I see for sale here and there (like on Ebay) Lionel passenger cars, Pullman for instance (6-30111 SET) and wonder how good these cars are, I hear the trucks and couplers are plastic, anyone have any advice? Are even the wheels plastic? Are these things something to shy away from, or are they OK?
These cars are based on the Post War 2400 Series tooling, except with no roof ventilators and metal frames. The cars are solidly built, but has plastic trucks and couplers. The wheels are metal, and there are pick-ups for interior lighting.
Lionel also makes an up-graded version in their Post War Conventional classics line.
Jon
Thank you for your response, how well do these plastic couplers and trucks hold up? The cars are priced attractively, by today's standards, but I am suspicious. I shall look into the other Post war classic products as well, thanks again!
The small MPC era baby Madison cars from the 70's are horrible but these are not that design. They are good modern reissues of the PW O27 cars albeit cheapened a bit to make more affordable starter sets. The downside of plastic couplers is they tend to pop open on long heavy trains. That shouldn't be an issue here unless you intend on connecting 3 or 4 sets into one long passenger consist. Plastic trucks and couplers are not intrinsically bad they just do not look as good as metal ones.
Thank you very much, that is helpful information. I have ordered the Williams 60' Wabash cars which will be good on Fastrax, maybe I will still get a set of these pullmans for O27 track as well.
I have two sets of those cars, one in PRR for my GG1 and one in NYC for my 736. Yes, the trucks and cars are plastic, but I've never had any trouble of any kind with either set. I did add lead weights over the trucks, to make them a bit less lightweight, but I'm not sure how necessary it was.
EDIT: No, the wheels aren't plastic.
The small MPC era baby Madison cars from the 70's are horrible but these are not that design.
I wouldn't say they were all horrible. Once the Blue Comet came out with the die-cast six wheel trucks, they were very nice. The latest up-graded ones have the die-cast trucks and couplers plus fully-detailed interiors.
I went crazy a few years back and compulsively bought one of every different modern red-stripe ATSF 2400-type car I could find, probably out of nostalgia, because I had as a kid bought the silver Lionel-Lines cars new in the original series to pull behind my 2243. In the light of day, I finally realized that 2400s look really strange behind Lionel F3s, which are full 1/48 scale models, although I have no issue with their design and quality. The red-stripe cars are now packed away.
On the other hand, I have a dozen of modern UP 2400-type cars that look fine behind my 2023, which, like other Lionel Alcos, is undersized for 1/48 scale.
Bob Nelson
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