Old style Subway Cars - any recommendations?

Paul Kallus posted:

Background: I have built a layout that, while does not have a dedicated subway line per se, has a track running partly underneath downtown and uptown cities and then emerges outside of cities for grade-level running. Some of the underneath city parts have viaduct and open-station construction enabling visibility to the inside line. The loop is about 12 feet long with O-54 curves. I would love to be able to dedicate a subway train to this loop - and prefer the old style cars of yesteryear (usually denoted by roof canopy roof vents - for lack of proper description - and are green or darker in color) - and program it to make 2-3 loops, stop at downtown station - make 2-3 more loops, stop at uptown station, and repeat. I noted the Q-type car set in the 2017 Vol. 1 MTH catalog - 3 car set seems nice - no figures included - should be an easy add-on. I have not kept up with past years' releases of subway sets. Are there any other old style subway cars available? I am interested in PS3.0 (so I don't have to contend with batteries) or Lionel Legacy. Has Lionel even made old-style cars? Also, is it challenging to program PS3.0 subway cars to run loops and make announcements automatically? I use DCS but find MTH's instructions and customer support lacking.

Thanks.

 

Hi Paul, your choices are Bmt "Q" cars, BMT standards, IND R1, IRT lo-v. They have all been released a while ago and are PS2. Nassau hobbies was showing as having some last week. You just have to hunt around. Maybe someone has them used. Vic

If you don't have Barry's book, The DCS Companion, you should get it. Lots of good info in there and I believe he covers the subway cars in the book too. IMO, it's a must have if you use DCS.

What is involved in programming a subway set, or trolley? A company should publish their own instructions for their own products - maybe their on-line?

I also saw the Electroliners in the catalog, including the Red Arrow Lines - which would probably have PA station announcements. They are a contender for a subway train - more expensive though.

The MTH Q cars are an odd scale compared to the others.

NYC Transit Subway Home Signal.

KB2AGPJOHN@AOL.COM

=

IMHO, The red Birds and if you can find at a good price the R1. Both scream 1950's NYC subway!

Anyone know if MTH has improved their subway sound files? I once owned 4 Railking and 1 Premier subway sets during my collector phase - and they varied in sound quality - with some horns sounding downright awful. Maybe its best to wait until Lionel re-releases a subway set - I recall one of their sets in green livery - not sure of the era the cars were modeled in, but at least with Lionel you stand a better chance of getting decent sounds, and Legacy is really neat and I understand can be programmed to make stops, station announcements, etc. In the meantime I have a trolley I can use on my subway line.

"...I recall one of their sets in green livery - not sure of the era the cars were modeled in, but at least with Lionel you stand a better chance of getting decent sounds..."

I believe you are talking about the Lionel R27 set, which was the first subway to come out from Lionel and was a dark green color, had great sounds and had opening doors. The real R27 subway came into service around 1960.

          MTH Rail King Lo V Train Climbing Up To The El Enroute To Flushing Meadows

MTH Rail King Lo V & Rail King Train of BMT Q Cars Serving The World's Fair In Flushing Meadows

          Another Look At Rail King BMT Q Cars

The MTH Rail King subway / El trains have run flawlessly on my layout for several years. These trains climb 5% grades. Each track loop is about 64 feet in length, and each is powered by a separate MTH Z750 transformer. I highly recommend these MTH trains.