Lionel Burlington Northern E8 AA Set - Interesting and Neat Observation

That is very interesting and neat too. I don't remember whether the 2017 catalog said these would be a prototypical pair. (However the two online illustrations on the product page inconsistently show a single beacon on the lead unit and a beacon on both; somewhere in the design/manufacturing process they straightened this out.) It's always nice to find that a manufacturer has gone the extra mile for this kind of authenticity.  

Hancock52 posted:

That is very interesting and neat too. I don't remember whether the 2017 catalog said these would be a prototypical pair. (However the two online illustrations on the product page inconsistently show a single beacon on the lead unit and a beacon on both; somewhere in the design/manufacturing process they straightened this out.) It's always nice to find that a manufacturer has gone the extra mile for this kind of authenticity.  

Absolutely Hancock52, The catalog didn't show this it all which is why I was so surprised when I first noticed it. I actually thought maybe there was a mistake, and that's what prompted me to start the research and I was quite blown away by it. I wonder if the other road names from 2017 had something similar.

A glance at the 2017 catalog does not show any text indicating different features but there are a few differences in the illustrations - although the Burlington pair are shown with beacons on both units. 

I remember that Lionel caught some flak for an earlier (2014) run of Legacy E8s because the body shells/details were "generic" across all eight railroads represented except for the presence of Mars lights on those units where the prototypes had them. So they had some incentive to up their game and clearly did. BTW, I have seen Lionel add similarly prototypical details on passenger car sets without a lot of fanfare. As in your case, it's been the customers who notice, do some independent research and point out the extra thought and effort.

Anyway kudos on a nice set.

The MARS light would be great for alerting people to the oncoming train, so that unit could be the lead loco sometimes.

Andrew

These are truly most impressive locomotives from Lionel.  I have these along with the matching passenger cars.  Probably my favorite set!  I went on to pick up more Lionel locos after these, all very nice.  But they did a superb job on these! 100% worth the buy!

VistaDomeScott posted:

These are truly most impressive locomotives from Lionel.  I have these along with the matching passenger cars.  Probably my favorite set!  I went on to pick up more Lionel locos after these, all very nice.  But they did a superb job on these! 100% worth the buy!

Totally agree VistaDomeScott, I have the Station Sounds car now and the rest of the matching passenger cars should be here in the next few weeks.

Matt,

  You will love this set!  Hoping they offer the full dome in this paint scheme at some point.

Scott

Matt, Thanks for pointing this out. I bought this set when it came out to use with my MTH Metra cars and couldn’t be happier. I took both units out to check them when new and all was perfect so back in the box they went. I’ve only taken out the powered unit to run so I hadn’t noticed the different lights. Very cool!

Thanks Pete, and I also plan on running my Metra bi-levels behind the powered A. I did get the entire BN car set, just really beautiful passenger cars done by Lionel.