For those of you putting some mileage on your latest Lionel Vision Line Big Boys, what is it hauling? Did you already have the rolling stock? Or will you be purchasing new rolling stock for the Big Boy?
I figure a long string of hopper cars would be appropriate... or perhaps a long string of reefers -- especially with a couple of the Vision Line reefers with sounds? Key will be a "long string" of something 
, which means another chunk of $$$ if you don't own the rolling stock already. MTH has some nice 6-car sets of premier hoppers and reefers, which tend to run in the $275-$300 range per 6-pk. And I just saw that Stockyard Express is producing two striking sets of Weaver UP scale hopper 6-packs as well. So if you need 4 or 5 sets (of 6-packs) to give your Big Boy a respectable consist, that'll set you back another $1K+ -- before you even think about an auxiliary tender and caboose.
I'm planning ahead for the mid-year release of Lionel's N&W Y6b, and fortunately I'm already pretty well set with a N&W aux tender as well as lots of Atlas-O scale hoppers.
David
