Over the weekend I made a big sale and was offered a position at a new job. With the money I made from my sale (and expected money later on from the job) I ended up purchasing myself something I've been wanting for quite some time now... An MTH 400e and 4 Lionel Classics State cars (in green). Everything should come in this week, unfortunately once it does I won't be able to run it due to lack of Standard Gauge track. I'll post pictures whenever it's all in though!
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As someone who became a member of the Standard Gaugers this past Friday with the purchase of a 1924 Ives set, allow me to welcome you aboard! I'm in the same boat as you in that I have to get track! But welcome aboard! It's only been a couple days that I've had mine, but alreaday feel the need to get some more locos and cars to keep the Ives company!
I just read through your thread, congrats as well! Luckily I can run mine at the club layout, I have some rusty old track as well but I haven't tried to make a circle with it, even if I could my estimated length for the train is roughly 11' long so I'm not sure that circle will be adequate to run it. I'll just have to wait & see. 
I got hooked/line and sinkers about a year ago on standard gauge, before that and now are O-gauge prewar.
Do not have a loop but picked up some used Ive's track at a show. They were selling at 2 pieces for $1.00, now I have enough for a loop.
The best thing about standard gauge is that when you get older they are large enough to see and work on
The 400E loco and state cars are very impressive, lots of luck and have fun. unfortunately they are out of my price range, maybe some day.
But I do have two #8's, about QTY: 11 -112 gondolas, 3 cabooses and various rolling stock/passenger cars, rubbers tamps and Ink for some of the cars that really need repainting and such. Finished doing a rebuild on the #8 and working on two 35's and one 36 all painted in a Lionel paint scheme.
Welcome to the dark side. I have a mix of original Lionel, MTH, McCoy and CMT standard gauge. I like the size and weight of standard gauge. Makes the train platform rumble as they go by.
RonH posted:The 400E loco and state cars are very impressive, lots of luck and have fun. unfortunately they are out of my price range, maybe some day.
I was lucky enough to get the Engine from a friend for $300 and the cars I paid $700 for. $1000 is a lot of money for a train set, but I gotta have at least 1 expensive train in my collection, and the 400e with state cars was my dream set. The earlier I buy it the longer I can enjoy it 
sounds like it's time to buy some track Brian!
Brian Liesberg posted:RonH posted:The 400E loco and state cars are very impressive, lots of luck and have fun. unfortunately they are out of my price range, maybe some day.I was lucky enough to get the Engine from a friend for $300 and the cars I paid $700 for. $1000 is a lot of money for a train set, but I gotta have at least 1 expensive train in my collection, and the 400e with state cars was my dream set. The earlier I buy it the longer I can enjoy it
The State Set is quite simply a pinnacle of Standard Gauge. You did right by getting that one! My dad has a Blue Comet, and quite simply, that or a State Set are sets you just can't go wrong with, original or reissued.
Congrats!
Contact Kirk at USA Track. http://www.standardgaugetrack.com/ He will set you up with the finest track. You can add Ross switches later as space and budget allow. Kirk is forum member SGMA1.
BTW, it seems like the website might be undergoing maintenance. It used to list all of the options and prices.
George
Brian Liesberg posted:The earlier I buy it the longer I can enjoy it
I like that quote. Congrats!
Awesome!
Being a salesman for over twenty five years, I am hoping you aren't counting on future earnings to finance your purchase. Making the sale is the easy part, getting paid is a bit dicier. But, it's only a thousand bucks, and food is overrated. If the set is eleven feet long, you are going to need some track. And a transformer and a bit of wire. Have fun.
Welcome to the club!
William 1 posted:Being a salesman for over twenty five years, I am hoping you aren't counting on future earnings to finance your purchase. Making the sale is the easy part, getting paid is a bit dicier. But, it's only a thousand bucks, and food is overrated. If the set is eleven feet long, you are going to need some track. And a transformer and a bit of wire. Have fun.
No, I already made the money to purchase them, the other bit was about my new job.
Congratulations for taking the plunge! Now plunge a bit deeper by joining SGMA! Hope to see you and your new SGMA modules next year at Trainfest 2017!
Bob Nelson
Great set to start with Brian! My wife bought me this set a few years ago for a milestone birthday. I too wanted this set, so it is especially cherished since it came from her. She is the best. Welcome and please share some pics.
Joe Gozzo
Postman hasn't dropped it off yet, waiting very impatiently for it 
Brian Liesberg posted:Over the weekend I made a big sale and was offered a position at a new job. With the money I made from my sale (and expected money later on from the job) I ended up purchasing myself something I've been wanting for quite some time now... An MTH 400e and 4 Lionel Classics State cars (in green). Everything should come in this week, unfortunately once it does I won't be able to run it due to lack of Standard Gauge track. I'll post pictures whenever it's all in though!
MuuuuuuuuuAhahahahahhahahahha. There's no turning back now.
Congratulations... I'm certain you'll enjoy your new 400E & its beautiful passenger cars regardless weather you run them on the high iron of some future layout, or put them in a place of honor over your fireplace. Personally, I'm a train runner myself. ( its the only way I can keep my kids interested ). So if you do decide to run them, I have a couple of suggestions to make. First... New track is usually the best way to go. It not only looks better, but has fewer potential issues with electrical conductivity. Second... If you do decide to try using second hand tubular track, don't just clean the rails, pull the pins out and clean them too. In addition, I also clean out the area inside the rails where the pins fit with a needle-point file. Trust me, you'll have fewer electrical problems if you do. Oh... and under no circumstance should you use steel wool to do your rail cleaning. Use Scotch-Brite or a similar material instead. Finally... I'm assuming you were into trains in some way or another before this, just not the big Standard Gauge ones. So you probably already own a couple of transformers. To run a 400E plus a string of passenger cars, I recommend using the biggest power supply you have. ( At least 150 Watts or bigger 
This is especially true if your 400E is packing a Bild-A-Loco style motor under its hood, because those babies devour electricity. ( this is less of an issue if your 400E was made with a can motor ) Either way, you have a set to be proud of... So Enjoy it !
Best regards, Jim.
It may be my first Standard Gauge train but I've had O gauge Tinplate for a while now, I'm well aware of track maintenance. Thanks anyways though. The only transformer I've got is a KW in pretty good shape, since the engine is a MTH repro and not an original I assume it's motor is going to use up a lot less current than a worn out old one, I'm sure it'll be fine.
I should have the engine (and hopefully the cars) in to-morrow, I'll post pics then.
The state cars came in to-day and they look amazing! Huge too! I've never seen repro state cars in person before, usually old rusty ones and even those were few & far between. This set just takes my breath away, all the doors open & close, the seats swivel, even the toilet seat is movable! (I did notice the way the door swings in the bathroom that it would be difficult to get to the toilet though 
). The New York observation car just dwarfs my 612. I can't wait for the engine to-morrow to be able to see (and maybe run) the whole train!
Congratulations Brian! That is an awesome set to start out with in Standard Gauge. Hope you do enjoy it for a very long time. Now, what is the next set you are eyeing up?
Well the locomotive came in to-day, looks fantastic! Unfortunately the track I have is complete garbage and I have to baby the controls to get it to run. I'll post a video of it a bit later if I can get the track working better.
Here's a few pictures of the loco. It dwarfs my 262 and has a pretty hefty weight. 
For some reason the seller decided to ship the locomotive in this excessively large box with no packing material whatsoever, unacceptable in my opinion but lucky the locomotive was intact when I opened the box.
gotta wonder what some people are thinking when packing items. that is a beautiful locomotive!
ENJOY that beautiful set! I run my MTH state cars behind a dark gray Lionel Classics 2-400E with a diecast whistle chamber in the tender. The MTH "Maryland" solarium car has detailed crew quarters with bunk beds plus kitchen detailing and a café counter.
Very Nice Set. Your are now Hooked.
Can you post what kind of pulling power that engine has. Plus if it is conventional or contemporary.
The cars are Lionel Classics and the engine is Tinplate Traditions.
Enjoy your set.
I have 2 MTH PS2 400e engines. They are very heavy and have great pulling power. The tender is heavy too. I pulled seven or eight 200 series freights behind mine, but could have pulled more. Biggest issue has been keeping lighter cars, like gondolas, at the back of the train. Otherwise, they tend to derail from the tork of a long train. They also handled a slight grade well, but I didn't have enough room to change elevation a lot.
George
Brian Liesberg posted:Here's a few pictures of the loco. It dwarfs my 262 and has a pretty hefty weight.
For some reason the seller decided to ship the locomotive in this excessively large box with no packing material whatsoever, unacceptable in my opinion but lucky the locomotive was intact when I opened the box.
You have got to be kidding me I can't believe they didn't put any packing material inside that large box talk about overkill size. Plus they must have paid a fortune to ship it because that is one heavy locomotive I have the same one with PS3 and I love it
Joe Gozzo
F&G RY posted:Can you post what kind of pulling power that engine has. Plus if it is conventional or contemporary.
Well it can pull 4 state cars, I have 2 restored 513 cattle cars that I picked up yesterday as well but I didn't want to mix freight with passenger cars Once I run it on some track that isn't horrible I can test it better.
Trainlover160 posted:You have got to be kidding me I can't believe they didn't put any packing material inside that large box talk about overkill size. Plus they must have paid a fortune to ship it because that is one heavy locomotive I have the same one with PS3 and I love it
Yeah I don't know what was going through their head when they packed it, I'm just glad the locomotive works and isn't broken.
I received two light fixtures last year packed this way. They had four glass shades each. The fixture used styrofoam packaging, but it wasn't enough to save it from the UPS guy. Two shades each broke. Replacements were sent, packed the same way! Luckily, There were eight unbroken shades across the four fixtures and I sent all the broken shades back with the two returns. This is amazing, but not untypical. These packers are supposed to be in the business, but I think there is a big influx of poor holiday help this time of year.
George
Thank you for answering Brian. I have a traditional 400E of this vintage and the pulling power is weak. Will have to send out for repair.
That's quite the way to enter into the Standard Gauge realm, Brian: good for you! I've been a pre-war and modern era tinplate fan for quite a few years, and about the closest I've come to the bigger ones was my collection of Maerklin MAXI trains I picked up while living overseas. That just changed recently with the purchase of two of the Lionel Classics line's sets. The green state cars and a 400E are on my wish list... for next year.
I say give that man some applause. His new set is definitely first class. And with all due respect to the "Original's Only" purists of our hobby, isn't the real point of our hobby, being able to enjoy both the history AND beauty of our trains. Let's face it, a well done reproduction may not have the dollar value of an original... But isn't the spirit of collecting, the thrill of finding that next piece, and the friends we make along the way, what it's really all about ? I'd be proud to have that beauty on my train wall !
I've been holding out on buying SG for a few years now, just to get that set. I figured I'd spend less money in the long run buying what I wanted than buying cheaper sets to get into it. I love how the 400e looks like my 262 but upscaled.
I did notice a small problem with the loco though, that I ended up fixing. I'm not sure if the original is the same, but the area around the lightbulb was all painted black, making the headlight very dim and the marker lights almost un-noticeable all the way up to about 60% power! I ended up taking the smokebox cover off and going over everything around the headlamp & marker lights with a chrome silver paint. The results really show, the headlamp & marker lights are much brighter now. I guess my only other complaint would be the MTH logo on the cab & tender, but that's easily fixed as well.
Apart from those 2 things it's been running outstanding! it smokes good, it sounds good, it looks amazing. The weight of it really gets me too, it feels somewhere in the vicinity of 20 lbs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...amp;feature=youtu.be
George S posted:Congrats!
Contact Kirk at USA Track. http://www.standardgaugetrack.com/ He will set you up with the finest track. You can add Ross switches later as space and budget allow. Kirk is forum member SGMA1.
BTW, it seems like the website might be undergoing maintenance. It used to list all of the options and prices.
George
Brian L and Eddie M- YES, YES gents- get your Std. Gauge track from Kirk Lindvig at USATrack. Highly recommended!
oh my,,they just keep following you home,,,,boom !
Carey TeaRose posted:Brian L and Eddie M- YES, YES gents- get your Std. Gauge track from Kirk Lindvig at USATrack. Highly recommended!
I'm most likely going to get MTH Realtrax. I just set up on the floor so a nice wide stable base will work much better for me. I've been very happy with the results since I switched to Fastrack for O gauge.
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