SP AC-9 Tender Lettering Q

Both lettering schemes are correct for the AC-9. They were acquired in 1939. The lettering scheme changed around 1945-46. They were converted to oil in the '50s. 

Pete

T4TT posted:

Not being in the hobby when Lionel last released the AC-9 I am happy to see it offered again.  It appears it will have a coal tender.  Would "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" be prototypically accurate for a coal tender?  Or was that the lettering on the coal tender only "SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES"?   I checked 3rd Rail site and it looks like they offered coal tenders in "SOUTHERN PACIFIC", and they usually get it right, but I thought I would ask.

thanks

The lettering scheme depends on the era you are modeling. Prior to 1946, the Southern Pacific Railroad used the smaller lettering "Southern Pacific Lines", and after 1946 everything (locomotives and passenger equipment) was changed to the large billboard "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" style. Also, in the mid 1950s some cab forwards and AC9s, by then converted to oil burning and assigned to the northern California Modoc Line, had no lettering at all on tenders.

Edit: For what it's worth the first run of the Lionel AC9 models had the "Southern Pacific Lines" tender letter as an "as delivered in 1939" would have had. Prior to weathering, I had my model relettered with Champ Decals for the large billboard "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" style. 

Thank you HW and Pete.  I am partial to the large billboard style but did not want it to be out of place on a coal tender.  

you could always get the Daylight version   

What up Doug?!  You are a funny guy.  I am not a purist but that is a bridge waaay to far for me.  Will we see a Daylight AC-9 spinning in the TT in your awesome service terminal?  

"I am partial to the large billboard style"

If there is one thing that I have leaned from the OGR Forum, is that I am the only one, the only one, who prefers the smaller "Southern Pacific Lines" lettering on SP steamers. 

The style should be properly accurate per locomotive, absolutely, but I like the look of the "Lines" lettering better. It's a bit classier.

Here's to the Daylight AC9:

D500 posted:

"I am partial to the large billboard style"

If there is one thing that I have leaned from the OGR Forum, is that I am the only one, the only one, who prefers the smaller "Southern Pacific Lines" lettering on SP steamers. 

The style should be properly accurate per locomotive, absolutely, but I like the look of the "Lines" lettering better. It's a bit classier.

Not so D. I have been modeling SP pre 1945 in HO since the '60s. I believe I may have the only 3rd Rail GS4 custom painted and detailed (forward number boards) for SP lines. I passed on the last Lionel AC 12 because they didn't do a version as built. Ironically the fantasy Daylight AC 12 was lettered for Lines. Lionel will always stay a toy train maker.

Pete

Buy the 3rd Rail model, it's cheaper it's  4 pennies and it looks and sounds amazing. I might buy a 3rd Rail unit before I buy a Lionel AC-9 going at about the same price or any Lionel loco in general 

SDIV Tim posted:

Buy the 3rd Rail model, it's cheaper it's  4 pennies and it looks and sounds amazing. I might buy a 3rd Rail unit before I buy a Lionel AC-9 going at about the same price or any Lionel loco in general 

Excellent suggestion, plus the Sunset/3rd Rail model of the SP AC9 comes in either the original coal burner, or the modernized oil burner.

Well the price difference is more than a few pennies.  3rd Rail has the AC-9 on their webpage for $1999.95 and Nassau Hobbies has the Lionel version for $1599.99.  400 bucks is nothing to sneeze at, and the reality is I prefer Legacy operation over the improved 100 speed steps of the ERR board.  And yes, I really enjoy the whistle steam effect...for me that is a lot of fun.  No doubt the 3rd Rail version is/will be more detailed and accurate to the prototype.  To each their own.

In regard to the "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" vs "SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES", and this odd, but on the GS-4 I prefer "LINES", as I agree with D500 it just looks more classy.  But on my freight engines I prefer just "SOUTHERN PACIFIC".  Again, to each their own.

I definitely will NOT be spinning up a Daylight version on the TT  but I could see myself running an 80 car reefer block with my AC12 on one end and the AC9 on the other end...with my Malcolm's master piece caboose in trail...... COULD

"Ironically the fantasy Daylight AC 12 was lettered for Lines. Lionel will always stay a toy train maker.

Pete"

Pete, I'm going to have to disagree with the Lionel/toy train maker statement, I'm afraid. Lionel models like the AC-9 (and they have made many) are exquisite representations of the real thing, and nothing about it is a "toy". I have a substantial collection of steamers - brass and die-cast - and Lionel's (and MTH's) stands up to anyone's. Better than most.

Flawless? Of course not. I was 12 in 1960, and was switching from my Lionel layout to HO; I was reading MR and RMC and the "road tests" of those expensive (har - $75!) brass steamers, and I remember the inaccuracies there, too. Flawless? No; they - their modern equivalents - still aren't.  I re-joined the hobby in my 40's - typical - and I re-joined as an "O-gauge Hi-railer" (I build/weather/bash). HO is fine, but too small - not to see or appreciate (heck - I like N scale, too) but too small to make me want it. The O-scale stuff wants to get in the car with me.

Lionel does indeed make toys - and their catalogue has a section for those products. But such as the AC-9? Hardly. If that (and the Mohawks and the Hudsons and the Duplexes...you name it) is from a "toy train maker", then we need more of these "toy" makers.

The Daylight AC-9? Oh, my, no - I'll never buy one. But I do get the joke.  

Don't get me wrong D. My Lionel and MTH engines far out number my 3rd Rail. I am OK with toy trains and half of my collection are Post War and traditional size trains. Its just that too many times Lionel seems to drop the ball or go out in left field. I am thinking of the Mikados, light and heavy based on a single example then  lettered for multiple roads or the NYC consolidations with the Harriman road number boards. Hopefully they are reversing that trend with the new BTO mikes.

Pete