Lionel FT passenger set; that ain't prototype?

In the era I can only speak for the Long Island, which used every conceivable freight/passenger engine in regular passenger service in often short trains.  The Oyster Bay and Port Jeff branches especially had three-car consists in the non-rush hour times.  And the engineers knew how to dress:   

Jon  

Santa Fe used A-B-B-A sets of FT's, modified for them by Electro-Motive, in passenger service. More here: http://www.atsfrr.net/resources/funits/ft-pas.htm

Why not just do it. Certainly there is precedence, so you are on firm ground.

I guess the main prototype question would be a steam generator in the FT unit. From looking at the Atlantic Coast Line and Southern Railway, they only had steam generators in the B units. The ACL ran these originally as AB pairs, coupled as ABBA. I think the Southern was similar in original operation. Therefore, a single FTA may not be correct for a passenger train, but an AB combo would work,

Many railroads ordered F2 and F3 A units with steam generators for passenger service.

For our model trains, just put the steam generator stacks on a Lionel FT A unit and go for it!

FTAs never had steam generators and could not run standalone unless they were modified because they did not have batteries or space for either the steam generator nor the water.  FTBs came with steam generators and the water tanks were the fuel tanks although most railroads deleted them.

Still, there's a BIG difference between an FT-A and and E8-A (which is what is pictured on the link.)

Maybe the toy train folks don't know or don't care, but it doesn't hurt to learn some basic diesel locomotive spotting skills every now and then.

Now, how do you feel about a GP38-2 on a passenger train?

Rusty

Learning something new along the way is a good thing. But when it comes to toy trains I just have fun. Hey I grew up with Lionel Lines. Running an FT with some nice looking passenger cars would not bother me at all.

All good stuff; thanks everybody. I was having a similar discussion with a hobby shop owner not long ago. I find that it all comes down to where our individual comfort zone is, and at what point our imagination fills the gap. My fun zone is somewhere in the hi-rail area, no desperate accuracy needed either. ;0)

I have done some research on this subject of the FT in the starter sets. Here is an interesting article that I found that answered quite a bit:

http://utahrails.net/loconotes/emc-ft.php

I really thinks that it makes no difference since it is your railroad. My understanding is the customer railroads were modifying their power units from day one to suit their needs. Later on from what I read FT units could be tied to F3 or whatever was available. Santa Fe modified their FT units so the B unit had hostler controls because the choice of 2 of 4 units only made not fiscal sense. 

I have learned that there is usually a prototypical example for almost anything. I would suggest you ignore those critics/rivet counters. I did find a B unit on an auction site for way too much but oh well, now I have one. Maybe Lionel will someday pop out some more B units and some dummy A units.

It is my railroad so I run whatever I want. I do try to match the loco to the caboose though!

So true! It does help to have an occasional spare postwar Lionel caboose since they go with anything.......