I took a chance and pre-ordered Lionel's new single door PRR X31 round roof box car. I was hoping they would be up to the standard found in Lionel’s very nice PS1 box cars. The X31 was delivered this week and unfortunately the model fails to capture the look of the prototype from several perspectives. Lionel painted the car in a chocolate brown color similar to that found on circa 1946 non-scale Lionel PRR box cars. The car should be painted in what PRR termed “freight car color" (as opposed to the darker Tuscan red used on PRR Passenger cars). A good approximation of PRR Freight car color is Scalecoat Oxide red – slightly darker if freshly painted, lighter if faded (Weaver’s H30 paint looks good to my eye for a freshly painted car. You may also note that Lionel’s lettering is slightly under prototype size.
The body tooling did not rise to the standard of Lionel's PS1 box car.. The roof walk end supports are poorly done and the lap seams on the sides and roof are noticeably "heavy" when compared to the subtle look of the prototype. Rivet size and pattern look right, and the door hardware is nicely done - though the door guide is slightly heavy. Ladders and grabs are also slightly heavy but acceptable. Less noticeable is that Lionel recycled their “standard” 40' freight car under frame (from the PS1) rather than creating new tooling to model the PRR design used under X31 series cars. To illustrate the issues I’ve included photos of the Lionel X31 and a NJCB X31double door I painted about 25 years ago. Interestingly the Lionel car has nicer door hardware than the brass model.
In the recent past O scale modelers have been pleased to find scale detailed mass produced plastic freight cars from Weaver, AtlasO, MTH, and Lionel, that with minor enhancement provide a low cost "layout quality" alternatives to more expensive brass models. Unfortunately the new Lionel PRR X31 is a slight step backward from the march toward prototype fidelity. In the future I will not pre-order new Lionel "Standard O" freight cars until I see them first. I think I’ll repaint the Lionel X31 the next time I have several other Pennsy freight cars ready for the paint booth. Perhaps with prototypical paint, CDS lettering, new roof walk supports, Kadee couplers, Intermouintain trucks, and a little weathering the body flaws won’t bug me as much - if not it will go on eBay some day. Next up I believe is Weaver's rib side MILW box car. I hope they are as nice as the Weaver B&O round roof box car.
Ed Rappe
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