Lionel Auto Carriers - My Review (with photos)

 Yeah, I don't know how yet, I may use it. I got to stare at this one for awhile.....would be easiest to just acc a plate on the bottom for KDs.....Got to change the wheels to see what height will be............I'm going to need a lot of wheels first..........

They are really nice cars.  I'm glad Lionel decided to make them.

Nice review...thanks

Rich,

Excellent review and photos -- thank you. You've addressed several questions that I have. As clever as it is, I will scrap the Lionel coupler and mounting system in favor of body-mounted Kadees. That shouldn't be too hard. The ride height looks a shade high for my taste. A truck swap may be the easiest way to address that.

They are really quite nice. I have an order in for some, and look forward to receiving them. 

3x on the review- good coverage on the major design points of the car, and interesting comparison pics to the MTH Autorack.

I consider myself a 3RS guy, and will be swapping out the hi-rail wheelsets and lobster-claw couplers when I get my Lionel Autoracks as well. I also see enough thickness in the floor to add Kadees. I guess I will wait to see who posts the first thread on converting the car to 2-rail to see what scale wheelset are used, and if the 3-rail trucks will even be used in the process.

Geno

Thanks guys

Rich, don't you have Atlas 89' pig flats with Kadees running on 072 curves? Seems to me that as long as you're not running them through any tricky s-curves or complicated yard throats and such, they run pretty well. 

Am I right?

- RICH

Rich Thank you for your great write up and wonderful pictures. My CN & GT CARS are on UPS tonight even though I ordered them Dec 23. Little Holiday delay at the "LHS"

Rich Thanks for your comments and photos. They do look great,

I have a quick question about how much do you think the 2 packs weigh? I'm expecting some more trains today from Charles Ro and I'm receiving 5 boxes that each weigh 9.4 lbs. I only ordered 5 of the 6, 2 packs to go with the set & the 2 extra cars that I'm also waiting for. 

Thanks.  Very comprehensive and detailed.  Good photos.  I really apreciate this, particularly the remarks about clearances between adjacent tracks/cars.

Very good review

Bummer I can't see the first 4 photos though....

Good Review for everyone else to see. Thank You

I bought the Motor City Set, Engine Dummy, and the first add on's. I hope those bashers see this, and see how nice these cars and set really is.

I love mine. They are really long. I use Atlas O90 on my outer loop and that should probably be the minimum diameter they are operated on for appearance sake. I am pleased with them

"...how much do you think the 2 packs weigh?"

I'm not sure and i don't have any way to weigh them. All I can say is that they're surprisingly light.

- RICH

Paul, I picked up another 2-pack yesterday at Nicholas Smith Trains, and the whole package weighs in at 9 lbs 4.5 oz.  So it's quite possible you've got a bunch of 2-packs enroute to you.  Enjoy!!!

David

P.S.  Most of that weight is shipping/protection as each individual car is only 1 lb 10 oz.  Deceivingly lightweight for its size.

Nice review Rich. Thanks for the nice pics, especially of the underside of the car, since I will be purchasing several of these cars for 2 railing. These cars look very nice and will fit in right with the OMI racks I have. I'll try Atlas trucks first to lower the ride height and see how that looks. It doesn't look too hard to make the conversion. Again thanks for the review!

Travis

"I only ordered 5 of the 6, 2 packs to go with the set & the 2 extra cars that I'm also waiting for."

PaulP,

Are you planning on buying every piece of this awesome set?  That is going to be one long consist.  I bet it would look fantastic.  Post a video when you get them all.

  Nice review Rich Thanks

Great review. I had mixed feelings about these cars when announced, but now I'm thinking about getting a couple.

Joe:

I'm figuring you might be able to modify the existing coupler assembly and mount the Kadee box/coupler onto that. This would give a solid mount and allow more swing for tight curves.

No, not at this point. For some reason the blue GT doesn't appeal to me and why I don't know since blue is my favorite color. And when the set arrives it will be my first CSX engine.

I do like to run long consists, even though I do not have a layout. I hope in the near future to have one. For some reason as I grew up, I was attracted by the long consists that Lionel used in catalogs from the 50's. Also for some reason, certain rolling stock appeal to me like the tanktrain tank cars, cylindrical hoppers and the bathtub gondolas just to name a few of the ones I like.

Hopefully tonight I can get some videos & photos of them in action. I use to design and helped build a very large (22' x 44') public Christmas train display at a fire station here in MD. Tonight I'm hoping to run them along with some maiden voyages of my Vision Hudson, GE Evolution, UP Centipedes and maybe some other engines of mine. My biggest problem is that I can't find my Legacy system so I plan just to run by conventional by DCS. I want to see my Lionel GE run along side MTH's GE.

It has been 7 years since I stopped helping them and I may start helping again. Here is a link to a video I shot of my SP AC-12 pulling 56 cars.

Thanks for the great pics Rich.  My approach was to wait and see how they looked once they hit the streets to determine if I may get any, and it looks like Lionel did a very good job on them indeed.

I don't see a big issue mounting Kaydees on them, and either swapping out the wheelsets with scale wheels or just swapping the entire Lionel trucks for 2-rail Atlas (since they use the same diameter mounting screw) would fix the slightly too tall height.  Certainly better rendered than the MTH ones.

Only thing I will need to do is check the roadnumbers on the ones I'm interested in; I noticed that some of the ones I saw in the catalog pictures were not correct for this type of car, so that will determine which ones I would get.

I still find it curious that Atlas O never stepped up to the plate to do this model as they already have the platform for it (their 89' flatcar).

David, thank you for the info, I can't wait for them to arrive. The only thing that concerns me is their giant boxes they come in. Finding the space to store them in. I may have start thinning my collection out. lol

Great review ... Thanks ... Are the UP two packs out already ?

Yes, they are...came out at the same time as the set.  Lionel obviously planned and manufactured them to accompany the set.

Gee, that's only about 2oz short of the NMRA recommendation for O-gauge cars, sounds about right.  Those are impressive looking cars, a great review.

SD60M ... Thanks for the info ... any idea who might still have a set for sale ? Thanks

Rich,

Thanks for the review and pictures.  I have a several MTH auto carriers and liked the comparison.  I am planning on picking some Lionel ones. 

Rich,

Right you are. I shot some video of a train with a few of those Kadee-eqipped 89 foot flats running through some 072 curves. With apologies, for the unfinished scenery, here is what they look like in action:

OK last yesterday evening I received 5 of the 2 packs from Charles Ro. They sent me 6 boxes, so I knew what was in 5 of the boxes, box 6 which I opened was a order which was not mine. I called Charles Ro and found out what should have been in box 6.

In my discussion with them I asked when the Motor City set would be out and they said that the sets were in Washington State and are held up in customs. The way that he talked to me about the 2 packs sounded like these cars maybe hard to come by soon. And it did not sound as if Lionel was going to make more of these cars and that all of the cars were made at the same time.

So I went to the Christmas display to run some of my trains. So the first things that I unpack were the auto carriers. All I can say is that their shipping boxes are huge. They are some beautiful cars and they are lite. The first thing that we did was to put one on the main line to see if they could run without hitting anything. There were some tight spots but they cleared every turn and passed under the bridges with no problem.

First I pulled all 10 cars with Lionel's GE Evolution engine, then the UP Centipedes, followed by the Vision Hudson, UP 4-12-2 and last with the UP Genset switcher. I can say without a doubt that at no time did any of the cars derail or any of the couplers fail. And they do make a fine consist of cars. And the only engine that looked out of place was the Hudson.

I may just break down and purchase the GT 2-pack after my set + add on cars come. Lionel did a fine job on these cars.

I will be posting some of the video I shot shortly.

Who make O56 curves?

Will these auto-carriers run on the more common O54?

  --Joe

Joe

You're correct! After checking the Lionel catalog they will indeed run on 054 curves. I don't have much experience with curves that small and got my numbers wrong.

I'll update the error in my original post.

- RICH 

Nice cars! Good review! I have a good number of the MTH Corrugated autoracks and love them. But I thought they were scale...I had no idea. 

I'm glad to hear about the couplers. I purchased a Milwaukee Road corrugated auto carrier set, and 5 out of he 6 cars has defective couplers. 

Frustrating...its back with the hobby shop now. 

Many people already have the Motor City set so this must be another shipment.

If and when I get the Grand Trunk Auto Carrier 2-Pack, that CP Rail style reporting mark and roadnumbers will have to be removed and replaced with one of the GTW style fonts. The name "GRAND TRUNK WESTERN" will have to be added. White decals will have to be found or somehow made.

Andrew

How heavy will the Auto Carriers be after being loaded with 1:48th scale automobiles?

Andrew

I now have the videos of some engines pulling the 10 new auto carriers that have come, I'm still waiting for the set and the first 2 add-on cars. All of these trains are seeing the tracks for the first time. The engines are being run by conventional power, I can not find my Legacy controller and they are being controlled by the Christmas display people (they use all MTH trains) while I am taking the videos.

First up is Lionel's GE Evolution with a MTH GE Evolution running in the background

next up in Lionel's UP Centipede

and here is the Vision NYC Hudson

followed by the Vision UP Genset switcher

and last by Lionel's UP 4-12-2

Here's a question for any of you that own these cars:

I just bought one, and they are advertised as having rotating bearing caps on the trucks. My car does NOT have rotating bearing caps. They are molded into the truck side frame.

Do your cars have rotating bearing caps or not?