Locomotive for Madison Passenger Car Set

GG1

K4

x2 on the K4. I switch between my black K4 and my Tuscan red K4, they both look awesome pulling the Madison cars.

@Steve McCulloch posted:

I bought a Pennsylvania Madison Passenger Car Set. I'm curious if there are any thoughts/opinions on what locomotive would pair nicely with these four cars.

I think my set looks great behind my PostWar 2360 GG1.

I also doubled up on two of the Coach cars for a longer train

GG1, P5a modified, K4 Pacific with and without streamline shroud, 6-8-6 steam turbine.

I agree to the above replies and would add a turbine to the list. I love pulling madison cars with my 681.

All great choices. An E6 Atlantic might be an option as well.

@BlueComet400 posted:

All great choices. An E6 Atlantic might be an option as well.

+1 on an E6.  I think it would look better with 4 cars.

Pete

A LionChief Plus 2.0 GG1 or K4s would be perfect.

Jon

I concur. A Lionchief K4 is a nice piece of kit.
this one is at @JR Junction Train & Hobby in Syracuse. It has specific K4 details that I have never seen on a Lionchief loco before.



thanks!

-Mario

OR, you might even consider a venerable 675 or 671 turbine and go for that postwar vibe. CHEERS!

Thanks for all of your suggestions. You gave me a lot to think about and study to help me reach a decision. I've decided on a Lionel Pennsylvania C Liner. Have a good weekend!

@Steve McCulloch posted:

Thanks for all of your suggestions. You gave me a lot to think about and study to help me reach a decision. I've decided on a Lionel Pennsylvania C Liner. Have a good weekend!

Well, it’s your railroad and your choice, but that C-Liner isn’t exactly sensible.

Fairbanks-Morse made freight and passenger versions of its C-Liner. PRR ordered 16 A units, specifically CFA-16-4 models (with the F denoting “freight, 16 denoting 1,600 HP and 4 referring to the number of axles).

Fairbanks-Morse did produce passenger C-Liners for the US market, but those were five-axle higher horsepower units, CPA-24-5 and CPA-20-5. PRR had none of those.

Also, the “Madison” cars, more universally known as heavyweight passenger cars, were severely outdated by the time F-M began marketing C-Liners.

Why ask the forum would locomotives would go best with your Madison cars only to make a choice no one recommends?

Jim, I apologize for frustrating/irritating you and anyone else who feels as Jim does. I really do appreciate the time and thought all of you into responding to my question. I'm not a purist. I'll phrase future questions to reflect that. To answer your question, I also talked with friends here in Minneapolis and Indianapolis. The C-Liner came up during those discussions. In the end, I liked how the C-Liner looked. Thanks for taking the time to let me know your thoughts.

@Jim R. posted:

Why ask the forum would locomotives would go best with your Madison cars only to make a choice no one recommends?

Because he can. Just because someone asks the members of the forum for a suggestion doesn't mean they are obligated to follow the advise given or only consider suggestions posted here. What if he chose a loco recommended here and passed on the C-Liners his local friends recommended. Should they be ****ed about it? I don't think so. Why give someone a hard time because they didn't choose something recommended here?

@Jim R. posted:

Also, the “Madison” cars, more universally known as heavyweight passenger cars, were severely outdated by the time F-M began marketing C-Liners.

Heavyweight cars were used in both rebuilt and unrebuilt form well into the diesel era, laiter, in fact, than the C-Liners were.

@Steve McCulloch posted:

Jim, I apologize for frustrating/irritating you and anyone else who feels as Jim does. I really do appreciate the time and thought all of you into responding to my question. I'm not a purist. I'll phrase future questions to reflect that. To answer your question, I also talked with friends here in Minneapolis and Indianapolis. The C-Liner came up during those discussions. In the end, I liked how the C-Liner looked. Thanks for taking the time to let me know your thoughts.

No frustration on my part. Personally, I love the C-Liners and might make the same choice as you, without asking anyone for their ideas in the first place. That’s how I create imagined excursion trains, or beer trains hauled by a Pennsy A5 steam switcher with a caboose. The title of your post suggested you were asking for practical information, that’s all.

The only thing is, C-Liners made in O guage are full scale models that I am aware of. They will tower over "Madison" heavyweight cars. Hopefully the O.P. is aware of this. Good luck to the O.P.

The LIRR used their 5 axle C-Liners with their Pennsy style heavyweight coaches into the 1960's.

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

The only thing is, C-Liners made in O guage are full scale models that I am aware of. They will tower over "Madison" heavyweight cars. Hopefully the O.P. is aware of this. Good luck to the O.P.

I guess that depends on if those are scale heavyweight cars.  Personally, I'd probably pick the K-4 or Atlantic for the job, though the GG1 wouldn't be a bad choice.

I think this 6-8272 JC Penney PRR Congressional Special EP5 would be my choice.

By the way, Steve, if you like those C-Liners, MTH made a nice Milwaukee Road set that might appeal to you if you also are interested in a Twin Cities connection.

Again, they were freight locomotives from the Milwaukee Road’s perspective, but if you end up with some Milwaukee Road passenger cars in the future, you could use the C-Liners with those cars, from a nonpurists perspective. Erie-Builts were used to haul the railroad’s passenger trains in the late 1940s, so there is a Fairbanks-Morse connection.

@Tinplate Art posted:

The LIRR used their 5 axle C-Liners with their Pennsy style heavyweight coaches into the 1960's.

Good info. I didn’t know that.

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

The only thing is, C-Liners made in O guage are full scale models that I am aware of. They will tower over "Madison" heavyweight cars. Hopefully the O.P. is aware of this. Good luck to the O.P.

I’m not usually concerned with size differences between engines and cars but when I watched a few videos on the New Hope & Ivyland set, the size difference is very noticeable.  So noticeable that I agree it is worth pointing out to the original poster.

The OP has indeed made an odd choice, but it is HIS choice and that is all that matters. :-)

Interesting that this thread has gotten this long  and no one has asked what actual set of PRR Madison cars he has. Are they 15" or perhaps 'Baby' Madisons which are shorter yet?  Some photos from the OP might have been a help too. Doubtful that they are 18" or scale 21"...

I have a book with color photos of the LIRR passenger C Liner hauling a train of heavyweights on their signature name train, the Cannonball, which ran from New York's Penn Station to Montauk with only one stop at Jamaica (change from electric power to diesel).

c.sam: I believe Lionel made a set of their postwar Madison cars with Pennsylvania lettering in the modern era. Hence my instinct to suggest a postwar steamer like a 675 or 671. Of course a postwar GG1 would also do nicely.

I believe that if the original poster wanted us to know, he would have told us.

True.

Thanks for all of the spirited discussion concerning this topic. Once I have the C-Liner here, I'll post a picture of it with my passenger cars attached if you'd like. I do enjoy the feedback and reading the differing opinions. It helps a lot. You were wondering about the length of the cars. They are 15".