Santa Fe set

That is a good set, I enjoy mine. The one thing I wish Lionel would do is keep expanding the add-on cars. I have bought the observation car, will probably pick up the baggage car, but if they put out a non-powered A unit - I would run, not walk, to Charlie Ro to get it!

@Merlin posted:

I’m seeing the Lionel Santa Fe Train sets for 300 dollars. That’s one of their best sets and that’s the lowest price I’ve seen so far. I paid 335 plus shipping 2 years ago and thought that was a good deal.

What set are we talking about? I have the first reissue from approximately 1990 and if the add ones are for that please let me know so I can snap them up also?

This is for LionChief set. I think it was released in 2018 catalog. SeunG that’s funny because I have the baggage car and looking to buy the observation car.

I wish that baggage car was illuminated. Any ideas how to get it lighted?

I bought this set (6-84719 Santa Fe Super Chief LionChief Set w/Bluetooth and the 6-84724 Add-On Baggage Car) in December of 2018.  The observation car is part of the set.

I have since purchased the 6-84725 Add-On Vista Dome Car.

Yes, a non-powered A unit would be a must buy.

The baggage car not being illuminated is a disappointment to me also.   

***ETA***    Here is a photo of the set without the Vista Dome car.

Why could you not just pick up one of the passenger cars and just change the shells with the baggage?

Here is a 24 minute long review of this set from Eric's Trains.

@Bill DeBrooke posted:

Why could you not just pick up one of the passenger cars and just change the shells with the baggage?

I have thought about this but the only separate sale car with lighting is the Vista Dome Car and it isn't cheap.  I looked at buying illuminated car trucks from Lionel but could not convince myself to buy them even during the half price sale.  Just something about paying extra to correct what I feel should have been done in the first place.

Sean, a great way to add to your consist is with MTH cars - MTH makes 15” ATSF passenger cars in their Railking line that are very nice. They are literally identical to the Lionel cars sold in their RTR sets. You can put them side-by-side and you can’t tell them apart down to even the undercarriage detail. They have to be from the same tools. MTH has a matching full-length dome car which is neat mixed in with the others. These MTH and Lionel cars in combination are a great way to have a large consist without lots of duplicates.  You might be able to find them new at dealers like Mr. Muffins.  They are also readily available in the secondary market. Before we converted our layout to scale, we had a bunch of these cars in both styles of ATSF and NYC.  When we sold them off, we put the Lionel cars next to the MTH cars on the table and they sold fast as buyers couldn’t believe how identical they are.

As to the A-unit, Lionel made dummy A’s in the FT in the same paint schemes. They also made dummy B’s. You might be able to do a shell swap with a powered F3 and one of these, but that would be kinda expensive.  

EDIT: After looking more closely at the picture and item number above, it looks like your set is an FT in which case getting a dummy A unit and a dummy B unit is as easy as finding one on the secondary market. They were made to go with the early conventional RTR sets and are plentiful. The tooling and paint hasn’t changed.

Nice shot Greg, I'm a floor runner too! Here is my Chief, streaking past a freight.

Reminds me of an old Railsounds Santa Fe Set I bought years ago. The same FT A unit pulling three cars. The one I have came with very attractive silver cars but with red accents.

Ah, well, re lighted baggage cars...

I know it's been said before, but in the 1:1 world baggage cars (of the type in this set) seldom had interior lights turned on when in transit.  At station stops during the exchange of baggage I'm sure the interior lights would be turned on...especially at night stops or in dark station areas.  Once the car doors were closed and locked and personnel were leaving the interior I imagine the lights were turned off again.

But, if it's a personal preference thing, you could do what one of our (LHS) customers once did...Add an interior LED with a battery and a latching reed switch mounted to the roof interior, as with certain aftermarket lighting kits.  A wave of the magnet baton above the roof turns it on or off...at those station stops or witness to an absent-minded conductor as the train resumes its journey.

FWIW, of course...

KD

Sean, when we sold our traditional stuff off, I kept an ABBA set for sentimental reasons (it was my son’s favorite).  Here is a not-so-great picture of it on the far corner of our shelf.

Both B units and the trailing A unit are dummy engines. They are identical to yours. You should be able to find the item number on Lionel’s site and then start looking for them. I think I found mine on eBay or dealer NOS ten years ago.  If you can’t find the item numbers, let me know and I’ll look for the boxes.

Adding them to the base set - along with some MTH add on cars like the full length vista - really made for a great train.

Happy hunting.

@GregM posted:

I have thought about this but the only separate sale car with lighting is the Vista Dome Car and it isn't cheap.  I looked at buying illuminated car trucks from Lionel but could not convince myself to buy them even during the half price sale.  Just something about paying extra to correct what I feel should have been done in the first place.

There are some single passenger cars on ebay for about sixty bucks.  By the time you find the right trucks, figure out how to put lights in without messing the car up you are in the same place.

Are we talking about a regular Superchief set here?  Or a Superchief Plus?  Or a Superchief Plus 2.0?

Any links to the sale sites?

Thanks,

Mannyrock

OK, from what I can find, it appears that this is the regular original Superchief system.

Checking on Ebay, it would appear that there are currently dozens of new Lionel Superchief engines and sets for sale at pretty low prices.  I suspect that perhaps Lionel or the dealers are clearing out all of the old Superchief items here at year end, to get ready for more advances systems, like Superchief Plus 2.0.

For those wanting a matching dummy A-unit, here it is: https://www.lionel.com/product...el-a-unit160-6-28905

Here is B-unit: https://www.lionel.com/product...l-b-unit-160-6-38204

These are from 2010 and you can find them with a little persistence and patience.  There are also other ones from earlier years (search “FT non-powered” on the Lionel site and view the archives tab).  All are identical to the current Lionchief releases.

Just noticed in Charles Ro's latest ad that he has the add-on cars for:

L 84724 Baggage Car 64.95

L 84725 Vista Dome Car 67.95

No idea how competitive that is but though Id pass along.

Rider Sandman, thank you. I hear you on the necessity of being persistent and patient, and while those traits don't always come so easily to me, I have picked up some fantastic LC+ engines second hand, simply by playing the long game. 

ATSF did use FT's as passenger power.  For a while.  They came as freight units.  Santa Fe ran them through the shops to put steam generators and other passenger mods on them.  Of course the silver and red paint.  Once enough passenger equipped F units came, they went back to being freight power.  Usually ran as an ABBA.  (Not the rock group!)

Hey KD, that explanation sure does make sense, probably doesn't do much good to have the baggage car lighted while under power.

But one thing I love to do with my passenger sets is night running! I know this is subjective, but that is one of the best things about illuminated cars, I find.

So, the unlit baggage car, just wouldn't do it for me while night running.

I wished they would have added smoke ro this set. That would have been a plus.

I have this set and love it. Just looked on Amazon and it's 15% off bringing it down to $255 before tax and free Prime shipping.

Mannyrock,

The Super Chief was a deluxe passenger train that ran between Chicago and Los Angeles on the Santa Fe.

LionChief, LionChief Plus, and LionChief Plus 2.0 are Lionel operating systems.

Jon

This is a nice set.  Runs well and has some nice cars.  I do wish Lionel would add a few passengers to these sets.  I think while most of us are ok with adding our own, beginners would appreciate some revenue generation folks to be already inside.

@PRRick posted:

I have this set and love it. Just looked on Amazon and it's 15% off bringing it down to $255 before tax and free Prime shipping.

Was going to post the same until i saw your post. That is a great price which i decided to pull the trigger on. Amazon issued me a 50.00 promo, so with this being on sale and additional 15% off. Couldn’t resist for 217.25 total out of pocket for a set always interested in. Grandson I’m sure will enjoy it.

I paid $258 for it 2 years ago and it was probably worth that. The engine is the limiting factory with its tiny little non-flywheel motors. With the 2 addon cars and a dummy B unit, I find that the engine is probably approaching its limit. It'll pull it, but it sounds quite unhappy at times starting the train or running at lower speeds. I give it credit for at least having metal gears, unlike some of the other starter sets, but unless you have a backup plan for blowing the engine up, I wouldnt go buying tons of extra cars.

I bought two sets back when these came out.  Got a deal on both of them when Kohls let you use 30% off coupon on the sale price, they don't do that anymore.  For the second set, I sold everything except the engine and came out even on the second set.  Sold the track and power from the first set as well, as I don't use Fastrack.  I reversed the motor leads on the second engine so I run an ABA with the engines facing opposite but responding to the same remote.  So with 4 of the can motors it works fine with the add on cars.

@Rider Sandman posted:

Sean, a great way to add to your consist is with MTH cars - MTH makes 15” ATSF passenger cars in their Railking line that are very nice. They are literally identical to the Lionel cars sold in their RTR sets. You can put them side-by-side and you can’t tell them apart down to even the undercarriage detail. They have to be from the same tools. MTH has a matching full-length dome car which is neat mixed in with the others. These MTH and Lionel cars in combination are a great way to have a large consist without lots of duplicates.  You might be able to find them new at dealers like Mr. Muffins.  They are also readily available in the secondary market. Before we converted our layout to scale, we had a bunch of these cars in both styles of ATSF and NYC.  When we sold them off, we put the Lionel cars next to the MTH cars on the table and they sold fast as buyers couldn’t believe how identical they are.

As to the A-unit, Lionel made dummy A’s in the FT in the same paint schemes. They also made dummy B’s. You might be able to do a shell swap with a powered F3 and one of these, but that would be kinda expensive.  

EDIT: After looking more closely at the picture and item number above, it looks like your set is an FT in which case getting a dummy A unit and a dummy B unit is as easy as finding one on the secondary market. They were made to go with the early conventional RTR sets and are plentiful. The tooling and paint hasn’t changed.

After seeing your message, as I want to add a car or two, I looked and it seems, unless I am finding the wrong cars, it looks like they have the people outlines/Silhouettes printed on the windows instead of having detailed interiors.  The Lionel cars have individual seats where I glued people.  I would not want to mix the two.  Not sure if saw some that had detailed interiors.

Thanks

Tony

@Tony H posted:

After seeing your message, as I want to add a car or two, I looked and it seems, unless I am finding the wrong cars, it looks like they have the people outlines/Silhouettes printed on the windows instead of having detailed interiors.  The Lionel cars have individual seats where I glued people.  I would not want to mix the two.  Not sure if saw some that had detailed interiors.

Thanks

Tony

Hello Tony. I think you’re looking at the wrong ones. The Railking versions have detailed interiors and are identical to the Lionel cars in every way with the exception of coming in yellow boxes instead of orange ones.

These ATSF Railking cars have been in nearly every MTH catalog going back 20+ years. The sets in the current catalog are plated - which is very nice, but won’t match your Lionel cars. They have been done in striped and non-striped. Here is a non-striped set from 2018: https://mthtrains.com/30-68050. It will give you an idea of what to look for.

If you search their site for Santa Fe passenger cars and then filter by Railking, you’ll get lots of hits. The full length vista is a neat add-on and is only available from MTH.  Here’s one with stripes - it’s been released a number of times, so search the site for other item numbers -  https://mthtrains.com/30-67215

Flip through past catalogs - the passenger cars are at the end of the Railking chapter.

Rider, thanks. 

I'm glad someone finally said what set it was. It might help in the future if you say set number or at least when it was made. At first, I thought you were talking postwar. ( I don't have much in modern, most are postwar or prewar. )

The top of the line of these LionChief FT Warbonnet engines was the No. 82290, an LC+ A-A set (one powered A and one unpowered A), cataloged in 2016. There was also a matching powered B unit available, No. 82302. These were higher line LionChief Plus engines, and all engines had smoke units and front and rear electrocouplers, and because these were LC+ engines, they had cruise control as well. These are very hard to find now. Significantly more expensive than the starter set referenced above, of course. I imagine Lionel will be making more of these in the LionChief Plus 2 line at some point, with the deluxe features.

I picked up the engine only from this set today, here it is matched with #160 dummy ...
The dummy was from the 2010 catalog 6-28905

Looks Nice!!!!

@yamawho posted:

I picked up the engine only from this set today, here it is matched with #160 dummy ...
The dummy was from the 2010 catalog 6-28905

Looks great!  Now find a B unit or two from the same 2010 catalog.  I found the hunt for them to be fun.

Do you have the number handy ... better still, maybe you can sell me yours

Where are you guys finding these sets (Lionel 684719) for prices under $300?  I've just conducted a Google search and I can't find anything for under $349.  Thank you for the help.

@Hugo posted:

Where are you guys finding these sets (Lionel 684719) for prices under $300?  I've just conducted a Google search and I can't find anything for under $349.  Thank you for the help.

Just guessing, but that $300 (if true) was probably a pre-order price or some sort of holiday special run by one of the larger sellers.  Amazon and some of the big box stores sometimes do "flash sales" on Lionel items prior to Christmas. Again, I'm speculating, but $349 is probably the best you can to do today. Unless, of course, some seller on Ebay has it for less.