Which coaches go with the Lionel Polar Express locomotive and tender #28649?
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I have the Lionel 6-11451, the 10th Scale Anniversary Edition. You could purchase the 1225 straight up and add the 6-11151 Polar Express Tender. I am not sure when the one you bought, 6-28649, was produced so the list below might not be accurate for you needs. I believe that you have a non-scale version which means the cars listed below are probably not what you need.
I am guessing Lionel 6-84604, 2228300, 6-84600, 6-84605, 2354130, 6-25630, 6-83249, 6-83943, 6-81945, 6-44130 are what you need.
The passenger cars that I bought that I think you are looking for are:
6-25576
6-25578
6-25586
6-25587
6-25598
@Tom L posted:Which coaches go with the Lionel Polar Express locomotive and tender #28649?
Tom,
Generally, Lionel makes two sizes of locomotives and cars, 'Traditional' and 'Scale', although sometimes a traditional locomotive can also be scale-sized (odd?). Traditional stuff is usually smaller in length, and sometimes also different in width and/or height, than Scale-sized. This is primarily so that it will run without derailing on the smaller curves found in Lionel's traditional sets, but also because they're designed to be toys and not perfectly-proportioned scale models.
Your locomotive is Traditional-sized. You probably don't want to pull Scale-sized cars because they will look too big, although you may not have a problem with that, and they also may not work on your curves, which you clearly would have a problem with.
Thank you to Kevin for posting a nice list of possibilities, but his short list has some Scale-sized stuff in it, as well as at least one 'S' Gauge item, which shouldn't be there because it will clearly not run on 'O' Gauge track.
My suggestion is to go through every Product Number he's posted, because they all indeed appear to be Polar Express passenger cars, and sort this out. Put the numbers into Google one at a time and look for listings that tell you whether that Product Number describes an 'O' Gauge Traditional, 'O' Gauge Scale, or 'S' Gauge car.
On second thought, using the search on Lionel.com instead of Google might actually be better for this kind of search, but be aware that on rare occasions Lionel doesn't tell you what size a car or locomotive is even though they should. Here's what to look for on a typical Lionel posting:
By the way, going with the Traditional versions of the cars can save you big money. Scale-sized cars usually come with Scale-sized prices, while Traditional-sized ones are generally more reasonable. If you use the Google search method any hits with prices around $200.00 per car will most likely be Scale-sized. Traditional-sized cars should all be less than about $90.00 each, sometimes much less.
Mike
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I have the original stock semi-scale Polar Express set purchased in 2006. I replaced the conventional engine and tender with the Lion Chief version 3 years ago, but still use the original 3 PE passenger cars in the set, along with 3 add-ons. I like to use the cars depicted in the movie. So mine include the add-on hot chocolate car, the add-on hobo on the roof car, and the add-on conductor announcement car. I don't have their numbers readily available. This makes a total of 6 cars and IMO, is all that's necessary. In the movie, there was no baggage car or diner, which Lionel also made as add-ons.
6 of the semi-scale cars is about all the stock semi-scale Berkshire can pull efficiently anyway. Adding any more would slow it down. Just my 2 cents worth from operating experience. 
@Yellowstone Special posted:6 of the semi-scale cars is about all the stock semi-scale Berkshire can pull efficiently anyway. Adding any more would slow it down. Just my 2 cents worth from operating experience.
I have to disagree strongly with your use of the term "semi-scale" There are only two predominate terms used generally by Lionel to describe their 'O' Gauge products, 'Traditional' and 'Scale', although 'Scale' is sometimes called 'Standard O' in their literature.
Semi-scale is used by Lionel, or respect to Lionel product, for only a very, very ,very small number of cars, clearly labeled as such, produced by Lionel in the past. It is not the same as Traditional and the neither the lower-tier Polar Express locomotive and tender, nor the lower-tier cars have ever been called semi-scale by Lionel. They are clearly indicated to be 'Traditional' in Lionel's documentation, as on its website for example.
Since it's Lionel's term then it's the only term we should use in order to avoid any chance of confusion.
Mike
@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:I have to disagree strongly with your use of the term "semi-scale" There are only two predominate terms used generally by Lionel to describe their 'O' Gauge products, 'Traditional' and 'Scale', although 'Scale' is sometimes called 'Standard O' in their literature.
Semi-scale is used by Lionel, or respect to Lionel product, for only a very, very ,very small number of cars, clearly labeled as such, produced by Lionel in the past. It is not the same as Traditional and the neither the lower-tier Polar Express locomotive and tender, nor the lower-tier cars have ever been called semi-scale by Lionel. They are clearly indicated to be 'Traditional' in Lionel's documentation, as on its website for example.
Since it's Lionel's term then it's the only term we should use in order to avoid any chance of confusion.
Mike
You’re right. I should have used traditional instead of semi-scale.
We all knew what you meant. 
@PRRick posted:We all knew what you meant.
Agreed, but remember that we aren't the only ones who read these postings.
It's quite true that we're not going to get confused. But, newbies will.
M.
Thanks to all. I have the information I need. Tom
