I was at the LHS today and almost bought a set of Irvington/Madison cars from modern era Lionel made in the 1990’s. The car names included Joshua Cohen, Lawerence Cohen, etc. There’s also a Sagar Palace observation car. While looking at these, another customer chimed in that the color of these cars did not match the “Tuscan” of the postwar cars. I only want these cars to add to the three PW cars I already have. He claimed that it was a more red-brown color on these modern cars that matched 1946 late pre-war cars. Has anyone ever heard this? I can’t find anything in Greenburg or Doyle books I have, or on line about 1946 PW cars being a different color than 1948-1950 cars. I have the itch that makes me want to still buy these cars, but really only if they look the same as the PW cars. Can anyone offer any info? Were there different color 1946 cars? Did modern Lionel screw up the color of these cars compared to the PW versions?
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I am not sure I'd call painting them a different color a "screw up." It could have been a defensible, deliberate choice to avoid fraud or at least confusion.
Sam,
Another set to consider is the Conventional Classics version Lionel produced more recently as a set with the CC GG1.
The Sager place was an add-on to this set produced at the same time.
These seem to be a little less brown than the set with the Cohen names you mentioned.
But, they are still not dead-on perfect color matches with the postwar version - a little less red than originals.
I also have not heard of any color differences between different years of prewar or postwar production. Any differences might just be in how they were stored over the years. All seem a little more on the red side than any of the remakes.
Jim
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real trains didn't always perfectly match.....go buy them...mix them up in your consist and enjoy them!...nothing more stunning than a long passenger train!....