TEXAS SPECIAL, secret favorite?

We only have "eastern roads" in our collection, but the new MTH Premier F's and Streamliners are so beautiful, Mrs Muffin drug a set over to our layout. "They ran east of someplace" she said. 

The TS passenger trains are colorful and a hit with many Forum members. What's not to like. Red, silver, and yellow together make a beautiful color scheme. We have two on the layout and visitors usually comment how nice they look.

The Texas Special is something special to my wife who rode on it with her

grandmother when she was young.  We don't have a lot of room for a scale

sized train but we did buy the Lionel FT's ABA plus a set of seven streamlined

cars from K-line and RMT.  Makes a nice set in a small space. We have also

ordered the Texas Special freight set from LCCA.

                      "Ship it on the Frisco"

I believe the name says it all....."Special".  Santa brought me the 2245 Texas Special passenger set when I was 8 years old, this makes it special to me.  I remember when I got back into trains again it was the 2245 TS AB that was one of the most difficult Lionel F3's to find and in good condition.  For some reason either the off red color, the shiny paint, the red, white, silver combination or the big star on the nose, this engine seems to attract people's attention.

I don't want to take away from other O gaugers who have Santa Fe or other road names in which beautiful diesel locomotives existed because there are other beautifully painted ones.  But I have been to collectors and operators homes where one road name or the other were favorites and sitting on the shelf was a Texas Special AB set.  I ask why they had it and the majority of responses was "it looks good".

I wish more would respond to this thread, it is a good one and share with us your Texas Special story and photo's.  Thanks Dominic for posting.

Steve, Lady and Tex

I'm with Steve, it should would be nice to see more pictures of Texas Special trains installed on Forum member layouts.

If you have a TS running on your layout, how about posting some pictures.

Post pictures? Why certainly Brain - happy to do so

The Texas Special was always a favorite of mine as a boy even though I had American Flyer.

Some how, the Gilbert PA's looked 'strange' to me (because I'd never seen a real one!) but I admired the Lionel F3. At the time many of us didn't realize that 027 was considerably larger than S which made the Lionel more impressive size wise.

I've had a couple of 2245s over they years but prefer the MTH RK 'Scale' ABA 'clone' set from a few years ago. Great performers, w/sound, smoke, and all the features of PS2.

Years ago I had 6 Lionel NP 2400 series passenger cars painted to match the Texas Special and they were beautiful in Red & WHITE that matched the diesels perfectly. Although unprototypical, I still prefer the PW inspired red and white to the more correct silver...

It's my youngest son's favorite diesel / passenger set and one of these days, I'll get him one.  Hopefully, he'll let his dad borrow it.

I have the PW 2245 Freight set and the Lionel HO passenger set

 The pass set L should have made in 1954!

It's funny, but when I was a kid, I thought "Texas Special" was something Lionel made up.  It wasn't until I became a serious model railroader in the mid 60's that I dicovered it actually existed.

Nice train, I thought...  But, I'll stick with my Zephyrs and Chiefs...

Then American Models introduced their S scale version.  Well:

Even though it's not 100% accurate (E8's instead of E7's and NYC ESE cars) I just had to have it. 

So, add me to the "secret admirer" club.

Rusty

I have the Lionel legacy scale Texas Special set with all 7 cars. This train dominates my small layout. The only drawback is that the windows acquire spots on them which almost ruins the train. I am not sure how to get rid of them or where they came from. This train is fairly close to the prototype in many ways. You could also get some old Kasiner cars and paint them up, for they would be ideal for this train.

Sam:

Now that is what I call great pictures of a TS. Thanks for sharing.

The TS 027 passenger car re-paints look great.  That would have been a humdinger of a set with the 2245 alright.  You have to get a Texas Special drumhead for the observation car now.

Steve, Lady and Tex

I could not agree more with Steve. A drumhead would look great on the observation car.

If you can get the 15" AL W/WBB cars, they look great behind 2245A/C.  The color difference between the two is not bad!

I wish someone would post a photo of these passenger cars.  The Williams Texas Special F3 passenger cars that I have seen are the 027 silver clone's.  I see MTH has released a Premier TS F3 set.  I just hate those huge cables running from engine units, they look so ugly.  I would like to see what the passenger cars for this set look like though.  I might be interested in those. 

A great thread Dominic, just think how many members are not able to share their Texas Special treasures and stories with us......such a shame.

Steve, Lady and Tex

Here is a photo of the Lionel E7.

Here's a photo I took a few years ago on my layout showing the MTH Texas Special F-3 pulling the 15 inch MTH ABS plastic coaches. Of course the real Texas Special did not

have a dome car.  

Lew Schneider

Does anyone know if the recently released MTH Premiere P3 issue have the yellow stripes on the pilots and or yellow hood.. The catalogue shows them as typical post war but you never know......

Nice looking E-7 Brian.  Another Texas Special engine/passenger set which is difficult to find today.  Great runner and nice sounds too boot.

Williams made a nice Texas Special E-7 also.  I just can't seem to get enough of these beauties.

Steve, Lady and Tex

In looking for info on the new Premiere Texas Special mentioned above, I came across the original release from 1995. Have never seen them - does anyone have a set and can post some photos?

Here is the catalog illustration for the new ones

I still like the white in lieu of silver...

Sam:

This may be the set.

Hi Sam, your question is a little confusing to me.  Are you asking to see photo's of MTH new Premier release?  Brian posted a beautiful photo of the Premier Texas Special from the 1990's.  They, in my opinion, are the best looking Texas Special diesel set made.

I hope a member who has the new release will post photo's.  I think MTH will make a big mistake if the new release version does not have the yellow nose and stripes on the pilot.  If they are painted like the photo from the catalog I believe they don't look as good.  I also like the white vs. silver along sides of engines.  Does MTH have a shipping schedule like Lionel? 

Steve, Lady and Tex

Guys,  I see my question sounded vague (was down with the flu and not thinking soundly).  Was curious about the 1995 Premiere Texas Specials and if that is what Brian has posted above, they are indeed beautiful!

Brian, can you post another shot of the engines from the side with strong lighting? I gather that they are similar to Lionel's 2245s in color but have the yellow nose and pilot stripes?

The Three Amigos:

My Dad has had these since he was a kid in the 50's. For the most part, they didn't run much during my childhood as they were worn out, and pre-internet, we didn't have a source for parts to rebuild them. I restored all of them about 5 years ago, including all new paint and decals. They are all running again and look brand new.

The 2245 was converted to dual motors so it could pull the same set of cars as the other 2 sets. The 2353 was an AA set from the 50's and I bought a junker of a 2353C from Ebay for $50 and rebuilt it from the trucks up, so now it's an ABA set.

Since they are runners, I added some paint details to the sets to improve their appearance IMO of course. The horns, pilots, cab ladders, and truck ladders were all painted to match.  

I dont have any pics to show yet, but I am a true fan of the Katy line. I have the Post war 2245, The Alco 210&211.

In Modern I have the RailKing set that came out about 6 years ago A-B-A with 5 Aluminum Passenger Cars.

I have the Lionel Texan Set (Frieght set) A-B-A with Freight Cars

And Just purchased the K-Line A-B-B-A with 9 Passenger cars. Dont intend to run it, but looks great on shelf. (BTW anyone know the value on this set, I also got the replacement shells, (originals were wrong color and extra boxcar as a gift.)

Ontop of the TxSpecial, I have about 30 MKT rolling stock. Love the colors and the history of this railroad.

Sam:

The next time I am in the train room, I will take a side profile of the TS engine. This was the MTH Premier release from the nineties, so I believe they are what you are looking for.

Laidoffsick:

This is a stunning refurbishing effort. They look better than new.

I don't own any but I must admit it is a beautiful color scheme.

---Greg

MMG - even though not much info in your profile ??????? drop me a line (email) which is in my profile.  You have a nice listing of items. 

My birthday is April 19th....... lets chat Katy.

Steve, Lady and Tex

I don't have any pictures of the cars.  WBB has not imported them in a while.  I might have them in a file here on another hard drive?

I forgot I have the Lionel 027 Alco set 11560

And there were more than SL-SF and MKT cars in the TX SP.  PRR repainted some Pullmans in a "shadow" livery to match with the TX SP cars.  Also, MKT did the same with some AC heavy weights to add extra cars to the various trainsets.

Well, anticipating an eventual relocation to Texas, I'm investigating the "things to have" list -- you know, the rifle rack in the back window of my pickup, etc. Apparently I'm in compliance by having the MKT/UP Heritage unit, but I'm still required to have a Texas Special passenger set, so I've added it my list.

If you select a place to live near a big city, you won't have to worry about the rifle rack. However the TS, absolutely. 

Hi Matt, I don't know where you are moving to in Texas but they have some great museums and O gauge operating clubs.  I went to the old Santa Fe station in Temple, TX, a museum now with static displays outside.  The history of Texas railroads is quite interesting.  While visiting my sister last year, at a local watering hole (tavern), I saw men packing in a hip holster and no one even blinked.

Steve, Lady and Tex

Here is a picture of my recent aquisition:

K-Line from 1995 I think. I have the A-B-B-A with 9 passenger cars.

Over 13 feet of train. Too long for my layout, but looks great on the shelf.

Very, very nice MMG!

MMG - Real nice set.  Do you have all the passenger cars?  I know K-line released all sorts of these cars for the Texas Special, I believe they had a dealer special car also.  Have you researched this?  Anyway, very impressive display.

B Unit - for some reason the "red" paint on my K-line B unit is a darker red than my A units.  Is yours the same?  I believe the B units have a horn.

Your new purchase is top of the line and good looking.  Thanks for posting.

Steve, Lady and Tex

Well, I havent researched it very much, but 9 cars seems like a lot.

Funny you mention the different colors. With this set I got a extra set of shells, and a special boxcar, the letter says that they messed up the coloring on the shells, and they sent out 2 new shells for the AA's and a boxcar to make up for it. I will take pic of boxcar and the letter tomorrow.