REVIEW: Lionel Gauge 2 NYC Set

This set is also pretty much "child proof" for those whose parents deem them old enough to play with this safe battery powered train. No AC cords or adapters to worry about and the battery compartments of both the engine and remote are securely fastened with Phillip's screws.

One of our well known forum members successfully widened the wheel gauge of several of these sets so they would run on standard gauge tinplate track instead of the supplied Gauge 2 plastic track.

I currently operate three gauges: Outer loop of 072 standard gauge, middle loop of G gauge, and inner loop of number 2 gauge. Dropped O gauge several years ago, save for one Bachmann Peter Witt Brooklyn trolley and a wind-up tin toy Melbourne, Australia W2 Class trolley whose wheels fit (but do not run on) O gauge track:

Tinplate Art: Always like your reviews.

The wind-up tin toy Austrialian trolley is cool.  Are they still available?  I now regret I no longer have my Marx wind-up toy trains from my pre-Lionel 027 electric trains which I received for Christmas 1951.

Thanks for the review!

Joe

Joe: just Google the tin wind-up Melbourne streetcar. I received mine from my daughter some years ago and she got her toy store employee discount.  A new one will run a few bucks, but will not be unreasonable. You might also try the bay for a good used one. Good luck! :-)

Interestingly, the Australian tourist folks consider it a souvenir!

San Francisco has at least three of these Aussie streetcars which are owned by their Market Street Railway. Back in the Spring of 2000, Kay and I had the pleasure of riding in one to the  Fisherman's Wharf from the Embarcadero.

Steve Eastman and I both have widened the wheels on these sets to run them on Standard Gauge track which works really well. Great sets!

Tinplate Art, thanks for the info.  A real clean machine indeed!

Joe

I admit I was a wimp by not attempting a standard gauge conversion with my set, but the supplied plastic track works well for me, and there is a muted "clickity clack" that is nice! Also the relative proportions of the engine and cars to the gauge 2 track seems right visually! At any rate, boys & girls, can you spell F-U-N?

Joe: Here is a photo of a Melbourne streetcar (496) in San Francisco:

Tinplate Art: Thanks for the photo of the Melbourne No. 496.  My birthplace is Dallas, TX.  There the McKinney Ave. Transit Authority operates an Aussie trolley too, No. 369.  Hard to believe Ripley that Big D has steetcars once again.  There appears to be quite a few Aussies who call the US home now.

Joe

I rode two different cars on the McKinney Ave. Line on a visit in 2003. There was no Aussie car at that time. Still have two souvenir lapel pins!

Tinplate Art: Question, is there anyplace you haven't been?  Reminds me of an old country western song, "I've been everywhere!"

Let's see now, perhaps the TECO line in Tampa, Florida?

Joe

A song by the late Hank Snow: "I've been everywhere man..." When I worked summers as a tour guide here in Nashville, I would take folks by the entrance to his home in Madison TN, the "Rainbow Ranch", and I also taught his grandson, Darren,  in middle school.

Joe: One of the McKinney Ave. Line cars I rode in 2003 was a single truck Birney.

Here is a photo of the 369 in Dallas:

Another treat on my week long stay in Dallas in 2003 was having a daily breakfast at the famed Adolphus Hotel, starting with a bowl of fresh fruit! Kay and I were actually lodged in a nice suite in the nearby Dallas Magnolia Hotel with the iconic statue of the Mobil Oil Pegasus on its roof.

If my weed grown memory serves me well, the Magnolia Building with the Flying Red Horse on it's roof, was at one time billed as the tallest building in Big D.  It is now engulfed by the modern "skyscrapers" that appear to be in competition with the famed Biblical Tower of Babel!

Item: K-Line (among other manufacturers) released a super detailed St. Louis Refrigerator Co. wood reefer assigned to the Dallas Hotel Co. which featured billboard "Adolphus" lettering on each side as well as the wording: "Special Refrigerator Service Between St. Louis and Dallas, Texas".  I assume it transported beer from the Anheiser-Busch brewery, however, perhaps a history buff can assist in confirming my guess?

I once actually had that K-Line reefer and the beer was actually transported there by the A.B. Brewery.

Gads, we really got off your initial theme.  However it IS your theme, right?

Back on track: Is it possible to put up a video of your Gauge 2 Lionel NYC set?  Your mentioning it is Child Proof sounds like it is made for "Senior Citizens" who are have fun while enjoying their new found Second Childhood?

Give me a day or so and I will post a video. Kay and I also rode the Trinity Railroad to Fort Worth and that T&P station there was a sight to behold! My son is an aeronautical engineer and once did some work for the rotary wing aircraft company (Chance?) located halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth.

I ran the NYC battery set earlier today and the engine sounds are pretty decent for its price point. It is easy to operate with the wireless remote. Hardest part was undoing the Phillips screws for the battery compartments! Definitely childproof and almost seniorproof! LOL!

Joe: We have gotten off track, but I wanted to share my 2003 visit to the Big D! One day I rode DART light rail to a nice hobby shop in the burbs, and they sent a car to the station stop to pick me up! They had a ton of prewar tinplate accessories and some original standard gauge. I was strictly into O and G at that time so I did acquire that K Line Adolphus reefer and some Heinz cars.

That lower floor restaurant at the Adophus had great breakfasts and dinners with super great service! We did not go to the famous French restaurant on an upper floor with excellent and expensive meals, but now wish we had!

All in all, a great and satisfying visit to the Big D with much rail action: McKinney Ave. trolleys, Trinity RR, DART, and that hobby shop!

I dunno, I was born in Dallas and partly raised on my grandparent's small two acre spread in Farmers Branch on old U.S. 77 (oh, excuse me, they now call their burg "The Branch"...?) until Ike's I-35E took it, so altogether, the place just don't look like "home" anymore.

No Frisco/Katy/Cotton Belt crossing each other in Carrollton, no former Dallas Railway & Terminal Co./Texas Electric bridge across the Trinity River, no Santa Fe East Dallas Yard, no Southern Pacific Miller Yard in S. Dallas, no Texas  & Pacific #638 2-10-4 on display at Fair Park, , Union Terminal Co. 0-6-0 working the grand lady passenger trains at DUT, and no Hall's Hobby House* on Bryan Street anymore.  There's much more, however, space limitations prevent me from adding them.

When you get right down to it: It's time to rename Big D...Bummersville.

Item: I can get excited observing trains on the Ft. Worth & Western, so perhaps not all is lost afterall...?

* Don't know anything about "that hobby shop" but believe me, w/o even knowing a darn thing about it, it'll NEVER be able to hold it's own against Hall's, NO WAY, any day!

Derailed in Deutschland

Joe

Joe: Understood the "good old days" were obviously better on many levels, but we enjoyed our trip nontheless! :-)

Growing up in New York City (1942-1961) with the LIRR, PRR, Lackawanna, New Haven, NYC, B&O and the Jersey Central, and the original Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal, plus the magnificant NYC subway and el system, I was TOTALLY immersed in trains! Those WERE the days! It is satisfying to wax nostalgic! :-)

Not to mention the Lionel Showroom, Gilbert Hall of Science, Polks, Madison Hardware, and many other hobby shops, it was truly train nirvana!

Last visit "Back Home" was 2009.  The grub at the Ft. Worth Stock Yards was oh so good as was the visit to the restored Texas & Pacific HQ/depot bldg.

The Original Dr. Pepper (made with pure sugar cane) and observing the Ft. Worth & Western switching Dublin was cool, but I sure missed Miss Hall at her Hobby House (RIP dear lady) and railfanning Miss Katy too!

New York, New York?  You bet!  My wife had relatives in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ.  When I was discharged from the US Army Transportation Corps in August 67 we stayed with her aunt and uncle.  He was retired off Erie-Lackawanna (a former DL&W railroader) and I still wonder (not the famous brand of bread with the red, yellow, and blue baloons you understand...LOL) if we should have stayed in NJ as he could have got me hired on with E-L.  Instead, yours truly, the No. One Dumb A**, decided to return to Texas where I hired on with Cotton Belt (67-68) then moved over to ATSF (68-76) before the move across The Big Pond brought me back to Germany.

No matter, we returned to The Fatherland, where I retired off Deutsche Bahn in 2010, with 31 years of service.  Mainline steam was gone, but the McDonald's dining car that operated on one of the InterCity trains was neat.  I was a passenger service rep so was always able to grab burgers and fries for me and my good buddy* (who was a platform dispatcher) right at trackside.  Lunch. it never tasted so good!

Joe

* RIP

Well, looks like a couple of you decided to turn this review into something way off topic....so, this is now closed.  Email each other if you want to go through nostalgia.