O Scale Locomotive Guide: Hudsons

One question I have had, has Lionel ever produced a non-streamlined Hudson with accurate builders plates and such, or have all been made with some variation of the old toolings? I would imagine that it is most likely that they would have the old K-Line toolings, but what do I know, that's why I ask.

Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

One question I have had, has Lionel ever produced a non-streamlined Hudson with accurate builders plates and such, or have all been made with some variation of the old toolings? I would imagine that it is most likely that they would have the old K-Line toolings, but what do I know, that's why I ask.

Lionel did two J3a Hudsons with builders plates and accurate detail, well one anyway, 5433. Many thought they would have been a better choice for the Vision Hudson. They are mentioned in the thread above.

Pete

The 50th Anniversary set?

do the vision line hudsons ever come up for sale ? did mth make one as detailed?

Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

The 50th Anniversary set?

Dave, 5433 was in the set. 5444 was the separate sale engine. It was sold with class lights which J3s never had. Lionel eliminated them on 5433.

Most all MTH Hudsons, while lacking the swinging bell have better detail than the 700Es which the Vision Hudson was based on.

The Vision Hudson though is in a class by itself as far as operating characteristics.

IMO

Pete

Of course the anniversary set is traditional O, where ad the 5444 is standard. I had been looking around for the 5444, but with the changes from TMCC to Legacy, I have been hesitant. I do like the Vision Line model and of course they are even harder to come by. It is in a class by itself considering it is a 21st century rendition of the 1937 original.

Actually Dave, the cars in the anniversary set may appear at first glance to be traditional, they are actually 18" "scale" cars with full interiors and figures. They are lettered like the 1950 set but that is were the resemblance ends.

K-Line did a similar set but lettered their cars for New York Central. Either one would good behind the scale Hudsons assuming you are not a purest and can live with the tuscan color.

Pete

Lionel lists the set as traditional, did they mean just the engine? There has been a bunch of times where they haven't been all to clear if it is scale or not from around the same time. I think the Class A and the EM1 from 2000-2001 there was no specific designation other than O-Gauge, but from the dimensions they appear to be scale.

I can assure you the cars from the set are not traditional. Maybe they used the term because of the fact its based on the 1950 cars. I don't have the full set but I have the SS diner that I run with my K-Line cars. Its the same size as the K-Line cars as well as all the 18" heavyweights that Lionel has produced over the years.

Pete

Oh, I don't doubt the cars. I think the class J N&W they did back in the '70's I think had the big aluminum passenger cars but the engine is traditional O. I guess I will have to take a better look at that set though.

I was looking for a pre streamlined hudson myself since I saw one on Erics trains video on youtube, that guy has an awesome collection, and in fact if I hadn't stumbled across his videos whilst on youtube I would never have known about Lionel and Legacy so if any one knows of one up for sale I would be interested.

The Weaver milwaukee Road F-7

Very beautiful engine there Big Jim.

I keep posting this video. It's of my Hudsons and I like watching the video. I should run them more. Our grandson prefers UP steam so what can I do?

I have to sneak in some track time.

Although not in prototypical color scheme, no one mentioned the scale "turn of the century" gold Hudson put out by MTH and Lionel.   I like both and the nice, although gold, Madison type cars MTH put out for the set.  Yes, the most detailed I have seen is the K Line scale Hudson, have changed mine to ERR TMCC and RS.

A curious memory popped in my head. I am not all to sure as I was quite young at the time and was mostly hung up on my uncle's S2 Turbine, but I thought he had had a Blue Goose back in the early '70's. I don't know when it would have been produced, or if it was a Blue Goose to be sure, would it have been one and would it have been made by Lionel way back when? It is possible it could have been the Blue Comet(which I know is not a Hudson), any idea if there was one? I couldn't find anything online probably because of the other Blue Goose's of more recent times.

Recently I was looking back through the Lionel 2012-2013 catalog and found the 20TH Century Limited Heavyweight Passenger cars. The curious thing is that I guess these are stand alone or meant to be paired with the Vision Line 700E Hudson, thoughts on that?

Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

Recently I was looking back through the Lionel 2012-2013 catalog and found the 20TH Century Limited Heavyweight Passenger cars. The curious thing is that I guess these are stand alone or meant to be paired with the Vision Line 700E Hudson, thoughts on that?

I bought that set actually. It seemed like a perfect match for the Vision 700E, since no other NYC passenger steam locomotives were produced during that time.

Unstreamlined Hudsons pulled 20th Century Heavyweights. In 1938 the 20th Century got streamline cars and a few (10?) Hudsons were streamlined as well by Dreyfuss. Lionel did another set of 20th Century heavyweights around 2007 along with a Station Sound Diner. I don't think they did a second SS diner for the newer set.

I suspect Lionel remade the set (different numbers and names) for the Vision Hudson but it was not offered as a set with the engine.

Lionel, MTH , and K-Line have all made nice green NYC and Pullman heavyweights and they go well together.

Pete

I have the earlier sound station car from Lionel and also the new one, the sounds are awesome, there is dialogue on the new one that isn't mentioned in the instructions, I found them by accident running them together makes for a more realistic run. I also have the sound wagons, but converted them to the PFE reefer. so I now have a great train with the sound wagons and the sound reefer. (Load up that ice boys.)

Okay, now I am slightly baffled. Looking through the catalogs, and searching on Lionel's site, these two are in the catalogs, but vacant from their site. 6-25721 in volume 1 2012, 6-25790 in volume 2 in 2012. No diners'?

The diner was going to have StationSounds, but it was dropped from the line. Probably because Lionel was planning on redoing the entire components of these, and the cars in general. This led to the 21" plastic passenger cars, and the matching, improved sounding StationSounds diners.

Great opus.

Thanks,

Alan

Mikado 4501 posted:

The diner was going to have StationSounds, but it was dropped from the line. Probably because Lionel was planning on redoing the entire components of these, and the cars in general. This led to the 21" plastic passenger cars, and the matching, improved sounding StationSounds diners.

Thing is neither diner is on Lionel's website for some reason(at least the searches I did for their numbers and diner as search). They switch them or something?

Hope this helps but I have the 21inch sound car you can see it on my you tube channel

This is what I am talking about Lionel Man UK . If you pop onto Lionel.com, in the 2012 V1(top) & V2(bottom), they offered this heavyweight set. It seems that they ran the catalog with it, but in the end it didn't turn out(sort of like what someone said about the Legacy Dreyfuss Hudson). These look awesome, and would be a welcome upgrade to any previous 20TH Century Limited cars.

Well, at York yesterday I was talking to Ryan Kunkle of Lionel about engines as usual, specifically steam as I like steam far better than diesel. Anyway, I had been talking specifically about Canadian steam, and had told him that I would really like to see some of the Royal Hudsons, which I did ask if Lionel had ever produced. He thought maybe less than a second and said that they haven't, of course MTH and Weaver have, and he may have thrown in someone else in there. He sort of did that usual thinking about it look and may have said a slight "maybe" there, though I can't confirm that, and I am sure if you asked him if he was considering making them in the future, it would sort of be the same sort of possibly maybe maybe not thing. I did sort of stress that it would be a great thing to see some of the great NYC Hudson steam engines come back into the line as well, but that again is one of those hard things to seem to get Lionel to produce.

I think it would be about time that they did manage to get back to making a scale Hudson that is completely accurate(or **** near), and that this would if they did consider making would be something that would most likely be at least 2-3 years in the making. I know that sounds like a really stupid thing to say, but given that on Wednesday someone asked Ryan at the Toy Train Museum something about future engines, he of course gave the can't discuss, but did include that they have things already slated for the next 3-5 years or so. I think this question had partially revolved around the S Gauge Berks that were cancelled(If I am remembering that correctly).

I know that this is probably asking for too much, but I would like to think that with the revolving engines(or at least it seems to be like that at times), having any Hudson be produced(as long as it is scale), would be a welcome miracle. There are other engines which I would definitely like to see come about, but by far I really would like any Hudson come to be. I think that if Lionel could indeed produce any of the Royal Hudson's, I think that it would probably be a great seller since they seem to be pushing at lot of other Canadian engines and rolling stock.