Just stopped by the Lionel booth in the orange hall

Nice looking pics.  That's encouraging, what you said about the passenger cars!  Look forward to seeing everything tomorrow.  Thanks for posting!

Looking forward to seeing all this stuff tomorrow and Friday!

I hope to see you there too Mike, otherwise I have a pair of really nice upgraded locomotives.

From those of us stuck 'somewhere else', a hearty THANK YOU for this early tease..

very nice, coming to smokey bones tonight?

Beautiful looking train! Sure to be the buzz of the Orange Hall.

Thank you for posting.  The train looks great!   I am a big Lionel aluminum passenger car fan and these look great!

Any of the new SD40's there?

Thanks

What?  Miss the "Gunrunner Bandit Meet?"  Wouldn't dream of it.  

There should be two black production samples there with sparse details.

Thanks TrainingDave. If anyone can post pics that would be great 

Thanks 

thanks for the update,  see you thursday

Steve

Thanks for the sneak peek at the ESE set!    Can't wait for mine! 

Wow, advance info....and photos from the Orange  Hall to boot! It makes me feel so dirty. 

See you  tomorrow! 

Wow! What a gorgeous looking set. Lionel has hit the mark! Thanks for posting...

And the long awaited smoke fluid filler... nice.

GRJ, does the lighting have a yellowish tinge? 

Lionel did a fine job on the ESE set. I like the body mount couplers and close(r) coupling.

Those who ordered this set should be pleased.

Pete

I'm so glad I preordered this set. It looks gorgeous. The cars are beautiful, the engine looks stunning, and the new lighting system sounds great.

Also happy to see signs of the new smoke fluid loader out in the open at last!

Thanks for the post Alex~

Thanks for the photos!

It seems that I am of the minority opinion here, but judging by the photos, the passenger cars look kind of poor in terms of the finish.  I guess there is no substitute for aluminum cars and I wish Lionel had done these in aluminum.  I ordered these cars with the intent of selling my K-Line aluminum 21" cars, but I think I will wait to see the Lionel 21" cars in person.  Judging by the photos, I may keep the K-Line cars and sell the Lionel cars.

Nice pics ALEX.  See you later today and Friday.

Nice! What size curves will the passenger cars run on?

Do the windows stick outside of the 21 inch passenger cars like the N&W Pocahontas set passenger cars? A few of the members have a problem with that.

Is there supposed to be a gap between the end-of-car diaphragms?

I'm sorry, I just had cataract surgery.  Would you repeat that?

What, me worry?

Thanks for the posting.  It looks like a beautiful set, with nice details.

Kinda looks like they're still put on from the outside:

Rusty

Looks like I wasn't the only to catch that!

Yes, I agree; it's very nice to see a bit of what's going on at York. Thanx.

FrankM.

Thanks for giving us who can't be there a sneak peek!  That set looks amazing.

They must be allowing pictures?

Wow, I am amazed at the close coupling of these really Beautiful 21 inch Passenger cars. Also, the Locomotive is really nice.  Thank You Alex, and Please, Keep the pictures coming.

i hope to attend in April, Lord Willing.....

The windows look good. They are very flush. The simulated window rubber makes it look like the windows protrude, but in real life, they do not. 

My primary issue is that they ride VERY high. Also, the trucks are not mounted on center, the pivot is more or less above the outboard axle on each truck. I guess a compromise so the cars can do 054. The cars look "ok". For the same price point as the atlas CZ cars, there's still a ways to go.

Windows are not on the outside, Lionel took note of complaints about previous models that had those.  Windows are mounted from the inside and are flush with the surface.  They do simulate the black rubber glazing around the edges of the windows.

I think the windows look superb and very realistic.  The cars themselves are really nice overall, I think modelers of the Empire State Express will be very happy if not ecstatic.  Between Lionel's ESE and AtlasO running their full California Zephyr at the meet, there were two gorgeous models of stainless steel streamliners on display. 

Brian,

Yes... photography is now allowed in the dealer halls only... for several Yorks now.

David

Windows...

For comparison purposes, stainless steel from a prototype.

That's one of my favorite photos of the Texas Special cars and you're right, it's very telling.