PW Lionel Lines Passenger Car

Your 2432 Clifton was part of many different Postwar sets.  Texas Special was only one of them.  There were also sets led by a silver Burlington geep, and a silver Burlington alco.  Other cars in the sets are 2436 obs (Summit and Mooseheart), 2434 coach(Newark) and 2435 coach (Elizabeth).  There could easily be an entire thread just on this subject alone.

Richie

You could find all the other cars to match the Clifton or you find another Clifton and repaint it to match your gray top cars. Keep you grandfathers car original. Get cheap acrylic black from a craft store, fill in the characters and rub away the excess after it dries. Then paint the roof to match the other cars. 

One nice thing about the early 027 cars is they had two pickup rollers. The later sets with red letters have only one pickup roller and lighting will not be as constant.

Pete

Does your Clifton have a wide red band through the windows, or just some narrow red bands above and below the windows? They were made both ways.

The cars are certainly yours to use as you see fit. If the car is in nice shape, from my perspective,  it would be a shame to paint it. Your Grandfather used it as it was.

I have been on a kick lately to keep sets that I have purchased from private parties intact, with whatever extras they've added (other than plain straight and curved track).

If you are looking to buy the Williams passenger cars, go to an online vendor or an auction site and not the Bachmann website store. You may find what you want quicker then on the Bachmann site.

Lee Fritz

Thanks.  I definitely wouldn't repaint it.  I'll probably use this "orphaned" car as an excuse to buy the matches it would've gone with that Richard noted above.

Here's a picture of the car alongside a PW UP/Lionel Lines silver with gray top and a WBB UP/Luxury Lines silver with gray top.

Those are fast becoming my favorite passenger cars.

They look great on smaller layouts like my bedroom around the wall folded dog bone layout.

After years of being a scale affectionato, I recently realize that for my layout, any O-27 car or 15" car is a gem to run with non scale engines.

Yes, I agree.  I don't have much space, either.  My largest cars are the MTH O27 passenger cars which are a bit larger than these Lionel O27s. 

My O27 engines, like the Junior Berk, have zero overhang going around a 42" tubular curve or 48" fastrack curve.  I think that's how they should look.  My brother-in-law is a scale guy, and he doesn't run smaller than 54" curves.

Other options for the red lettered cars are the LCCA set which are lettered Lionel Lines and include a diner and baggage car not included with the originals. Lionels Conventional Classic GP7 set has the red lettered cars but with the solid red window band.

Pete

I think my MTH curves are O-42.

Is that Junior Berk larger or smaller than say a Century Club Berk?

I believe the Junior Berk is smaller than the Century Club Berk (which I believe is about the same size as the 726/736 Berk).

Upon further research, the 2432 Clifton appeared in 10 different cataloged sets, between 1954 and 1958.  Seven sets led by diesels, and three sets led by steam locos(two were identical, just having different set #s).  Steam sets were 2065/2046W, in 1954 and 1955, and 2018/1130T, in1957.  Diesel sets were led by 2245A-B Texas Spl F3s(twice 1954 and 1955), 2328 Burlington GP(1955), 629 Burlington 44Tonner(1956), 204AA Santa Fe Alcos(1957), 216 Burlington Alco(single A unit, 1958), and 209AA New Haven Alcos(1958). 

The Summit Observation Car, was included in sets from 1954 to 1956, 1957 and 1958 sets should have a Mooseheart Obs.  This does not account for Uncataloged sets, or any sets in which cars and/or locos were switched out to satisfy a customer.  Something that was often done by Lionel Dealers throughout the Postwar period.

Richie

The cars with the wide red band, only appeared in one cataloged set, in 1956, with a 2328 Burlington GP. They were numbered 2442, 2444, and 2446.  A separate sale only, 2445 Elizabeth, was also available, and is probably the rarest of all these cars.

Richie

Richie

Thanks!!!  Great information.  If I pull this together as a set, I might lead them with Santa Fe Alcos since I have some FTs and am not looking to add any more roads to this stable that already has too many.  I might just stick with Lionel/Luxury Lines.

You're spot on about PW dealers swapping out items in sets.  My grandpa had the dealer swap out the gray Alco's for the yellow with his set that included the gray Lionel Lines passenger cars.  I don't like how they look together, so I run the gray passenger cars with his old 2056 Lionel Lines Hudson which, I believe, was also a set with them, and I run the UP Alcos with modern traditional freight cars.