9&CategoryID=500

http://www.lionel.com/Products...072&CategoryID=0

Sorry, I forgot the 773 was a CC item. Thats a nice enough engine but the lack of detail puts in another catagory for me. Only the VL hudson and the 4 J3as are full scale and have DC motors with command control.

Pete

"Should I just go for the Lionel VL Hudson?"

this is the correct choice.

George,

FYI... I will be listing the Hudson J3a locomotive from Lionel's Golden Anniversary re-issue set (circa 2002) very shortly.  

I'm only breaking up the set, because I finally purchased a scale Pennsy JLC GG-1 on the forum a few weeks ago.  And I'm pairing it with all the Lionel Lines heavyweight Madison cars from that set... creating a scale version of the train that ran on Lionel's 1949 Showroom Layout.  

That Hudson is one of the nicest TMCC locomotives Lionel produced, and it's one of the last of my TMCC locomotives...  still MINT.

David

This seems to be my top contender at the moment based on availabilty, features, looks, price:

K-Line New York Central Jle 4-6-4 Hudson

#5344

K3270-5344S

Have you viewed any videos of the various choices?, I.E. Lionel, Mth, K line.

If not I'd be happy to track some down from you tube and post them here to save you some searchin'.

Congratulations on your bonus!

Hi RickO,

The only K-Line 5344 videos I found all had PS2 upgrades.

I did find a K-Line 5343, which is a J-1a:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URC4MGyFUZA

I did find this on our forum, but he doesnt state which one it is...it looks and sounds awesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...ture=player_embedded

The first video of 5343 is the K-Line Hudson without modifications. 5343 and 5344 are the same save the cab number. They were sold with and without TMCC.

The second video is of a 3rd Rail J1a that has been upgraded. That looks like Gary's (superwarp) layout. The K-Line engine is a fine piece and if you can get it at the right price you can upgrade it so it performs like the J1a with cruise, 4 chuffs, and super chuffer.

Pete

Ugh, no Cruise, No 4 Chuff's and wimpy smoke are all bad for me.

I am beginning to feel as RichO said, to just buy an MTH that already has all that.

Decisions....

Its been rumored that K-Line sold a scale Hudson with cruise just before their demise. It would also have 4 chuffs. It would have cab number 5343 and the item number would end with CC vs S for TMCC (no cruise) or W which was conventional. If these exist they are like hen's teeth and harder to find than the VL Hudson.

K-Line also made a semi scale hudson with cruise. I have seen a few examples of those but thats not what you are looking for.

Pete

NYC Hudsons, always an interesting topic.

Both Marty and Norton's choices surprised me, only because I would have thought Marty would have liked the MTH and Norton would have chose the Lionel.  It was only based on what I would have guessed, nothing else.  

Good luck George!

I almost bought it for $450, but changed my mind.

Plus, it was untested.....probably doesnt run good LOL.

Cruise Control, and good smoke are must haves.

What about K-Line by Lionel?

The K-Line by Lionel is a semi scale engine. Good detail but smaller than scale. I don't think it has cruise either.

Pete

George,

Welcome to the Forum. I hope you have read about the Munoz Lines.

I'm a NYC kid, too and my dad worked for the Transit System for 38 years.

I have had most of the Hudsons that came on the market.

Hit me with an e-mail and we'll discuss offline. I don't want to start a Hatfield-McCoy

battle here on the Forum. I'll give you my perspective.

Eliot, why not post your opinions here. I don't think anyone is arguing which is best. I think we all realize none of them are perfect but each has a quality that appeals to some more than others.

Pete

email sent.

Welcome.

I guess no emails as it's not listed.

James

Here's a plug for the K-Line as well as the MTH. 

I've had three of the K-Line models and ended up with one having the MTH PS2 system and MTH smoker in it. Wonderful locomotive. Probably the 'best' for accuracy and scale fidelity.

Pictured here with it is MTH's first scale Hudson from 1996. In person it compared favorably with the K-Line model and most certainly the MTH Hudsons produced since have improved! 

The VL model is in a class by itself due to the swinging bell and whistle steam but as has been pointed out above, if you are a stickler for scale realism the Lionel model is somewhat behind all the later versions. Other Lionel Hudsons are from different tooling however and it is rumored that eventually we'll see a Legacy 'K-Line Hudson' which will be hard to beat.

( Not my videos/ credit to any that belong to forum members) For your review:

Lionel 50th anniversary J3a 6-38041 from 6-31705 set, entire set shown. 2 chuffs mechanical puffer

Lionel seperate sale J3 6-28072  2 chuffs mechanical puffer

K Line scale hudson, this one has had cruise installed. 2 chuffs mechanical puffer.

Previous offering ( 2008)of MTH J1e hudson 4 chuffs fan driven.

Vision Line hudson. Sound king but some detail errors/lacking. 

Wow, thanks RickO for putting all those videos together for me!
And Sam, thank you for those pictures!

Right now my max curve is O-42, so any loco that requires larger than that wont be any good to me.

Also, I just noticed on the Anniversary set I really like, although the loco is O-31 for curves the cars are O-54.

Thus, that break out set loco from the Anniversary set, or the K-Lines, are my best bet.

But, I thought I read somewhere the anniversary loco has issues with MTH RealTrax.

My only issue with MTH, is that all those premier locos sound the same.

Kind of a bummer.

Skip that, go to vanguard.com, open an account, pick an indexed mutual fund, and INVEST.

Stock market is a bit high lately, I would go with the one that is 60% stock, 40% bonds, I think it is VBINX but I would have to go do research on it.

Or, do what I did with a bonus. I was unemployed for 11 months, then I get this bonus after like 6 months at work. I say to myself, I got to put this money some place I can never get it. Everybody except my mother and wife was talking about home equity loans. I mentioned the topic to my wife and she said no way in heck. So it occurred to me, if my wife won't co sign on an equity loan, all I need to do is pay down the mortgage and it is GUARANTEED I cannot touch it, and, at the time, was 7.125% interest rate.

You might ask why didn't we refinance. The answer is, we did, from 9.25 to 7.125. I went to the same broker a third time and he recommended that I just pay down the mortgage, he explained that with the balance so low ($50k), and he doesn't work for free, and he has to pay fees and all, that he has to jack up the rate to make it worth his while, and I would get mad when I heard the rate, so ..., just pay it down.

I believe 3rd rail still has a 3 rail super Hudson available. A wonderful Hudson scale, cruise, sounds, 4 chuffs and not much more than you will pay for inferior products.