At York these cars were flying off the shelves. I had my first look and I was very impressed. Grzyboski's had very good prices on these and they seem to all disappear by the end of Friday.
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No opinion whatsoever, far too big for my current or any future layout so not something I would look at or ever consider.
I think they're fantastic. Only 4 screws to take the shell off and you can customize the interior to your liking. I have gotten packs of 50 passengers from China off the Bay for like 8 bucks and that easily fills the cars.
Also the number of road names offered in this last catalog was very impressive.
I know the cars are large, but the kinematic couplers help. And no flickering lights is a definite plus. I'm excited for the StationSounds cars.
I think the painted plastic looks just as good if not nicer than the painted aluminum cars Lionel was making.
Alas, all just my opinions.
I like the 2400 series just fine. Any longer, and they look silly.
Jon 
as someone who runs entire O gauge trains that are often less than 21" long, i'm curious about how modern production cars are measured. what measurement on this car is 21"?
coupler centers?
overall body length?
interior, less vestibule(s)?
thanks...gary
I really like mine, and will echo the praise above. Flicker-free LED lighting is a HUGE plus, as it saves me from having to do the upgrade myself, draws less power, and looks great right out of the box. The easy disassembly of the car is a nice feature, and I plan to detail the interiors in the future (painting the seats/tables and adding seated figures). For plastic cars they have excellent "heft" and track very well. The kinematic couplers are a nice touch, allowing the cars to ride close but swing out on curves. It's a neat effect while the cars are running. Overall detail is very good, IMO... not outstanding, but certainly not bad by any stretch.
Compared to the 18" K-Line by Lionel cars, these ones ride higher... which detracts somewhat from the appeal and the sleek look the 18" streamliners have on the rails. The new 21" car packaging is also cheap and flimsy, which is a minor nuisance for me as I keep my items in boxes for transport to/from the club and for shipment when we move. Those are my only quibbles, though, and I am glad I bought them.
Bottom line, I like these 21" cars so much I went and reserved a stationsounds diner to go with them, and will likely add to my C&O roster so I have more motive power options to pull them.
-Dustin
frizzinbee posted:I really like mine, and will echo the praise above. Flicker-free LED lighting is a HUGE plus, as it saves me from having to do the upgrade myself, draws less power, and looks great right out of the box. The easy disassembly of the car is a nice feature, and I plan to detail the interiors in the future (painting the seats/tables and adding seated figures). For plastic cars they have excellent "heft" and track very well. The kinematic couplers are a nice touch, allowing the cars to ride close but swing out on curves. It's a neat effect while the cars are running. Overall detail is very good, IMO... not outstanding, but certainly not bad by any stretch.
Compared to the 18" K-Line by Lionel cars, these ones ride higher... which detracts somewhat from the appeal and the sleek look the 18" streamliners have on the rails. The new 21" car packaging is also cheap and flimsy, which is a minor nuisance for me as I keep my items in boxes for transport to/from the club and for shipment when we move. Those are my only quibbles, though, and I am glad I bought them.
Bottom line, I like these 21" cars so much I went and reserved a stationsounds diner to go with them, and will likely add to my C&O roster so I have more motive power options to pull them.
-Dustin
Do you think these cars can be lowered without too much effort?
I like the direction Lionel has taken with these cars and have a UP excursion set on order. The kinematic couplers give you close-coupling similar to Kadees while allowing them to negotiate 27" radius (O-54) curves. If/when they do a CNW or Santa Fe set I will be ordering those as well. It would be nice to see expansion sets for these -- extra coaches (or in the alternative, unlabeled coaches in the coach expansion pack) and an RPO.
I have the full up set and the full csx business train on order i have not yet seen these in person, however my only concern is the height( truck vs carbody gap). I think they look great in all the videos and pictures and im really excited about the up/csx sets. Im certainly not a rivet counter but i think the height holds these back from being a top rung model, so to speak. I also don't have the biggest layout. I actually don't have a layout at all just yet hopefully soon, but if the taller car height is what makes these cars work on tighter curves. I'm ok with that sacrifice. Would love to see some detailed close ups if anyone is willing.
I haven't seen one. Got a picture?
Dennis
I love them. Lionel really got it right with these.
Yes, they're not 'perfect', but I love their flicker-free capacitors and the kinematic couplers. Definitely the best plastic constructed passenger cars I've encountered yet.
I think I like most though is their packaging and their weight. The plastic cradles are so much easier to pack and unpack than each individual cardboard box and styrofoam insert of the past. Their weight is not too light it feels flimsy, but not too heavy that it's hard to pick one up.
Dennis posted:I haven't seen one. Got a picture?
Dennis
Here's few shots of my set in action:
-Dustin
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Nice Chessie train!
Way too big for my space.
Dominic Mazoch posted:Nice Chessie train!
Thanks!
TrainingDave posted:I think they're fantastic. Only 4 screws to take the shell off and you can customize the interior to your liking. I have gotten packs of 50 passengers from China off the Bay for like 8 bucks and that easily fills the cars.
Also the number of road names offered in this last catalog was very impressive.
I know the cars are large, but the kinematic couplers help. And no flickering lights is a definite plus. I'm excited for the StationSounds cars.
I think the painted plastic looks just as good if not nicer than the painted aluminum cars Lionel was making.
Alas, all just my opinions.
Hi & would you please share with us your source for the 50 passengers for $8 - as in the name of the supplier you found via e-bay - Thanks
I also used these Chinese figurines. They're very primitive IMO but certainly inexpensive.
Posted these after populating my cars . . .
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SURFLINER posted:TrainingDave posted:I think they're fantastic. Only 4 screws to take the shell off and you can customize the interior to your liking. I have gotten packs of 50 passengers from China off the Bay for like 8 bucks and that easily fills the cars.
Also the number of road names offered in this last catalog was very impressive.
I know the cars are large, but the kinematic couplers help. And no flickering lights is a definite plus. I'm excited for the StationSounds cars.
I think the painted plastic looks just as good if not nicer than the painted aluminum cars Lionel was making.
Alas, all just my opinions.
Hi & would you please share with us your source for the 50 passengers for $8 - as in the name of the supplier you found via e-bay - Thanks
If you just type in "O scale seated people" you can find oodles of results. The prices vary but are relatively cheap.
Terry - that's hilarious. I guess "hand painted" is not always something that can be bragged about! 
All in all, most folks are gonna be quite pleased with the new Lionel 21" passengers. I purchased the Texas Special set, and was very happy with it. I also have the StationSounds diner on order.
These cars are definitely a step below the detail level provided by Atlas-O (ABS), and of course GGD (aluminum) as well. But we're really paying hefty premiums for aluminum cars these days. But it's nice having choices that suit different budgets.
If Atlas-O offered more variety in roadnames, my 21" passenger car roster would be comprised of Atlas-O over Lionel in a heart-beat. However, Atlas-O's approach seems focused on road-name specific details on the cars for increased prototypical accuracy. So that has extended their timeline to deliver product. OTOH, Lionel as pumped out several 21" passenger car liveries with basically the same tooling... just different paint schemes. So they're leveraging the new tooling costs across the board much more quickly (than Atlas-O). So there's something to be said for that, and that's typically been Lionel's modus-operandi over the years anyway.
Despite the cars being a general success on first-take, the new Lionel packaging is an admittedly cheap turn-off... indicative of further cutting corners. This was even more noticeable when I pulled a couple of former Lionel 18" aluminum cars out of their boxes to photograph them for my recent York "virtual bandit meet" for-sale thread here on the forum. For stuff made 8-10 years ago (and earlier), once you got past the outer shipping carton, you'd find an orange/blue multi-pack product carton wrapped/sealed in factory cellophane. Then EACH CAR had its own product box inside the multi-pack, and THOSE product boxes were wrapped too. Not to mention each car was also packed securely in a white foam liner.
The new package has none of these "extra" amenities. Foam liners are history, as are the individual product boxes. So for folks looking to break up a set to sell a subset of items, there are no longer individual product boxes. Bad move on Lionel's part. But the almighty bean-counters have broken the code once again, and we're now living with much more cheaply packaged premium passenger cars. Go figure!!! 
David
There's been a lot of praise for these cars, but I think Lionel could have done better, especially since these are all new tooling and I assume they were attempting to build a scale car that would interest the more scale orientated hobbyist. First let me say I don't own any of these, but I have seen them in person. They are an improvement over the 18" aluminum cars as they don't have the outside mounted windows and the extreme gaps between the cars. However, the new cars still ride too high and my particular gripe is how there is no detail on the skirting. Real cars with skirts have several lift up sections along the length of the skirt, chicken wire grills for air conditioning units, occasional access holes for valves, power receptacles, and water connections, and most important a drop down step under the vestibule door. That kind of detail is impossible to do in an aluminum extrusion, but should be doable for an injection molded car. Atlas did an outstanding job in detailing their CZ cars. Compare the detail on the Atlas CZ skirts with the lack of detail on the Lionel skirts.
As far as the C&O cars go, Lionel could have at least got the paint scheme correct. C&O cars didn't have black roofs, silver ends, and silver trucks. They had blue roofs, ends, and trucks.
Ken
kanawha posted:... They are an improvement over the 18" aluminum cars as they don't have the outside mounted windows and the extreme gaps between the cars. ...
True... but some folks may still find the 18" aluminum cars more appealing for their layouts. The outside-mounted windows NEVER bothered me one iota. 3" doesn't sound like much, but the 21" cars require a much broader curve to "look better". Granted, some folks don't care about "how good the cars look on curves" -- which is why so many folks bought Big Boys whose front end swings out on tighter curves so much and requires extra clearances.
I bought the 21" Texas Special cars because I wanted a really nice Texas Special passenger train. Had Lionel NOT cancelled the production of the Texas Special 18" aluminum cars, I would have bought the 18" set in a heartbeat. While I appreciate the 21" cars being closer to scale, they're gonna be most appropriate on basement empires and club layouts with large radii track. 18" cars will be much more at home on medium-sized layouts that most enthusiasts are building. There will be a segment of buyers who buy these 21" cars because that's what Lionel is offering now. Unfortunately, many of these sets may remain boxed or on display shelves because the entire train based on 21" cars is too large for their layout. 
David
necrails posted:No opinion whatsoever, far too big for my current or any future layout so not something I would look at or ever consider.
Same here, and no doubt true for the majority of operators. What I'm really looking forward to seeing is what Lionel will be doing in producing new 60' (15") cars.
The cars are beautiful The only downside I see is the standard Lionel end cap and no diaphgrams. They haven't done them in my roads yet or I would have them Wish they would do the Erie to match the E8's I bought last year
bluelinec4 posted:The cars are beautiful The only downside I see is the standard Lionel end cap and no diaphgrams. They haven't done them in my roads yet or I would have them Wish they would do the Erie to match the E8's I bought last year
They all have diaphragms as far as I'm aware.
I made a decision . . . small layout but the outer loop is minimum O-80 and that's in a tunnel. The other curves are all wider, O-104 and O-120.
Why? Because I just HAD to have 21" GGD passenger cars! Yah, they'll run on O-72 but I wanted better than that for them.
I'm happy with the decision but it's not one for everybody. It killed my plans for a yard as there was just not enough space left with those curves.
But I LOVE my GGD CP Heavyweights! Put K-Ds on 'em too.
TrainingDave posted:SURFLINER posted:TrainingDave posted:I think they're fantastic. Only 4 screws to take the shell off and you can customize the interior to your liking. I have gotten packs of 50 passengers from China off the Bay for like 8 bucks and that easily fills the cars.
Also the number of road names offered in this last catalog was very impressive.
I know the cars are large, but the kinematic couplers help. And no flickering lights is a definite plus. I'm excited for the StationSounds cars.
I think the painted plastic looks just as good if not nicer than the painted aluminum cars Lionel was making.
Alas, all just my opinions.
Hi & would you please share with us your source for the 50 passengers for $8 - as in the name of the supplier you found via e-bay - Thanks
If you just type in "O scale seated people" you can find oodles of results. The prices vary but are relatively cheap.
Terry - that's hilarious. I guess "hand painted" is not always something that can be bragged about!
Thank you for,your reply!
