Lionel UP 50th Anniversary Set

Congrats and have fun - always a good day when you find something special

You Bet!!

How many kinds of these "scale" 50th anniversary sets were there?  There was also the 31705, Hudson and 5 Manhatten cars.   Just the 2 or were there others?

Greg: I'm glad you found this set after your long search and I remember when it first came out. As a long-time Union Pacific fan who rode its passenger trains back in the 1950s and 60s, I was a bit puzzled as to why Lionel dreamed up this particular set.

Don't get me wrong, as I'm sure it's a beautiful set. It's just that the UP only ordered 8 PA-1 cab units and 6 PA-Bs. They kept them only a short time, then quickly replaced them with EMD Es and Fs. I don't ever remember seeing UP PAs pulling a passenger train, although they must have at some point. The Santa Fe ordered far more PAs than the UP.

I was also a bit puzzled as to why on this set, its passenger cars had the unprototypical full-end diaphragms, rather than the conventional ones like the real ACF manufactured cars had. Also, the names on these passenger cars are not prototypical names the UP used, at least on its modern aluminum ACF cars.

A few years after this set came out, Lionel issued another UP passenger car set also with overhead LED lighting, painted interiors, and painted passenger figures. Only these had the regular car ends, without the full-end diaphragms and passenger car names. I was able to purchase the 4-car set and the 2-car add-on set for my Yellowstone Special passenger train. These cars are more prototypical for this particular passenger train I model.

Lionel has put together some unusual train sets over the decades. But again, I'm sure yours is a beautiful set and if you had been seeking it out, finally found it, and now it's yours, THAT is what matters. Nice going.

Vern;

I was fortunate enough to pick up a NOS 31712 set late last year and it is beautiful. As for the choices Lionel made, you have to remember that the 31712 was issued for the 50th Anniversary of a post war classic (which I believe was, in turn, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Lionel) - the 2023. Per Lionel’s website on the 31712:

”With car names taken from the 1950 Lionel Anniversary Set, this all-new, all-inclusive Limited provides one of the most exciting passenger train experiences in O gauge. Leading the consist, the scale-sized ALCo PA is produced from all-new tooling for a level of detail and performance comparable to our celebrated new F-3 diesels. Our finest aluminum passenger cars are made even better with all-new die-cast metal sprung trucks, metal roof details and separately applied operating end vestibules. This exciting train even includes a StationSounds Diner for arrival/departure calls, enroute announcements and more”.

I haven’t had a chance to get the engines on the track yet but I had a UP engine on layout to try the cars!!!

Thank you for the clarification, Paul. Now I think I better understand why Lionel did what it did with this set.

These names of the passenger cars in the 1950 Anniversary set (and in this 1983 version as well) are names of towns in the area around the old Lionel factory in New Jersey. Obviously nowhere near UP country. Why Lionel didn't do the Anniversary set in NYC livery or something else in the east coast area we'll never know.

One well-known issue (if you want to call it that) with this 1983 set is that the engines are scale sized PAs, which are large engines (the ABA is about 53" long), and the cars are only 15" cars, so the engines sort of dwarf the cars. Back then, Lionel didn't make any 18" streamlined cars, and of course it was a long time before the 21" cars were made. Both of these would have looked much better with these engines. It's still a nice set, though.

@breezinup posted:

These names of the passenger cars in the 1950 Anniversary set (and in this 1983 version as well) are names of towns in the area around the old Lionel factory in New Jersey. Obviously nowhere near UP country. Why Lionel didn't do the Anniversary set in NYC livery or something else in the east coast area we'll never know.

One well-known issue (if you want to call it that) with this 1983 set is that the engines are scale sized PAs, which are large engines (the ABA is about 53" long), and the cars are only 15" cars, so the engines sort of dwarf the cars. Back then, Lionel didn't make any 18" streamlined cars, and of course it was a long time before the 21" cars were made. Both of these would looked much better with these engines. It's still a nice set, though.

They did do another 50th Anniversary set based on the 773 passenger set in the 1950 catalog and used a NYC J3 Hudson with 18” cars lettered for Lionel lines and same car names. I guess they wanted to be true to the 1950 catalog vs prototypically accurate.

Pete

That truly is a beautiful set. Remember seeing two of them on the Bay a few years ago and was tempted to get one of them that sold for a mere $500 or $600 for the AA and all cars!  I already had a 7 car set of the 72' K-Line UP's that had been modified with LEDs and additional passengers. Still have them (9 cars now) and the Legacy Alco PA's which are also stunning in detail and overall appearance. Often wondered why these two sets were priced so low and didn't sell right away...