Lionel Aluminum Passenger Cars Starting to Arrive

What lesson would that be?

Not saying I agree or disagree regarding opinions on the window installation, but consider this…

Lionel is closing out the manufacturing of aluminum cars with no changes to the windows.

The passenger sets are very difficult to find in retail stores.

The prices on the secondary market for these passenger sets have remained high…even with all the discussion about the windows.

So, back to my original question, what lesson was Lionel to have learned?

To SandJam:

“As much as I thought the new plastic 21" passengers cars I saw at York looked really good, there is nothing like polished aluminum.”

I (and many, many others) agree that in the end, painted plastic just does not have the “depth” that unpainted metal has. I do have passenger cars from Lionel, GGD and K-line and have observed the Atlas cars, so my comments are not coming from left field. The finish on these cars do look really nice.

Charlie

They are nice Sean. Thanks for posting. I only wish they had included the 18" Texas Special Cars in this final batch. I would have expected them to be built like the previous runs. To bad they didn't use the trucks and couplers from the 21" cars which couple much closer.

Pete

They are beautiful cars JIM, ENJOY!!!!!

I see no issues with the windows.  When they are going around the layout no one really cares just looks coooolllll!!!  Enjoy.

Sean, 

They are beautiful, enjoy them !!!!!

Alex

There were no changes from how they have always manufactured these cars with the exception of updated lighting.  So no one should expect anything different on a product that's ending production.  I'm just happy they made one final polished set in my favorite road name.  They still look great to me. 

They look wonderful!   Thank you for the pictures.

They are beautiful indeed!

My layout is better suited for the 15" cars which is why I purchased the Legacy Signature Line Texas Special set. The cars are beautiful, no doubt. If I were to have one "complaint" it would be that they have incandescent bulbs not LED lighting. They might get a set of Gunrunner's LED lights installed.

Enjoy!

Mike

PS: Although no big deal to me, the TS 15" cars have the same windows.

Oh how I agree!!!  I hated to see the TxSp 18" cars cancelled.

The ONLY bonus to having the TxSp done in 21" size is Lionel decided to re-introduce the StationSounds cars in the 21" series.  Aside from that... from what I saw at York, the new 21" ABS cars are very nice, but they lack the "pizazz" of real aluminum.  The ABS is definitely a step down, and they're representative of production cost-cutting measures to come.  

Enjoy these cars.  They're the "end of an era" product (for Lionel).

David

I agree with all, they do look great.  I have hopes now I will someday see my UP set on order so I'll have something passenger to put behind my Big Boy, Challenger and, patiently waiting for, FEF.  

Yes, it is a shame Lionel never corrected the coupler spacing issue on their aluminum cars, but since I've shortened the shanks on all of mine, my UP's will get the same treatment.

Charlie - Very well stated.  Hard to argue with your logic.

Art

Peter,  have you considered the K-Line aluminum UP cars? The 18" sets seem generally available on 'the bay' most of the time at decent prices and there are as many as 8 or 9 different cars to make up a nice set from.  I'm very pleased with ours and will pull them with Lionel's UP Alco PA's.

Very nice cars, Sean. Had Lionel been able to deliver their recent run of the CZ cars with this finish, they would have had a winner (despite the sans-dome obs.) and I would have been more inclined to keep them. Please repost with more photos when the 4-pack arrives.

and.... they have quite a few people inside. the new cars will not

Sean,

   I agree with Charlie on this one, they are definitely very nice looking Cars.  Real nice stuff!

PCRR/Dave

They look great. Nice detail

Thank you for the pictures! They are beautiful cars, very anxious to receive the 4 pack I ordered. Do you have any close-up pictures of the cars which were marred?

Nice! What is the item # on these?

Very prototypical.

     It is a shame that Lionel is taking these cars out of production due to issues during the manufacturing process.

Source - Podcast Notch 6 - If I remember correctly.

C.R.S. = Can't Remember Stuff

• Cheers from The Detroit and Mackinac Railway

I count myself lucky that I have a set of the aluminum hoppers that aren't damaged. 

What were the last road names for the aluminum cars? 

Ditto for sure on the nice! Beautiful work from what I can see.

But I was going to comment on the closeness of the cars also.

It would be great if they could have the vestibules (right term I hope) coming together.