NS Excursion and Business Cars - Lionel v. MTH | O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum

Carl PeduzziOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

Hey all,

(I hope I put this in the correct forum category)

So I am looking at building, with some accuracy, a roster of passenger cars that NS owns and/or would have used on the 21st Century Steam Program and their OCS trains. I have not seen the prototype cars in real life, and I have not seen the Lionel cars. I have seen the MTH and they look good. I have been doing research, and, while I know that there have been changes to the roster, I am looking more at the for the overall accuracy between the cars offered by Lionel and MTH. Here are my questions…

Both MTH and Lionel have offerings differ in length. MTH cars are 70’ (or about 17”) while the Lionel are a full 21”. Which is closer to the real length?
As far as car type , which one (Lionel or MTH) matches the real cars better?

I already have an MTH tool car for my 611 J Class, so I am not worried about that. Looking at the regular cars. And yes, I do understand there is a cost difference, but we will keep that our of this post as I am just asking about accuracy. Oh, and BTW, these would be scale cars, not O-gauge.

I hope that all makes sense.

Thank you all in advance,

Carl

2/6/211:04 PM

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Will EbbertOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBER

All of the prototype cars are 85' so the Lionel ones are scale length. Both manufacturers use generic cars so the window arrangements won't be accurate. At this point, availability might be your biggest challenge.

I have several Lionel 21" cars and like them a lot.

2/6/211:39 PM

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Cogen1981OGR Forum Member

I own both MTH 70’ semi scale and Lionel 21” passenger cars. I highly recommend the Lionel version, the full scale length and flush fitting windows are really outstanding. I own SKU# 2027180 with the full length dome car.

The passenger cars are generic, and the interiors need some detailing, but overall this is a great set