Lionel/MTH 410 Pannsylvania Baggage

thats a beautiful car.

Yeah.

The State Set feels a bit bare without a baggage car, I think this will complete the look nicely (I also prefer to have passenger trains in odd numbers for some reason, I think 5,7 or 9 cars look much better than 4,6, or 8).

It took a while for the car to come in, but here it is! The 410 baggage car!

Whiskers was very adamant about being in the photos...

Now it really looks like a real train!

I was a bit disappointed there wasn't much going on inside, but I guess baggage cars are usually hollow.

With all 5 cars the set now measures just over 12' long. I'm not sure how well it will run on what track I have available, just with the 4 cars my 400e needs a little help starting off due to the tight radius curves on my loop.

Nice baggage car Brian, and nice train!  MTH did a good thing making the 4-door bggage cars for the State, Blue Comet, and Stephen Girard sets, since the original Lionel sets didn't have any baggage capability - not even a combination car.  Back in the 1970's, before MTH, Harlen Creswell (Liberty Lines) made a limited number of State set 4-door baggage cars, to fill the same need.

So which car are you missing?  MTH makes 6 State cars all together. Do you have the 414 Illinois coach?  Or the 415 Maryland solarium car?  

As you no doubt know, pulling the State set has been an infamous problem from the beginning. If you're having trouble at 4 cars, I'm assuming your 400 has the traditional motor? You have a few options. One is a 408 with twin motors. Another option that prewar State set owners did not have is the two-motored Super 381. Both these engines come in State green. If you want to stick with the 400, trade it in for a Proto-drive version (PS-1,2, or 3). Even if you don't have DCS, just running the Proto-drive engine in traditional mode you will see a very big difference, it will walk away with all 6 cars.

david

My 400e is a PS2 model (although I have lost all sound from it). the pulling problem lies more in traction than torque. I might add some bullfrog snot to the rear drivers at some point.

Brian Liesberg posted:

My 400e is a PS2 model (although I have lost all sound from it). the pulling problem lies more in traction than torque. I might add some bullfrog snot to the rear drivers at some point.

 

I use Walthers Goo to glue a traction tire on. They seem to stay well and improve pulling quite a bit.

Steve

I might try that, I'll have to look for traction tires that'll fit the 400e.

Also here's a quick video I made of the set running.

I think that version comes with traction tires. Check for an axle with grooves for the tires.