Lionels "New" 64ft PRR woodside passenger cars-stunning!

Beauties!

Great looking cars - makes me miss my PA layout! Since moving to CA 8 years ago, I consolidated my collection to be mostly UP and Amtrak. Still have my PA GG1, an A-6 and a nice string of PA freight cars for “old times sake”.

Enjoy the new trains!

Wow - the Lionel PRR paint is stunning on these cars!   Agree  they beg to be paired with a D16b at the head end. Thanks for sharing

at the turn of the 20th century when these cars were probably front line, the Pennsy had a top name train with cars painted Yellow!    I wonder if Lionel will research and do that one too.

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

I recieved two 2 packs of The Lionel 64' woodside passenger cars. Formerly of mth design, MTH's paint scheme  lacked authenticity for the time period for such a beautiful car. Ryan Kunckle of Lionel finally did these cars some justice in the paint and decoration dept. Take a look!

I see that Lionel left out the "brake line detail" that MTH had on these cars. It may have been Lionels thinking these cars were dated "pre air brake". Whatever the case, these Lionel cars will go with my MTH 4-4-0 with all the pinstripes! Lets hope that Lionel may make a PRR D16b to go with these cars!

The Lionel Woodside Passenger Cars are stunning to be sure. Unfortunately, they also come at a stunning price. As I recall, the MTH Premier special run 5-car set of the Woodside Passenger Cars that I purchased from Nicholas Smith a couple of years ago cost around $450. Since Lionel purchased the dies for the Woodside Cars from MTH and started producing the them, the the cost of each Car has increased exponentially. They were being sold at York for $250 per car. That's nearly a 280% increase. Even factoring in the steep inflation we are all dealing with, that kind of a price increase is unjustifiable, IMHO.

Pat   

I always thought the MTH cars were way under priced. I enjoyed that, but the Lionel price is fair to me, given the incredible detail in these.

The 64 foot woodside cars were always a beautifully attractive well done model.  Aside from the orange-ish window trim, that "new" Lionel paint-scheme is basically the same as what MTH produced in 2006 for their Long Island RR cars 20-62005 (3-car set $249 MSRP) and 20-62006 add-on.

Also seen in a youtube review .

@Keystone posted:

The 64 foot woodside cars were always a beautifully attractive well done model.  Aside from the orange-ish window trim, that "new" Lionel paint-scheme is basically the same as what MTH produced in 2006 for their Long Island RR cars 20-62005 (3-car set $249 MSRP) and 20-62006 add-on.

Also seen in a youtube review .

Well said. And the level of detail between the MTH and Lionel Woodside Passenger Cars is virtually identical, which is to be expected, as Lionel is using the former MTH dies. Even if one were to assume for sake of argument that Lionel has added a little more detail, there is no way that would justify anything close to a 280% price increase per car. That said, if fellow OGR members want to buy the Lionel Strasburg coaches, that is their choice and I respect that. I also suspect that many, if not all of us, have spent more that we would like to purchase certain trains that we really want and where a comparable less expensive alternative is not available.

Pat

@Keystone posted:

The 64 foot woodside cars were always a beautifully attractive well done model.  Aside from the orange-ish window trim, that "new" Lionel paint-scheme is basically the same as what MTH produced in 2006 for their Long Island RR cars 20-62005 (3-car set $249 MSRP) and 20-62006 add-on.

Also seen in a youtube review .

Great for LIRR fans but PRR fans were left to be desired. Ryan Kunkle previous to Lionel worked at the RR Museum of PA and had the cars painted as close to PRR spec at that time. Oh BTW the trucks are olive drab color, not black.

Last 3 photos by me.

If you get the new Lionel cars or the old MTH cars, the detail on these cars is excellent very detailed. Lionel has certainly done a great job of getting the paint scheme right as noted. I am sure Lionel will offer them in other paint schemes.

I happened to have been running my old MTH passenger cars today, just put them back on the layout,  here are some pics. I had picked up a 3 pack each of Pennsylvania and Long Island and painted up some letter boards to match the body color, decaled and stuck on over the original lettering so I did not have to try to repaint all the cars liked the paint and details.  If you wanted 2 rail instead of 3 I think you can still get the MTH 2 rail trucks for these, though they have a lot of drag with the wheel wipers for lights. Was hard for these 2 rail engines to pull all 6 cars up a slight grade.

@prrjim posted:

at the turn of the 20th century when these cars were probably front line, the Pennsy had a top name train with cars painted Yellow!    I wonder if Lionel will research and do that one too.

You mean the "Yellow Kid"? If so that train had a different type of car.

Yes, I was referring to the "yellow kid" and I am sure  you are right.     I don't think PRR actually ever used a prototype like the Lionel car.    They were close, but most photos I have seen show a car with panel sides beneath the windows, not tongue and groove.  

I don't know about car lengths for that era, I don't think I have any information on that .

In my opinion, the MTH/Lionel 64-foot wood coaches are the finest passenger cars on my model railroads. But I believe it is MTH that deserves recognition for having produced these outstanding models. As to crediting Lionel for the ornate paint scheme on the PRR cars, the first picture below shows my similarly ornate MTH Long Island Rail Road wood passenger coach #253. The LIRR three-car set (20-62005) was offered in the MTH 2006 Volume 1 catalog at a price of $249.95.

I use the MTH Pullman Green unlettered car behind steam locomotives of several railroads. It was purchased new in April 2021 at a price of $114.95.

Boston and Maine wood coach #1268 (L227100 a 2-pack) was recently produced by Lionel. Its paint scheme is plain but prototypical. The undersides of the trucks are engraved with “MTH” painted over with the letters “Lionel.”

MELGAR

I'm addicted to these cars!  I have way too many and most will end up on the display shelf.

There is a Union Pacific and a Rock Island set on the 'bay right now (not mine).

Does anyone have these from Lionel in New York Central livery?

A very long time ago John Addis, an avid O scale modeler, scratch built a complete PRR passenger car consist of similar cars of that era.  It looks like the Lionel offering and John's scratch building efforts are a close match with respect to car finish.

Addis Coach

The Lionel ones do not look any better (or worse) than the MTH ones. at least to me.

@irish rifle posted:

The Lionel Woodside Passenger Cars are stunning to be sure. Unfortunately, they also come at a stunning price. As I recall, the MTH Premier special run 5-car set of the Woodside Passenger Cars that I purchased from Nicholas Smith a couple of years ago cost around $450. Since Lionel purchased the dies for the Woodside Cars from MTH and started producing the them, the the cost of each Car has increased exponentially. They were being sold at York for $250 per car. That's nearly a 280% increase. Even factoring in the steep inflation we are all dealing with, that kind of a price increase is unjustifiable, IMHO.

Pat   

@Keystone posted:

The 64 foot woodside cars were always a beautifully attractive well done model.  Aside from the orange-ish window trim, that "new" Lionel paint-scheme is basically the same as what MTH produced in 2006 for their Long Island RR cars 20-62005 (3-car set $249 MSRP) and 20-62006 add-on.

@irish rifle posted:

Well said. And the level of detail between the MTH and Lionel Woodside Passenger Cars is virtually identical, which is to be expected, as Lionel is using the former MTH dies. Even if one were to assume for sake of argument that Lionel has added a little more detail, there is no way that would justify anything close to a 280% price increase per car.

Pat

I was just looking at these cars. But $250 a car, and a 280% increase? Maybe I'm missing something, but these Lionel cars are a lot less than that online when I just looked.  I saw one of the largest online dealers has these Lionel two-car sets for $287.95 - only $144.00 a car. The MTH cars were individually priced at $89.95 per car in 2006, so $180.00 for a two car set. Using the inflation index, in today's dollars the MTH cars would be $265.00, or $132.50 a car. So effectively these Lionel cars are only $11.50 more per car than the MTH ones were. A more expensive Lionel dealer had them for $320.00, or $160 a car. That's still just $27.50 a car more than the 2006 MTH ones would be, and the Lionel version has a more expensive paint job.

Indeed, those are nice !

@Scott R posted:

Wow - the Lionel PRR paint is stunning on these cars!   Agree they beg to be paired with a D16b at the head end. Thanks for sharing

What he said! Stunning. D16b in PRR livery and the D16sb #1223 in Strasburg livery would be awesome to add to Lionel's present releases of the Strasburg brass hybrid #90 model and the #89 standard legacy edition. You can see 1223 at the RR Museum of PA as a static exhibit now.