Question about Lionel's Private Car Excursion Sets

The cars featured in the excursions sets are very well traveled.  I’m sure the moonlight dome and the full dome stations sounds car(forgive me I forgot the name of it). Have traveled behind the 261 for sure.   Not sure about the others.   I’m fortunate enough to be from Huntington, WV.   The home of the new river train and I have seen, ridden, or taken a walk through all of the cars mentioned here minus the Norfolk southern cars.   I like running modern excursion consist and I’m pretty excited about these.    The moonlight dome is fantastic.   

They’re excursion trains. The point is that it could happen. So don’t overthink this. Mix and match to your heart’s content.

Jim R. posted:

They’re excursion trains. The point is that it could happen. So don’t overthink this. Mix and match to your heart’s content.

 

Right! And it could likely happen after you decided not to get them!  I really like that they are offering the private cars and excursion trains.  I would prefer 1 car at a time picks though instead of 2 packs.  

I think whoever at Lionel came up with this excursion train set is brilliant. Finally some out of the box thinking. I think Lionel has the catalog picture wrong for the NP excursion dome. Think the lower third or so of the side of the car should be stainless. Note sure if that’s prototypical original scheme in the 50’s-60’s, but it doesn’t look right in the excursion scheme.

On a NKP 765 excursion to Janesville, Wisc I rode in the full dome Great Northern Scenic View, and we took turns swapping seats with the folks in that NP dome. 

Sam Jumper posted:

I think whoever at Lionel came up with this excursion train set is brilliant. Finally some out of the box thinking. I think Lionel has the catalog picture wrong for the NP excursion dome. Think the lower third or so of the side of the car should be stainless. Note sure if that’s prototypical original scheme in the 50’s-60’s, but it doesn’t look right in the excursion scheme.

On a NKP 765 excursion to Janesville, Wisc I rode in the full dome Great Northern Scenic View, and we took turns swapping seats with the folks in that NP dome. 

I agree.   I would like to see more of these sets.  

The NP dome is a model of Homestake Pass which  611 used in 2017. In previous years it pulled Stampede Pass which was stainless. Stampede Pass was a pool car owned by CB&Q used on NP trains so it wore a different paint scheme to be a little closer to the Burlington's all stainless fleet.

Additionally the Iowa Pacific dome they are doing is Summit View which was also used in 2017, while Scenic View was used in 2016. I personally would prefer Scenic View since I rode it on "The American" in 2016, but Lionel chose to just do the 2017 cars. 

Will Ebbert posted:

The NP dome is a model of Homestake Pass which  611 used in 2017. In previous years it pulled Stampede Pass which was stainless. Stampede Pass was a pool car owned by CB&Q used on NP trains so it wore a different paint scheme to be a little closer to the Burlington's all stainless fleet.

"Stampede Pass" was built as unnamed car 558 back in it's revenue days.  The name was given to it by it's current owners.

While being built for the Burlington as a pool car for the North Coast Limited, it wore the full NP two tone green to match the NCL. 

Rusty

Rusty Traque posted:

Will Ebbert posted:

The NP dome is a model of Homestake Pass which  611 used in 2017. In previous years it pulled Stampede Pass which was stainless. Stampede Pass was a pool car owned by CB&Q used on NP trains so it wore a different paint scheme to be a little closer to the Burlington's all stainless fleet.

"Stampede Pass" was built as unnamed car 558 back in it's revenue days.  The name was given to it by it's current owners.

While being built for the Burlington as a pool car for the North Coast Limited, it wore the full NP two tone green to match the NCL. 

Rusty

Oh thanks for the correction. I wonder when/ why the paint was changed. 

Buying Lionel excursion trains is the only way you can see them run anymore

I'm looking forward to having the FEC and B&O cars. My wife and I rode in both of those cars on excursions with the 611.

Will Ebbert posted:

Additionally the Iowa Pacific dome they are doing is Summit View which was also used in 2017, while Scenic View was used in 2016. I personally would prefer Scenic View since I rode it on "The American" in 2016, but Lionel chose to just do the 2017 cars. 

Did Ed Ellis have the full dome Scenic View painted in two schemes? First in Illinois Central chocolate/orange, and later Great Northern orange/green? I rode in the dome with Mr. Ellis in IC paint in 2015, and then behind 765 in GN paint in 2016. I suspect the two are different cars, but I remember the name Scenic View inside the dome.

Sam Jumper posted:

Will Ebbert posted:

Additionally the Iowa Pacific dome they are doing is Summit View which was also used in 2017, while Scenic View was used in 2016. I personally would prefer Scenic View since I rode it on "The American" in 2016, but Lionel chose to just do the 2017 cars. 

Did Ed Ellis have the full dome Scenic View painted in two schemes? First in Illinois Central chocolate/orange, and later Great Northern orange/green? I rode in the dome with Mr. Ellis in IC paint in 2015, and then behind 765 in GN paint in 2016. I suspect the two are different cars, but I remember the name Scenic View inside the dome.

The Great Northern painted dome is "Prairie View". If you watch the video below you'll see Scenic View, Prairie View, Stampede Pass, and a bunch of other cars Lionel could do "close enough" models of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKe9ckYLWWA&t=8s

In the video, what’s with all of the steam coming out of both sides near the front of 611? Is that for show? Also, the exhaust smoke looks really dark, even all black just after the wheels slip. Is that for show also?

Sam Jumper posted:

In the video, what’s with all of the steam coming out of both sides near the front of 611? Is that for show? 

No, that's not for show. The cylinder cocks are open to blow condensate out of the cylinders.

Gilly@N&W posted:

Sam Jumper posted:

In the video, what’s with all of the steam coming out of both sides near the front of 611? Is that for show? 

No, that's not for show. The cylinder cocks are open to blow condensate out of the cylinders.

Right! Pretty much ALL steam locomotives, all over the world, exhibit that generally when first beginning to move.

Lionel has modeled this feature on a couple of their steam engines. The Milwaukee Road S3 Northerns had them and I think the Pennsylvania J1s did. 

Will Ebbert posted:

Lionel has modeled this feature on a couple of their steam engines. The Milwaukee Road S3 Northerns had them and I think the Pennsylvania J1s did. 

Except they don't alternate from side-to-side as they should.

Hot Water posted:

Will Ebbert posted:

Lionel has modeled this feature on a couple of their steam engines. The Milwaukee Road S3 Northerns had them and I think the Pennsylvania J1s did. 

Except they don't alternate from side-to-side as they should.

Or from front to back on the individual cylinders as they should either.