You've got to say, they look good... the interiors especially, just stunning! Sadly however, I can't say the same for the exterior. The ends and the under sides on the cars are absolutely boring as dirt. MTH gives you grab bars, brake wheels, chain details, anti-raddle bars, and a bit more prototypical length diaphragms.
MTH upgrades their heavyweights every few years or so, but Lionel has been making the same exact cars for over 10 years now. So come on, chop chop!
I'm sorry that I keep harping on about MTH cars vs. Lionel, but without entering into the world of brass imports or Golden Gate Depot, the only O scale heavyweight cars I'm left with are Weaver or Atlas O. And Weaver just makes RPO and Baggage cars, and Atlas O's are all 60' cars.
I know that Lionel can make super detailed rolling stock... I mean have you seen one of their PS-1 boxcars!?! I'm only on this soapbox because I love Lionel's Crescent Limited cars. Of all the manufactures, Lionel was the only one to nail the exterior and interior paint schemes. It's just saddens me that Lionel went to all this work to make these beautiful Southern Ps-4 heavy pacific locomotives with such intricate details, and then they have to pull under detailed heavyweights.
I wish someone out there would make a detail kit for these cars.
If anyone has detailed the ends of their heavyweights, please post some pictures! I'd love to see!
An older Lionel heavyweight(before they did interiors).
