Lionel 16000 series coaches

One good thing about this set is you can swap the roofs. I have this Pennsylvania set . Since the PRR didn't have a dome car, I purchased an extra roof and swapped out the dome and have an additional passenger car. 

Unfortunately, compared to a Williams postwar repro of these cars, the postwar repro is miles ahead in paint decoration and heft due to the metal parts used in it's construction.

The Pennsy set was pretty much the first in the 16000 series (2400 series reissues), followed by the New York Central and the Amtrak "Silver Spike" set in 1989, as well as the Northern Pacific, Illinois Central, Reading and another Amtrak in the succeeding years.

In 1990, Lionel upgraded these cars with the "Great Lakes Express" Service Station set. They had die cast trucks and couplers. These were decorated almost identically to the original green and gray postwar versions, but the cars had names to acknowledge their home in Michigan - Mt. Clemens, Detroit, Lansing, and Chesterfield. These upgraded cars were used again in the 1994 reissue of the Union Pacific ALCO FA set.

we were in California in the early '90s visiting the Mrs's sister, and I found Yoruba Toy Trains. They had the Pennsy set, two Pullmans,Vista Dome,Combo, and Observation, and brought it home with me. Picked up a couple extra cars, the diner and baggage car.

Steamer posted:

we were in California in the early '90s visiting the Mrs's sister, and I found Yoruba Toy Trains. They had the Pennsy set, two Pullmans,Vista Dome,Combo, and Observation, and brought it home with me. Picked up a couple extra cars, the diner and baggage car.

That is a nice set. I started out with a 16000, 16003, 16009 and 16031. I picked up a 16002 and 16001 to give to my son for Christmas and am looking for a 16002 baggage now. I thought I had a unique one (and did, but not what I wanted) I won a 16094 with the box remarked and thought it was just a coach but then did some research and realized it was suppose to be a vista dome, which would be hard to find the parts to restore it to proper configuration. I might have to look out for the matching FA alco's that go with it. 

The very first reissue of the old 027 passenger cars from the 2400 series was the TCA bi-centennial set in 1976 with the U-36-B locomotive painted somewhat different than the stock cataloged U-36-B Lionel had been offering 2 years prior.  The first reissue were true postwar reproductions with metal trucks and open vestibule door windows. Apparently Lionel at that time had a hard time assembling the cars and missed the July 1976 release date. I also heard the some of the tooling for the car bodies was damaged during this run. These cars ( 1974, 1975 and 1976) were made in true postwar fashion with the already mentioned metal passenger trucks, roof ventilator roof screws, old style lamp brackets, and heat stamped lettering.

Also cataloged for the first time in 1977 was the Amtrak Lake Shore Limited set which included an Alco style diesel and 3 passenger cars. The new cars were in the 6400 series now and considerably cheapened from the Bi-centennial edition. the trucked changed from metal (old style postwar with mechanical couplers) to a all plastic truck frame and couplers. Lighting changed to plastic bulb sockets from under the car. The functional ventilator roof screws are gone, and the vestibule windows are now filled in.  Lettering is now pad printed instead of heat stamping. A 3 car add-on set was also offered.

After about a decade of no production on these cars, in 1987 the cars reappeared in the 16xxx series. First was the brown Pennsylvania cars from 1987,  built like the earlier 6400 series cars. Then the floodgates opened. Many colors and names became available in the fallowing years. Lionel Lines in emerald green, Amtrak again like the first 6400 series, Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, like the 1950 anniversary set, New York Central, Quicksilver set (fictional, but similar to a Texas and Pacific livery,in the earlier 6400 series), and  several others already mentioned above.

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

One good thing about this set is you can swap the roofs. I have this Pennsylvania set . Since the PRR didn't have a dome car, I purchased an extra roof and swapped out the dome and have an additional passenger car. 

Unfortunately, compared to a Williams postwar repro of these cars, the postwar repro is miles ahead in paint decoration and heft due to the metal parts used in it's construction.

Mark:

Just to clarify, those are the Williams cars in your photos, right?  If so, I agree that they are much better looking than the Lionel 16000 series PRR cars.  I have the 16000 series PRR cars and did the same thing as you did with my #16000 vista dome as I bought another coach and switched roofs so that I now have a #16000 coach.  I run the set behind a postwar 681.  That switched-out vista-dome plus the full vista-dome car are in a box. 

Bill       

I always liked the look of the Pennsy turbine pulling the green 2400 series cars, as seen in the 1949 catalog.  Those Williams Tuscan cars also look fantastic behind a post war turbine.  A string of eight or more 2400 type cars also look good being pulled by semi-scale GG1s.  

Dan Padova posted:

I always liked the look of the Pennsy turbine pulling the green 2400 series cars, as seen in the 1949 catalog.  Those Williams Tuscan cars also look fantastic behind a post war turbine.  A string of eight or more 2400 type cars also look good being pulled by semi-scale GG1s.  

That must look awesome. All my lines operate in mixed service. We always ran the 4 behind a 8617 Atlantic I recently acquired an 1334 new haven for the longer express train. Too bad the new passenger cars are Christmas gifts, going to have to wait. Nothing like a pacific in express passenger service. 

I'm a little late to this one, but I really love those Williams postwar repro cars! They look so much better than Lionel's rendition. I have the complete set (8) of the Lionel Pennsy 16000 series. It took me a while to find the full length vista dome car (16094). After seeing those Williams cars on here, I decided to upgrade my set.

I found some gold metallic paint at Hobby Lobby that I think matches up pretty closely to the gold road name and car number. Then I found a really fine paint brush and went to work. You can see the Before/After pics below. Up close you can tell it was done by my shaky hands, but from a distance I'd say they look pretty good, especially when being pulled behind any Pennsy steam loco! 

I know Pennsy didn't run any vista dome cars, but sometimes I do like the look of them... I don't know maybe I'll swap roofs at some point. Next on the list is to find some O gauge sized Keystone decals for them and replace the flickering stock lights with solid LED strip lights... It's a work in progress, but I just wanted to share this with you guys if you are still curious about these cars. They're certainly not the best, but with a little touch-up work they're a great set.

Scott