Legacy Mikado’s & Ps-4 Pacific’s

I passed on the Mikado, but bought two of the Legacy Pacifics - the Lionel Southern Crescent and the Blue Comet. They are both superb, very good runners, very good looking, with fantastic sound.  Both arrived in perfect quality and continue to stay that way.  Paint on both was superb, which given that is a big part of the identity of each, is a big point, I think.  My Blue Comet had the strange whistle sound (I call it a steamboat, many call it a diesel) and Lionel will switch out the chip if you wish but I kept mine  . . .

 Note that despite being listed in the same offering and pages in the catalog, these two engines are not the same beneath the paint.  Therefore I would not assume that they are the same size of loco as the MTH, or even close.  The Legacy Scouthern Crescent and Blue Comet have completely different loco bodies and different tenders:

- The Blue Comet loco itself is very noticeably bigger than the lthe Southern Crescent - by measure an inch longer (mostly in the firebox).  It is also slightly taller and wider so it looks like a bigger loco (because it is). The BC is just a tad bigger than the Vision Hudson, wheras the SC is noticeable smaller than that.

- The BC has much the smallest tender of any mainline scale steamer I have: only switchers and shifters with slopeback tenders have smaller ones.  The SC has a nice roomy tender.  As a result, loco plus tender they are roughly the same length overall.  Both have good sound but my SC is particularly rich and deep sounding, perhaps because its larger tender acts as a better resonance chamber for its speaker.

I've been told the Southern Crescent is rather accurate in size and equipment to the original while the Legacy Blue Comet is a "fantasty" loco - that the real BC was not that big.  I don't know but there is a fundamental difference in how they look on the layout: the SC looks like a small mainline loco, very detailed, very good - a jewel, but more at home with Atlantics and such.  The BC looks like a big locomotive, fitting in nicely with Hudsons and Berkshires - in fact looking like a big brother there.  If I had to pick one, though, I'd pick the SC.  The BC is nice but it is mostly the paint that makes it spectacular.  The SC is just a jewel - I repainted mine flat black and labeled it Union Pacific and it runs more than anything else on my layout - the best sound of anything except my Vision Challenger and Hudson.

Lee,

Could you post side by side images og the Blue Comet and Crescent?

We did not realize Lionel had two different boiler castings. Were not the original TMCC versions of the Alton, Blue Comet and Crescent all the same engine? Is one of these a K-Line engine?

Thanks

Left side: top to bottom - Lionel: conv. Shifter, conv. tlantic, Legacy Southern Crescent (been repainted), Legacy Blue comet, Vision Hudson, Legacy ATSF 3700 Northern, MTH scale ATSF 5012, Vision Challenger.

Right side: zoomed in on the Southern Crescent and the Blue Comet.

Ken,

Kinda wish I had not looked at the forum today. I was on the fence about the same Southern Crescent engine. However I, like you could not pass up the engine at the price of $699 considering I almost bought it for $945. It was there last one (display model).

Joe

Lee

Thanks for posting the picture.  You get different perspective when have engines right next to each other.  A few weeks ago I was able to see Lionel's Crescent Limited and MTH's Crescent Limited next to each other.  Both are nice engines and both have their own good features, but Lionel's Ps-4 in my opinion was more impressive to me when looking at the both of them side by side.  When Lionel came out with there Crescent Limited a year ago, I saw the pictures you posted on the forum of it and saw some other reviews of the engine and determined at that point I did not want it.  However, my recent comparison made the ultimate decisions in purchasing this engine.   Based upon what you said, I am look forward to running it in a few days from now.  I also got an email today from Lionel that they are sending back my Milwaukee Road S3 after only being there less than 4 working days!  I am expecting I will get it back the same day I receive my new engine

Ken, they told me you beat me buy about 20-30 minutes.  Good for you, not good for me. 

doug

Good luck with both the Southern Crescent and the S3.  I ran my SC for about three hours last night as I worked on my layout and just relaxed.  It is a great engine.  I don't have an S3 - passed on it and sort of regret it.  I love big Northerns and it's a good one, and I was very interested in the self adjusting drawbar.  Never seen that before.