Lionel Hiawatha Passenger Cars Question

I believe that 6-19186 was a 15" diner and not one of the 18" cars that was cataloged with the engine.

Engine and cars.

These cars are fabulous. I made two mistakes when I bought the set.

1) I did not buy the Stationsounds diner

2) I did not buy the matching engine

hindsight is 20/20!

It is well-known that the colors are a little off as far as relation to Milwaukee archives; however, with the engine, they look awesome. Truck detail pops due to the "rust" color. The beaver tail observation is classy and well-executed. I really love the portholes on the cars, and the paint is applied flawlessly.

To the best of my knowledge, Lionel's streamlined cars were not the 1934-35 series but rather, two series newer.  They are credible (but 18", scale 72' long) models of the 1938-39 series.  Differences include the fact that the first series of lightweight cars were smooth sided and they also had vestibules (doors) at each end of the car.  This was a carryover of practice from heavyweight era cars.  When they realized that passengers could enter or leave the car through the vestibule diaphragm, they began eliminating the redundant doors in favor of more interior passenger space.  These first cars had the recognizable window shape like a capitol "D" on it's back.

The second series of cars were built starting in 1936 and they came with square windows and had two horizontal ribs one above and one below the window line.

The Lionel cars had the seven ribs, square windows, one vestibule design of the 1938-39 series of cars that were actually built to match the F7 Hudsons of those years.  While Lionel was correct in offering those cars with the A1 Atlantic engines because the railroad regularly mixed the different series of cars, all through their existences, they are from different production plans.

Paul Fischer

The passenger cars I'm considering are the 15" versions not the 18" ones and I'm ok with that because although I found a set of all 7 18" matching cars the store is not willing to sell them separate of the engine (which they also have) and if they do separate them they would want $1,000 for the passenger cars. The 15" set is a lot more affordable and actually would fit my basic layout a lot better. Those are the ones I'm asking about because searching the part number results in nothing on the Lionel website.

You probably can't find them because they date back to 2000.  Some folks were critical of them because the doors were not "real" opening doors but in my opinion they really look nice.  I have a set of 4 w/number from19185 to 19188, a 39105 coach plus two extra 19185 coaches.  I would have to dig them out but I'm thinking they have never been run.  If you are interested I would part with the entire set for $500 plus shipping.

At this point I think I would like to either sell the set as a unit or keep it.  I have never had a lot of luck parting out a set.  Sorry, I didn't mean to cause you mental anguish!  

No problem. Looks like the cars pop up for sale from time to time on eBay. Thanks.