Why no love???

I agree, I bought a NIB painted PRR set for my brother-in-law WITH a GP-9 for $100 at York about 10 yrs. ago on a Saturday: no other takers. You can still see these sets (used) with engine in the member halls for little more than $150-$200. Great starter sets for a kid or something for under the tree.

I had some Williams aluminum cars on my table at a train show years ago. Lots of folks looked them over and wondered why I was selling Lionel car so cheap. When I told them the cars were Williams, they refused to buy them - even though they could not tell them from Lionel cars.

Amazing!

I think they are a great deal if you are running a postwar style layout and enjoy postwar style equipment -- that's what I really like at least.

Also, if I am not mistaken, that same postwar 15 inch aluminum car tooling will be used to make the Neil Young sets, with some tweaks I am sure but still the same basic tooling.  Except those sets will cost a grand and people will like them more because they cost more.

It is what it is.

Don't complain too loudly. Just enjoy the low prices.

I like Williams 15" aluminum cars, too. My favorites are the painted Crown Edition sets made around 1990. Here's a N&W POWHATAN ARROW coach.

I like Williams' color window strips, too.

There's nothing wrong with the old Williams Luxury Liners.  I had a Canadian Pacific set back in the 80's.  My only concern was color of the stripes weren't as deep as Lionel's.  I had planned on getting repro stripes and replace them, but like many of my projects, it never happened.

But otherwise, they captured the look and feel of the original Lionel cars quite well (and at a fraction of the price!)  And seeing I had repro CP F3 shells mounted on MPC chassis', it suited me just fine.

Part of the problem is many folks are chasing the latest "sparkly" of well detailed, interior equipped ABS cars, which are nice in their own right.

While there's nothing wrong with buying the latest and greatest, I'm always amazed at how many folks poo-poo those that have an appreciation for the older "traditional" trains.

Rusty

I have a set of Williams Santa Fe "El Capitan" passenger cars, which I think are similar(silver) to the extruded aluminum passenger cars. It's a six car set from the Crown Edition era, two vista domes. Have another set of Williams passenger cars form about the same time frame; Reading Company six car set, King Coal in Reading green.

I think Williams has just as good quality as Lionel at a better price.

Planning to drive to Reading PA, leaving WPB FL, on August 1st.

Lee Fritz

They look fine - I think your just lucky with them...unlike waterpumps.

phillyreading,

    I like Williams Reading Madison cars, too.

From Reading, go North on Route 61. Take the Hamburg exit, by Arby's (south of the I-78 cloverleaf and the world's largest Cabela's). Take the first left past an auto lot and a beer distributor. Go down through a parking lot. Pass a car wash. Turn right on S. Third Street. Go a few blocks and visit Reading Railroad Heritage Museum at 500 S. Third Street (www.readingrailroad.org). The Reading Company Technical & Historical Society will make your visit a GREAT experience!

William's Madisons had Baggage, Combine, and Platform Observation cars YEARS before Lionel finally got off the dime.

I had a set of the Williams aluminum postwar style PRR streamliners to go with my Lionel Congressional GG1. They looked great behind it and did not have the pitting on them that the Lionel cars did. They are a great bargain, but the public doesn't seem to want anything not Lionel. My LHS is trying to sell Williams at Lionel prices and he's stuck with the trains. How many of the public walk into a HS looking for Williams?

"Wine is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy. Benjamin Franklin"

Actually that's beer not wine, and I have the T-shirt to prove it.  LOL  

You are incorrect.  Beer is proof God gave people intelligence and expects us to use it.  ;-)

ReadingFan,

Is the new place better then the Center St. location in Leesport a few years back?

From what I can see on the website it looks a lot larger then Leesport.

I'd like to see some of Reading's diesels and steam engines, and their passenger cars. Do you know the location of an interurban, in any museum, that Reading used to have?

Did you custom stencil your Reading Madison car?

I have come across two models of the older Madison cars, Crown Edition, in Reading Company name, King Coal passenger cars. One version has fixed or non-opening couplers and the second version has opening couplers that resemble K-Line's couplers and truck assemblies. The second version is much better to stay on the track, the first version derails even on straights.

Lee Fritz

Just as many people who like traditional trains poo-poo modern, realistic, detailed scale models. 

There's no accounting for taste...
 

To get back to the original question or post about Williams trains.

It seems that people have the pre-concived idea that Lionel is the only model train company in O gauge three rail. And so have the mentality if it isn't Lionel I won't buy it. Sad but true! I have seen this happen at hobby stores as well.

There is nothing wrong with Williams quality, at least when it was owned by Jerry Williams. I have not bought any recent Williams by Bachmann engines, some freight cars, but that's it.

Lee Fritz

Wow, Reading Fan, you certainly give a good short history there.

Thanks.

Wish I could come up that way and view the views, but at least I am privy to read your

history.

not the models themselves, but i find it amusing to see full scale models run on even O72 (~40°) curves.  for 3-rail operations, i'll take 15" passenger cars over those scale behemoths any day.

I actually think the big equipment is just fine.  Running scale cars on wide radius turns, say above O72, is at least different in the sense that you are not buying the same 15 inch passenger cars that Lionel or Williams have been making for a long time.  So it is something new, different, and worthwhile even though it isn't the only way to enjoy the hobby.

I really like the 15 inch cars but at the same time and to the original poster's point, the Williams ones are just fine and you can get a great deal.  Some people would rather pay more for essentially the same thing with a Lionel badge.  Having both, I can tell you they are pretty much identical, with some minor differences.  In terms of which is better, it is hard to say.

I love em, but can't run em! They are too long. My limit is 13.5 inch cars. I tried running 15" cars and they did not do well backing through 042 switches in my coach yard.

Not everyone has room for O-108 curves.

OK, 15" cars are painful to see on O-27, but they look surprisingly elegant on O-42.

Rusty

Not everyone has room for o-42 curves either. 

I have a set of early Williams Santa Fe streamliners. The problem with them is the couplers and wiring. They were a problem on my postwar style layout with tight curves. We switched to Gargraves track in an attempt to keep them from derailing and it worked sorta. Wound up taping the couplers together to keep the sagging ones coupled to the non-sagging ones. This was in the mid 1980's and I was in my pre-teen years, but it left a lasting impression with me about early Williams passenger cars. The newer cars are much better.

These cars are easily upgraded to postwar Lionel standards using Lionel parts, but it costs more to upgrade them than a modern set of Williams costs.

I don't have any Williams equipment yet, but most of the equipment on my wish list is Williams.  I've read good things about them here on the forums, and they look like an excellent way to acquire postwar trains at more reasonable prices--that is, if they do indeed continue selling postwar reproductions.  The decline in their catalog offerings has left me a bit worried...

Aaron

True enough, but the odds are certainly greater.

However, this is a hobby of personal tastes.  If someone is happy running 15" cars on O-31, or even O-27, that's all that really matters.

Rusty

Thanks all.....I already knew that these older Williams (and the current versions) were short on length and detail compared to 'modern' super passenger cars......but at $10 a car I still feel they are a good deal. I look at it this way......My Amtrak 'corridor' train powered by a Williams scale Amtrak GG1 with 9 Williams aluminum cars makes a great looking train running at speed......and hard to tell the underbodies are not detailed or the bodies are very simple. But at a total investment of $190 I am a happy 3 railer!  (about the cost of a GGD car or two IIRC.....and if money was no object.....I'd have 9 of them!)

At $10. a car I would have have bought them too. Not everyone has to have super detailed everything. In fact I would guess there are way more that do not than do.

I have the 1954 Lionel 2245 A-C Texas Special Diesels.  I have the 6 car Williams TS 15" red AL cars.  Ran them together on the Houston Tinplate small portable layout at a TCA meet.  Some people thought they were 1950 prototype cars that got out of the factory.  The paint on the cars and 2245 are that close!  Or I run them with my Williams 1988 UP katy Heritage!

Just make sure the trucks have lube.  If they do, they run with little friction

I never said they shouldn't be. 

But, Ill leave it open for you to have the final word.

Rusty

ReadingFan,

Can you please email me this at; phillyreading@gmail.com

Thank you.

Lee Fritz

Done