Lionel "The Congressional" 6-21782

Postwar, MPC ,modern?

That's the Postwar Celebration Series reissue. Beautiful set. Nice reproduction of the original 1955 set but with TMCC and Railsounds,dual motors,magne-traction.Finish on the #2340 GG1 superior to the original.You should be able to pick one up for $400-500 easily. Decent runner. 

Ricky

A nice one for sure. Id run it, but I'm more into the all tuskan Broadway Limited. I do like bare metal and dome cars too, but would like a Santa Fe, or CBQ Zephyr up front to match the shine.  

I read the OGR review on the Conventional Classic's version and that did not seem too good performance wise.

It had the Tuscan passenger cars.

The Conventional Classic GG1 with Madison cars is a good set. I have it and have had no trouble with it. I know some did. The PWC Congressional is a great set. The price lately has been in the mid 500 to 600 range. There were a few add on cars made for it as well, but I kept mine like the postwar set. Go For it if you can find one.  

Boomer has it right on the money about the PWC Congressional Set.  I wrote the article and operated the set.  I liked it so much that I bought one and still have it.  Both the GG-1 and the cars are first rate in terms of assembly quality and operation.  Interesting side note, the GG-1 was made in the USA and the cars were manufacturered in China. Regardless of origin, the Cars and the electric look good and perform well.

The Conventional Classics green five stripe #2332 looks beautiful, but I was not thrilled with the performance of the bell and horn or the open frame motors. Lionel was up against some real tough time and budget constraints when they produced what was the first Conventional Classics set and that affected the performance of the engine.  I replaced the chassis underneath it with a later model GG-1 chassis with can motors and RailSounds.  Now it runs as good as it looks.  Wrote an article about the switch about a year after the original Conventional Classics review appeared.  In the original review I wrote that the three Irvington cars in the set were the "stars" and I still believe that.  They look great and run far better than the PW originals.  Read the article for the details!

Hope this helps.

Ed Boyle Partner

Special Projects Editor

O Gauge Railroading magazine

The PW Congressional set is fantastic.

The GG-1, made in USA as Ed points out, is a great runner.

Forum member Todd Wagner worked for Lionel and this set was one of his projects. He can relate some great stories as to how he made sure the color on the GG-1 was true to the postwar locomotive and the graphics on the passenger cars matched those on the actual postwar cars. I purchased my set about two years ago from Todd.

I love the set, its appearance, and the quality of its operation.

But the Congressional, also has the same Pullmor/TMCC combo as the set Ed did a review on that had poor performance though.

Also, what is the length of the passenger cars?

The Congressional has a different set of electronics than the later Conventional Classics chassis has.  The Congressional has TMCC and RailSounds, the Conventional Classics 2332 obviously does not.  The development  of the bell, horn and e unit on the Conventional Classics was a compromise under tight time and budget constraints  that did not work well in all cases and with certain transformers. As I recall, you needed a Lionel button attached to your transformer to make the Conventional Classics sounds work correctly all the time. Without that button, the sounds were simply not reliable enough under all conditions.

The Pullmor motors for the Congressional were produced here in the USA, and as long as you service them, the two motors have caused me no trouble in operation and no interference with the TMCC/RailSounds installation in the Congressional.

Please remember when I replaced the chassis on the Conventional Classics 2332, I swapped it out for a chassis with can motors with flywheels and conventional Railsounds.  It does NOT have command control and is operated conventionally as the name suggests. I have several GG-1s with command control, and decided to keep the Chassis swap 2332 version as a conventionally controlled unit.

Hope this clarifies some things for you.

Ed Boyle

Partner

Special Projects Editor

O Gauge Railroading magazine

Ah, that's right, the problematic set was conventional classics and not TMCC.

Thanks Ed!

BTW, you just cost me $550!

Just purchased the "Congressional" set brand new.

Guys see my post on this set in my other thread, i am having problems.