I'm struggling with my decision on which Hiawatha passenger cars to get, from the vol 1 catalog. I'm pretty set on the #4 locomotive which I know is later years, but realism aside just not sure which cars I like better.
So figured I'd ask here to see what people say, which ones are you getting and why?
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I like #2 as delivered without the mars light. I too have been going back and forth with my decision on the passenger car sets. From pictures I've seen, the later cars with the maroon stripe through the windows were later cars better used with #4.
I was hoping for the "beaver tail" look that the 2006 cataloged observation car had. These are still really nice. It looks like these are smooth side cars that Lionel is offering which I think are the early cars used with either #1 or #2. The ribsided cars were used later. I'm leaning towards the set without the maroon stripe along with the add in cars shown on pages 26-27.
I look forward to placing my preorder with my favorite dealer, Sommerfeld's in Milwaukee, (Butler) Wisconsin. .....Robbie
From my reading of the book, the rib side cars with the maroon stripe were constructed to be used with the 4-6-4 100 series locos in 1939 and had the fins on the beavertail. The smooth side cars ran with the 4-4-2's 1-4 starting in 1935. Of course later the 4-4-2's ran with ribbed side as well and everything got mixed up as it was downgraded. The 100 series locos had ribbed tenders to match the later cars, the Atlantics had smooth tenders. I have Weaver sets of both style cars that I run with Weaver and MTH locos.
Yeah that has been my struggle, trying to find out which cars match for the time period. Then beyond that, both sets of cars are nice and not sure which to get even if I don't want to be time period correct.
Thanks for the info, that was more than I was able to find online.
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