Lionel Excursion Lone Star business car - any sightings?

I am waiting as well. No word yet if mine have shipped. I actually ordered two so I could reletter one for "Kenefick". That was one I wanted but didn't want to buy the whole train to get that one car. I believe both business cars have essentially identical exteriors.

Pete

@Norton posted:

I am waiting as well. No word yet if mine have shipped. I actually ordered two so I could reletter one for "Kenefick". That was one I wanted but didn't want to buy the whole train to get that one car. I believe both business cars have essentially identical exteriors.

Pete

Thanks Pete. I had a brainwave and looked at Lionel's Facebook page (which I don't usually) and, lo and behold, there are numerous photos of the various new passenger shells, including that for the Kenefick business car. This answers my question about the exteriors but not the interiors, which are distinctive in this kind of car - see final image from the UP Heritage Fleet roster.

None of Lionel's other 21" cars have an interior assembly anything like the above so I am guessing that they must have made something new. K-Line had 18" business cars with full interiors but I haven't researched exactly what they comprised and, in any event, I doubt that they were one piece moldings like Lionel's current production.

I would be surprised if the interiors match the prototype but who knows. Lionel did say the interiors of the cars in the funeral train, which the Kenefick is part of, would be painted with figures. Nothing about finished interiors on the Lone Star and other add on cars. I am assuming they will be plain like the previous Excursion cars.

Looks like the open vestibule end will at least be close. 

Pete

@Norton posted:

I would be surprised if the interiors match the prototype but who knows. Lionel did say the interiors of the cars in the funeral train, which the Kenefick is part of, would be painted with figures. Nothing about finished interiors on the Lone Star and other add on cars. I am assuming they will be plain like the previous Excursion cars.

Looks like the open vestibule end will at least be close. 

Pete

It’s now reported over on another thread (https://ogrforum.com/...-car-set-observation) that the Lone Star car interior is patterned on the prototype shown above although it’s all plain yellow molding. I’ll be interested to see how accurately or not Lionel has rendered this when I finally open mine up but at least they didn’t just install standard seating.

Good to know. It appears both the Lone Star and Kenefick share almost identical interior arrangements as well. I suspect they only differ in color and detailing.

Pete

@Norton posted:

Good to know. It appears both the Lone Star and Kenefick share almost identical interior arrangements as well. I suspect they only differ in color and detailing.

Pete

As near as I can tell from photos of both cars, it looks like Lionel has used the Kenefick window placements and I imagine the interior molding is patterned on that car as well. The differences inside the two cars are really pretty substantial in terms of finishes as Lone Star was upgraded to private hire service in what looks like UP’s luxury fittings - fairly plush even by hotel standards:

There’s a whole collection of Lone Star images here: https://www.up.com/aboutup/spe...star_slideshow.shtml. Kenefick is more utilitarian as witness what’s on the UP heritage fleet page: https://www.up.com/cs/groups/p...ocs/pdf_kenefick.pdf

Either one would make an interesting project. I have plans for detailing mine when I can get to it.