Locomotive Decision

Bob,

Remember, this is a hobby, and one can do what ever makes one happy. If you are a purest, then you really should pull these with CB&Q diesels, such as E7's or E8's. You can also use the silver painted CB&Q F3's.

But if you just enjoy the hobby for what it is, and want to run these with other engines, then I say, "just do it".  You can justify running these cars behind the Freedom GS4 and just tell others, "It's an excursion train".

So enjoy the hobby and the cars. Model railroading is suppose to be fun.

RAY

I model the CB&Q, and am completing an upgrade to a Lionel F3 A/B/A set. I enjoy doing custom modeling to better represent the engines or cars I model. But that's me. I don't believe in criticizing others that enjoy running non-prototypical correct train sets. 

I've been looking for the Lionel dome observation, Silver Lookout for almost a year now, but have yet to find one. Where did you get yours?

 

RAY

I model the CB&Q, and am completing an upgrade to a Lionel F3 A/B/A set. I enjoy doing custom modeling to better represent the engines or cars I model. But that's me. I don't believe in criticizing others that enjoy running non-prototypical correct train sets. 

I've been looking for the Lionel dome observation, Silver Lookout for almost a year now, but have yet to find one. Where did you get yours?

Ray, I bought mine sometime back from TRAINZAUCTIONS (online).  It took me two separate auctions to collect the eight cars I have.  I think I spent a total of about $300 for all eight cars including shipping and Trainz's 18% "buyers fee".  But, it was worth the price, considering the asking prices over at eBay.  These cars come up quite often on the Trainz site.  I found one guy, somewhere near Cleveland that wanted about 12 or 15 hundred bucks for the complete set.  I almost fell off my chair when he told me the price.  After a few days, he called me back and had lowered the asking price to $500, and I told him what I paid for mine.  I think he got very depressed after that.

If you listed them in order of preference, I would recommend going with your first choice. You can always get #2 and #3 later.

For what it's worth I have the Imperial 484 in the Daylight livery and love everything about it! Great runner, my favorite steamer! What you pull with it is entirely up to you! But you will love it!

These cars NEVER ran behind steam?  Not in blizzard, flood.... rerouting..on any of the the Q, or subsidiary C&S, and were not Q cars hauled through on Rio Grande and West. Pac. track?  Wonder if any Cal. Zeph. photos of special situations can be found, behind Grande, WP, ...who knows...ATSF or UP power on their tracks..if afloat in the moat, or too deep to plow.

You could look for one of the 30-1694-1 Burlington Imperial Streamlined Hudsons instead of the Santa Fe version you listed. The Burlington version is all silver and would match more closely to the cars. On top of that, it's similar to an actual Burlington prototype named Aeolus. Just search Chicago Burlington and Quincy Aeolus on Google to see pictures of the real thing with streamlined and heavyweight passenger cars.

Did Lionel, MTH, Atlas or 3rd Rail make a model of the Aeolus? I cannot recall, but if not, one of them should!

colorado hirailer posted:

These cars NEVER ran behind steam?  Not in blizzard, flood.... rerouting..on any of the the Q, or subsidiary C&S, and were not Q cars hauled through on Rio Grande and West. Pac. track?  Wonder if any Cal. Zeph. photos of special situations can be found, behind Grande, WP, ...who knows...ATSF or UP power on their tracks..if afloat in the moat, or too deep to plow.

There was a. Photo in Classic Trains several years back of the CZ detouring on the SP with a Cab Forward piloting the WP F-Units.

Rusty

"Model railroading is suppose to be fun."

Yes, we know, we know, and for many of us, reasonable accuracy is the fun - and seeing a Reading (for example) steamer pulling a California Zephyr train is just...silly. You can do better - sell the cars or get a reasonable loco.

GOOD advice!  ☺

Well, I won't sell the cars.  I have wanted them for far too long, and it took some effort to acquire them.  So, I have reserved an MTH set of diesels at Pat's Trains, and Pat assured me that they are going to be plated.  So, I won't be committing a major faux pas in the near future.  

Bob, 

 I just sent you an e-mail. 

Cheers, Eric 

You won't be disappointed.  They are beautiful!  I have three of them pulling my CZ consist.   CB & Q ran them elephant style (nose to tail).

Tough choice, but I think a good decision in the end.

  The GS made the most sense, but saying no to a Crusader would be near impossible for me.  The forward lean of the Imperial's arent my thing, though the colors do pop nicely on them.

Not that it matters much for purposes of this thread, but it should be noted that not all CBQ E8s / E9s were plated.  CBQ Bulletin #11 has the numbers of which ones that were and which were not.

Also don't forget the D&RGW locomotives and Western Pacific locomotives that did pull the CZ Zephyr.  F3s, F7s, FP7s, F9s and as I recall D&RGW PA's for a brief period.

For the CZ cars pulled consistently by steam, I would recommend a PRR K4s.  The through sleepers than ran to NYC were pulled behind a few PRR NY-CHI trains.

However, it is your railroad.  As was mentioned by Allan, always go with your first choice.  Why settle for something less enjoyable?

Ultimately, it is YOUR railroad, and whatever makes you HAPPY is the correct choice!  ☺

Bob Severin posted:

Ray, I bought mine sometime back from TRAINZAUCTIONS (online).  It took me two separate auctions to collect the eight cars I have.  I think I spent a total of about $300 for all eight cars including shipping and Trainz's 18% "buyers fee".  But, it was worth the price, considering the asking prices over at eBay.  These cars come up quite often on the Trainz site.  I found one guy, somewhere near Cleveland that wanted about 12 or 15 hundred bucks for the complete set.  I almost fell off my chair when he told me the price.  After a few days, he called me back and had lowered the asking price to $500, and I told him what I paid for mine.  I think he got very depressed after that.

I'm curious - you said you bought Lionel cars 19122-19127 (a six car set, but you say you have 8 cars - apparently you bought two duplicates). However, the passenger car you pictured in your opening post is not from that set. Did you list the wrong numbers, or did you display a picture of a different car?

breezinup posted:

Bob Severin posted:

Ray, I bought mine sometime back from TRAINZAUCTIONS (online).  It took me two separate auctions to collect the eight cars I have.  I think I spent a total of about $300 for all eight cars including shipping and Trainz's 18% "buyers fee".  But, it was worth the price, considering the asking prices over at eBay.  These cars come up quite often on the Trainz site.  I found one guy, somewhere near Cleveland that wanted about 12 or 15 hundred bucks for the complete set.  I almost fell off my chair when he told me the price.  After a few days, he called me back and had lowered the asking price to $500, and I told him what I paid for mine.  I think he got very depressed after that.

I'm curious - you said you bought Lionel cars 19122-19127 (a six car set, but you say you have 8 cars - apparently you bought two duplicates). However, the passenger car you pictured in your opening post is not from that set. Did you list the wrong numbers, or did you display a picture of a different car?

OOPS!  The numbers are correct.  The picture was wrong.  I do have two Silver Pony cars, and a total of only 7,  not eight.  I had thought that there were two Silver Sky cars.  The picture below is the correct representation of the cars I have.  I hope that this clears up any confusion.

WALMART TOM posted:

  CB & Q ran them elephant style (nose to tail).

Not always :

Rusty

Bob Severin posted:

breezinup posted:

I'm curious - you said you bought Lionel cars 19122-19127 (a six car set, but you say you have 8 cars - apparently you bought two duplicates). However, the passenger car you pictured in your opening post is not from that set. Did you list the wrong numbers, or did you display a picture of a different car?

OOPS!  The numbers are correct.  The picture was wrong.  I do have two Silver Pony cars, and a total of only 7,  not eight.  I had thought that there were two Silver Sky cars.  The picture below is the correct representation of the cars I have.  I hope that this clears up any confusion.

 

Yup, that clears things up. Looks like you pulled your original photo off Ebay, but that car was from a different (and somewhat more expensive) set. The 6-car set set you have usually goes for 300/350-500, so you did fine. As far as Burlington engines, Lionel also has made a Legacy Burlington F-3 set, No. 38597, which looks like this.

There are a couple of these sets on Ebay now. There is also a B unit available.

As GG1 mentioned above, the California Zephyr was pulled by engines from three different railroads, Burlington, Rio Grande, and Western Pacific. Burlington took the trains from Chicago to Denver, where it was handed off to the Rio Grande. Lots of nice engines available for all those lines. I have the Lionel Zephyr set that the car you showed in your original post is from. I prefer to think of the Calif. Zephyr as it was when running through the Rockies, so use Rio Grande engines. For various reasons, I use the Lionels pictured below. MTH has made something similar. Among other things, I wanted to emulate Howard Fogg's painting of the Zephyr going through the mountains west of Denver. 

The Calif. Zephyr is fun to model because there are lots of choices to use as far as motive power.

The Burlington Legacy set looks like what I want, but alas, my pockets aren't quite deep enough.

Bob Severin posted:

The Burlington Legacy set looks like what I want, but alas, my pockets aren't quite deep enough.

Well, it was just a suggestion. There's currently a new set on Ebay, only $78 more than what you going to pay for those RailKing engines, and the Ebay seller will take an offer, so who knows how much less you can get it for? Probably wouldn't be much difference between the two sets. The RailKings would be nice as well, although somewhat less detailed, but it sounds like you'd like the chrome plated look. Your choice could depend on whether you plan to run Lionel Legacy or MTH DCS on your layout.  You could run both, but that's more money for additional control system equipment.

For me, there are some differences influencing the choice.  First, and foremost, the MTH will be plated, and that is what I want.  Second, I like the way Proto 3 works on my layout, even though I only run in conventional.   I have one Legacy diesel and it runs fine and looks good (a Santa Fe Warbonnet AC6000).   I like shiny in both my trains and my automobiles.

I have the MPC Texas Zephyr from 1980. It has chrome plated F3's and aluminum cars. It does make a really fine looking set.