Lionel PS-4 flats with TOFC

I have at least one of each road name that Lionel has made of the two pup trailers on flat cars and multiple road numbers for some of them. You have certainly picked a good one, particularly the pup trailers. I have quite a few that I really like. The version of the Union Pacific that has the yellow flat car is definitely one of my favorites. I also really like the Lackawanna, one of the early releases, as well as the New York Central and the Southern Pacific.

If you are interested in these, you should also check out the Weaver TOFCs. They are terrific. Unfortunately, they are really difficult to get now that Weaver is out of business. I have at least one of all of the stock road names TOFCs Weaver ever produced and I believe I have at least one of all of the Weaver private run TOFCs, except the Santa Fe. (Still can't believe I didn't buy at least one of these when Jeff Dobslaw from JD's Trains had the Santa Fe private run.) I have multiple road numbers for most of them.   

I generally have no use for freight cars as I run mostly passenger trains,  but you can add me to the list of supporters of these EXCELLENT examples of rolling stock. Funny story, but if you attend the O scale March Meet, you will see many versions of the Lionel PS-4 available for sale, some have been two railed, some have not. But it is kind of strange to see so many orange boxes in a place that was almost off limits for many years. 

I don't have all of them like Irish. I am missing the Polar Railroad sample and the most recent LCCA offering. Other than that I do have all the rest.

I have a video of a run by, but I don't know how to attached the video files.

Charlie

Yes, great thread, and I have a modest collection of these neat cars.  I plan to run 7 or more of these behind a new SD45 Hi Hood Southern diesel...If anyone has been operating these cars please let me know if they run Smoothe....Thank You.

I'd wager these are every bit of a modern-day "sleeper" in terms of collectability in what has become a largely operators' culture.  I have most of the scale PS-4's with twin trailers made by Lionel to date -- definitely one of each roadname, and sometimes they offered 2-packs as well.  It's not something I set out to "collect".  It just happened over time, and voilla... a collection was born.

Nowadays, I'll grab a new offering only if it's a new roadname.  I don't need EVERY road number.  The nice thing about this series of rolling stock:  Lionel didn't overproduce them.  And by the same token, there haven't been lots of them only offered exclusively through special clubs.  So they've been relatively easy to collect without resorting to joining clubs just to get the car, or spending exorbitant eBay prices for club cars.  Hopefully, it stays that way.

David

 

P.S.  Another "sleeper" series of collectibles is Lionel's 57' Mechanical Reefer series.  Again, Lionel hasn't overproduced them -- nor have they been offered through club special runs.  Just plain old run-of-the-mill catalog offerings spanning a good number of years.  These are hefty pieces of rolling stock with lots of detail.  So if you're into hi-rail, these are a worthwhile offering too.

These are my personal favorite.  Just my speed,   Always been into trucking as well.  I collect as many as I can afford.

I never really thought about them, however, I did pick one Weaver version up at York. 

I liked it a lot, went another route and my first  Flatcar with a 40' trailer, when it is delivered will the Erie Lackawanna 6-82841.

After seeing the picture, I might be in the market for a few more.

 

 

I, too, fell in love with them and now have about  dozen, all Western road names. 

Just a little update on this topic.

 

I have been bitten by the bug, I have about 25 of these now. Mostly the twin pup trailers and a few of the 40' trailers.

I've also begun searching for other replacements for the trailers, some Weaver 35' and some of the Berkshire valley kits.

Rather than collecting all of the different roadnames I focus on New York Central and look for unique road numbers. The stock MTH TOFCs lack the detail of the Lionel and Weaver cars so I tried to bring them up to speed. These with lowered bolsters, scratchbuilt guardrails, and Lionel ramps now ride at the same height as the Weaver 3 rail cars and only slightly higher than Lionel's.

Pete

Hi John:

I do. This is one of the more difficult Weaver TOFCs to find. I only have one Road Number of this, #7013. Why do you ask? If you have #7008, I would be interested in purchasing it. Thanks. 

 

Hi Pete:

Great work!

Hi John:

I obviously missed that post, but no worries, as I have 111 of these Weaver TOFCs, so I will survive.  The one I wish I had was the Santa Fe. That one is virtually impossible to find.

Pat

That BAO trailer is cool! Love it! Wish I could find one too (:

 

I found a Weaver RISS, Yale, CNJ, and Interstate trailer separate so far.

 

They never made them for Western Pacific, M&St.L, and SOO LINE. I have the Chicago & North Western version.

falconservice posted:

They never made them for Western Pacific, M&St.L, and SOO LINE. I have the Chicago & North Western version.

Weaver did made for M&StL version.

I have a few of the Weaver TOFC cars. I miss Weaver scale detailed cars! Is Lionel bringing back the TOFC car in Lion Scale and are those the old Weaver molds?

What I miss about Weaver is they produced a car in every road name imaginable at a great price. I have a ton of Weaver freight cars. 

MInneapolis & St. Louis had two 20' trailers on a flat car in a few graphic variations. The people at Lionel have not cataloged any to be made.

These are nifty cars. I started with one trial car and then kept on going. They make a pretty unit train for sure! I have the Canadian National GP-9 set with the CN and CP ps4's, and it is a gem. 

Dave Warburton posted:

These are nifty cars. I started with one trial car and then kept on going. They make a pretty unit train for sure! I have the Canadian National GP-9 set with the CN and CP ps4's, and it is a gem. 

It sure is! I just wish that they would have gave a more updated Caboose then the older woodsode model.

 

I have the two CN cars from that set, the white pups and the orange pups with the 'travel by rail' signs which is just the coolest! I also like how Lionel did the a and e on each side of the flat too.

Here's one that you don't see very often.  NYC New York Central Fast Freight in SILVER.  They only made 23 of these.

Stu

 

 

NOT LionelLLC posted:

Here's one that you don't see very often.  NYC New York Central Fast Freight in SILVER.  They only made 23 of these.

Stu

 

 

Thanks for posting this. I was curious how many of these were made. Were these the banquet cars for the TCA National a few years ago?

 

Pete

I was able to get one brand new Weaver PDT Exclusive B&LE trailer on flat car with die cast trucks and 1 Weaver PDT Exclusive CNJ trailer on piggyback flat car with die cast trucks (3 Rail)

Last 2 he had. Paid $60.00 each.

Stu:

Awesome! I wish I had one of those. I was not even aware they were made. I have all three of the NYC TOFCs made a couple of years ago, including the two METCA Private Run cars and the TCA National Convention car. I also have three different road numbers of the NYC Silver TOFCs with the yellow symbols.

Pat

irish rifle posted:

Stu:

Awesome! I wish I had one of those. I was not even aware they were made. I have all three of the NYC TOFCs made a couple of years ago, including the two METCA Private Run cars and the TCA National Convention car. I also have three different road numbers of the NYC Silver TOFCs with the yellow symbols.

Pat

Pat,

 

Or anyone else:

can someone take some close up pictures of the BAO trailer from all sides? Also the rheingold beer of possible

thank you! 

 

READING LINES might be another for the LIONEL 20' trailers on PS-4 flat car.

falconservice posted:

READING LINES might be another for the LIONEL 20' trailers on PS-4 flat car.

I've never seen that one... do you have an item number? 

Pete, I cam see Tom drooling over that Silver car!

irish rifle posted:

Hi John:

I obviously missed that post, but no worries, as I have 111 of these Weaver TOFCs, so I will survive.  The one I wish I had was the Santa Fe. That one is virtually impossible to find.

Pat

Pat, I also have a large number of Weaver TOFCs too. Can you contact me via my email in my profile because I  want to ask some questions.

Tom

The people at Lionel most likely have not gotten around to having READING LINES produced for this one.

I would buy the RDG trailers also.  I also would like to see a six-pack or four pack of the major roads, e.g.. PRR, NYC, B&O, SP, ATSF, RDG. and some freight lines like consolidated freight, Yale, REA and so on.

Tom:

My email is pjcaulfi@aol.com. 

Pat

Another update:

 

Been playing with new trailer ideas and repainting cars into different roads.

 

Attached list of Lionel PS-4 flat w/ trailers, should be fairly complete.

 

Mr. H,

You're missing a few. Off the top of my head...

6-17582 Pennsylvania
6-17583 Great Northern
6-17584 Southern Pacific
6-17585 Chesapeake & Ohio
6-17594 Pennsylvania
6-17595 Pennsylvania
6-27840 Polar Railroad

And your listings for 6-82840 through 6-82843 aren't exactly the same thing, as those come with the single trailer of Weaver origin.

Hope this helps--

Mr. W

PaperTRW posted:

Mr. H,

And your listings for 6-82840 through 6-82843 aren't exactly the same thing, as those come with the single trailer of Weaver origin.

Hope this helps--

Mr. W

 

Mr. W,

Are you sure those last few come with the single trailer from the Weaver tooling?  In the catalog, the single trailer looks more like the trailer that comes with Lionel's recent scale tractor trailer truck. It's fairly long and skinny.  The Weaver single trailer looks a bit shorter and stocky.

Mr. R

While its been confirmed the Lionel has the tooling for the Weaver TOFCs, it appears they are not using the Weaver Trailers on the Lionel flats. Too bad as I think Lionel would have a golden opportunity to continue that line for the collectors of the Weaver TOFCs. Best of both using the Weaver Trailers on Lionel PS4 flats.

Pete

After Lionel had the rights to use the K-Line 18" heavyweight cars, I had the opportunity to speak with the Lionel rep at either a national convention or a large train show/swap meet.  I asked when Lionel would manufacture more cars using the molds K-Line used?  He told me in no uncertain terms that no more cars were coming out of those molds.  Corporate thinking was Lionel had their own heavyweight cars and that should be good enough for the hobbyists and if the general public wanted heavyweight cars they would buy the Lionel version.  Much like, 'it wasn't invented here.......'   The 35' Weaver trailers may be victim to the same corporate thinking.  Sooner or later Menards may offer a scale trailer in various liveries, whether made from new molds or from whatever was used for the K-Mart trailers twenty years ago.          John in Lansing, ILL

NOT LionelLLC posted:

PaperTRW posted:

Mr. H,

And your listings for 6-82840 through 6-82843 aren't exactly the same thing, as those come with the single trailer of Weaver origin.

Hope this helps--

Mr. W

 

Mr. W,

Are you sure those last few come with the single trailer from the Weaver tooling?  In the catalog, the single trailer looks more like the trailer that comes with Lionel's recent scale tractor trailer truck. It's fairly long and skinny.  The Weaver single trailer looks a bit shorter and stocky.

Mr. R

Mr. W & Mr. R,

 

The last picture above, the Nickel Plate trailer is a Weaver 35' unit.

The 6-82843/6-82840(as well as 41/42) are Lionel 40' trailers of their own tooling.

 

Respectively,

Mr. B