Lionel 18" Hi-Level Cars?

Lionel made several 18" Hi-Levels. My favorite is the Alaska road name, just a beautiful passenger train.

Yes, Lionel produced 18" hi-level "superliners" in Santa Fe, Alaska RR, Amtrak, and NYC liveries about 10 years ago.  All 4 were issued as 4-pk, 2-pk, and StationSound offerings.  I have the Santa Fe and Alaska RR sets, and they are terrific cars.  To the best of my knowledge though, Lionel has never made a transition car ... But there's always hope!!!    

David

I love the Amtrak superliners!

I can't even remember when I last saw MTH producing aluminum cars -- perhaps their 2000 Millennium train?   However, I'd LOVE to see Lionel resurrect their 18" offerings and fill in a few missing pieces like a transition car and a trailing car with lit drumhead.  

When Lionel produced their cars 10 years ago, they equipped each car with red marker lights than can be switched on if it's the last car in the train... which is nice, but I'd still prefer the trailing car to also have an illuminated drumhead.  

Aside from that minor short-coming, the Lionel superliners are superb... so much so that I picked up an extra two-pack in the Alaska RR livery.  Led by a matching F3 ABBBA configuration, it's my favorite passenger set.

Lionel has been "passenger car challenged" lately, and I suspect they've had trouble finding an overseas manufacturer that can make these gems.  The recent Milwaukee Road cars were the first to come out in several years.  And now about 8-10 more sets have been announced and are due in mid-2014.  If Lionel's overseas supplier problems are history (and that remains to be seen), perhaps we'll see a transition car from Lionel some day.  But I'm not holding my breath any time soon.  Nor am I spending $2K+ to get  a 21" set from GGD as nice as they will likely be.

David

I have the Lionel 18" Superliners and like them very much.  I didn't realize how compressed they looked until a friend ran his 21" K-Line Superliners on my layout.  Every since I have a hard time appreciating them as much as I formerly did.

Art

K-line also made 18" ATSF Hi-Levels...  In fact, just recently a set of 4 were on Ebay and I believe the buy-it-now price was $500.00...

Alan

David,

Lionel made an ATSF Hi-Level StationSound Dining Car?  Do you know the part number?

I would love to see pics of the ATSF cars if anyone has them.

David:

I just added a drumhead to my Alaska Hi-Level end car. Tomar offers a couple from the Alska RR, and I chose the Mt McKinley Route as the Station Sounds Car announces the train as the Denali Limited. The car just came back from Alex Malliae, so as soon as I get it out to the layout, I will post a picture of the end car with the drumhead.

Yes, it's 6-15397.

For the complete inventory of Lionel's superliners, visit the "advanced" section of the Lionel product-finder.  In the category drop-down menu, select "superliner" and leave everything else blank.  That will provide lots of good info.

PTC, thanks for the drumhead tip... I'll look into that. 

David

thanks dave will check it out

I have a full set of the 18 inchers.  I think they look great running on my 36" radius curves.  I did shorten the coupler shanks to reduce the huge gap between cars - but then I do that on a lot of my passenger cars - its a pet peeve of mine.

Nice photos Peter. Looks like you added a drumhead as well. How about a close up of it.

I have the SF in Kline and Lionel; take care with the upper windows in the lounge car. They are not glued in well enough. I lost a few on the layout that I had to replace.

21"...18" not a big diff! in size for me to purchase the GGDs.

Lionel parts sells the upper curved windows at  $2.50 each...ouch!

I have the Santa Fe 7 car set as well, and a couple of the windows fell out of them too. I may through them up for sale soon.

Peter - Beautiful pictures of your layout!  I particularly like your station and the river valley in the second picture.  Please post more pictures of both if you can.  Very realistic scenery!

Art

Alan - You were and I were discussing the lighting in your Lionel Hi-Levels this weekend as to what type of lighting it was.  You thought it might be LED's and I not aware of Lionel using LED's in any of their passenger cars.  Does anyone know more about this?

Art

Art

ARE the items marked "11" or "10"  an LED strips or not?

I guess if they were LEDs I would see a flat circuit resistor on the strip and I dont see them on this side of the strip.

I am prejudice, but the Alaska Railroad version of the Lionel 18" Hi-Levels are their best. I am POSITIVE that Allan Miller will also agree. Here is a photo of one of these cars that just came back from having a drumhead installed by Alex Malliae. The Christmas layout (still up) was closer to take a photo right away, so excuse the ribbons, etc.

Alan - I don't think that they are LED's, but this exposes my lack of electrical knowledge.  Maybe somebody wiser than I can chime in and help us?

Art

Brian - That looks great!  Alex did a super job, not that I am surprised in the least.  Makes a beautiful car just that much better.

Art

Peter, nice cars and your layout looks beautiful.

Brian, those cars are gorgeous.  The Alaska scheme is very attractive and even better on those hi-levels.  The drumhead is a nice addition.

Here is a some pictures and a video of my Hi-Level consist.  I actually was able to get an extra coach I converted to a Transition Car and an undecorated MTH car to make into the second transition at the end of the train.  I also got the dormitory car from their other set that I added a cowling to.

Dormitory Car:

Dormitory Car with first Transition Car (Lionel):

MTH Transition Car after conversion and paint/decal:

Video of Full Consist with Railsounds Diner:

Allan,

Nice work on the transition car.

So one of your step down cars is an 18" lionel hi-level.  Is it one of the cars from the 4 pack.

You made the second step down car (the last car in your train) from an MTH hi-level car....is that right?

Pretty ribbons, Brian. 

dag nab it , I am trying to see the trees,  there is something obstructing the view!!!!!!

I agree, Allan's transition cars are nice.

In case folks aren't aware, K-Line made both cars as a 2 car set.  Extremely rare and very expensive on the secondary market.

That said, Allan did a great job on his cars and can be very proud of them.

Fred

I have both the Lionel set and the K-Line set of Santa Fe's.

What are these going for now a days?  I would part with mine.

John

For true-to-life accuracy, I doubt the GGD cars will be beat. The K-Line cars are great, and I'd love to get a hold of a set someday since I have a special affection for them after a trip on them in the '70s. Just a matter of finding them and being able to afford them! 

There are differences between Hi-Levels and Superliners; Superliners have slightly taller roofs and taller windows, especially noticeable on the lounge cars. (Though the floors, and therefore connections between cars are the same height, so Hi-Levels and Superliners can be combined in a train.) The fluted ridges in the stainless steel exteriors, particularly on the roofs, is narrower on Hi-Levels. Also big differences in the platform-level doors and exterior vents. K-Line cars are modeled after Hi-Levels, Lionel's are Superliners.

I am curious about how much the 7 Lionel cars are selling for.  I found couple Lionel 4 packs on ebay that did not sell.  I bet some will be selling their sets to finance the purchase of the GGD cars.

Since they list 18 volt lamps, guess would not be leds.

6309134300

LAMP / 18V 80MA / CLEAR / BI-PIN

12

$1.50

That makes sense to me.  Thanks, Lima

What do you think, Alan?

Art

That's why I'd like to see Lionel come out with a set -- particularly for the Santa Fe, and it would temper the stratospheric prices in the secondary market.  Even if they did it with 18" cars, it would be a popular item.

Lots of folks here are going goo-goo ga-ga over the GGD announcement, but very few folks (relatively speaking) have the basement empires or club-sized layouts needed to do the 21"-inch cars justice.  So there will always be a market for the 18" cars that Lionel produced.

As for resale values... GENERALLY SPEAKING, you're looking at $175-$200+ per car, and the Alaska RR set easily sees those prices at the higher end of the range.  If you see that one of these sets doesn't sell, it's usually 'cause the seller was pushing the envelope a little too much.  That seems to happen a lot with the NYC livery.  It was one of the "fantasy" road-names, and just doesn't have the desirability-factor carried by the Alaska RR and Santa Fe liveries.  The paint scheme alone on the Alaska RR cars is unbeatable IMHO.

David 

David, I agree with you on several levels. There will always be a demand for 18" passenger cars because of space restrictions. From my observations, the NYC fantasy H-Levels do not bring thew same return on the secondary market. I believe that the Alaska version leads the way in the pricing they fetch followed by the Sante Fe.

An Alaska F unit ABBA configuration followed by the seven 18" coaches is more than just a nice train, it is spectacular. I am sure glad I grabbed this set back in 2004.