Need Advice with NYC Berkshire and Passenger Cars

[Anonymous]

I was wondering if someone could help me choose the correct passenger cars that would go with a Lionel NYC Berkshire 6-28639. It is a new steam locomotive that came out this year in the 2004 Vol. 1 catalog. In the Lionel catalog they are offering some small 0-27 streamliner passenger cars to go with the engine. I would like to be as prototypical as possible. Did they use madison passenger cars with this engine or streamliner, I think aluminum, passenger cars. On the side of the steam engine it states A-2a which might be a model number. I know I must stay on the smaller side of passenger cars, no bigger than 15 inches because of the 19 1/2 inches of the locomotive. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you All, N. Sell

[wrmcclellan]

Noel,

You have a several selections that I would recommend. This loco is a traditional size loco so I think the best choices are the various traditional sized 0-27 cars.

1. The Williams Madison sets are very nice. I have the Pennsylvania set that I run behind my 726 Berkshires. Williams offers a Madison NYC in the two tone gray scheme.

2. There is a very nice Lionel NYC 0-27 streamliner set from 1989 that is quite easy to obtain. I just got one at York with all 6 cars new in the box with master carton for about $25-30 per car. I think these cars are a bit nicer than the more recent Lionel versions as the NYC lettering is a reasonable size where the newer issues have the NYC lettering garishly large. The Lionel 6 car set numbers are 16016 baggage, 16017 combine, 16018 coach, 16019 vistadome, 16020 coach, and 16021 observation. I am running this set behind the Lionmaster Hudson and it looks very nice and well proportioned.

3. An exception to the Lionel recent issue 0-27 streamliners are the 3 cars that came with the 2002 NYC FT set (6-31932). These 0-27 cars are also two tone gray with fluted sides and diaphrams. However - I have not seen these cars as separate sale items.

4. Williams also offers reproductions of the Lionel 0-27 streamliners. If I had not found a Lionel NYC set, I was going to get the Williams.

5. The 15 inch aluminum cars are a bit too large for the traditional Lionel steamers. These cars are closer to scale in cross section, but are shortened for 0-31 radius track. Thus I think these cars are out of proportion for the loco you mention.

Good luck!

[lionelsoni]

The extruded aluminum 2500-type cars will not clear Lionel O27 switch machines, if you should happen to use those. However, the Williams heavyweight "Madisons" that wr mentions will, with the slightest shim washer between floor and truck, if they are what I think he means. The Williams underfloor gadget is in the middle; so the car just laps over the switch machine a little. I have a set of EL cars that I pull with my Lackawanna Trainmaster and am very happy with them.

[wrmcclellan]

Noel,

Lionelsoni raises some good points. Let me clarify and add further:

The Williams Madison cars I refer to are what Williams now call the 60' Madisons (15" cars). Williams also make 72' Madisons (18" cars) that would not look good behind the new Lionel Berkshire. The 60' Madisons are rated by Williams as 0-31 min radius and would need a bit of tinkering as suggested by Lionelsoni to go through an 0-27 switch. A quick look at Williams web site (www.williamstrains.com) does not show current production of a 60' NYC branded Madison set. I think they offered one in the past (1990's) and it came as a 5 car set. Current sets are 4 car with a 2 car add-on available for some.

The Williams 0-27 NYC two-tone gray streamliner cars look nice. These have appropriate NYC lettering plus "Century Limited" on the sides. The two-tone gray used by Williams is lighter than that used by Lionel.

As a note and bit of information, the term "Heavyweights" is a term currently used by K-Line for their scale size heavyweight passenger cars and these definitely would not look good behind the new Lionel Berkshire, so I would avoid them for this loco. The toy train heavyweight style cars acquired the generic "Madison" name due to one of the original Lionel heavyweight style cars having the name "Madison" on the side (the Irvington, Madison, and Manhattan 2600 series). The Williams 60' Madisons are a reproduction of the Lionel Irvington/Madison style cars. Real RR heavyweight passenger cars were called heavywieghts due to all steel construction and use of concrete ballast to improve ride characteristics.

Finally, MTH has made some baby heavywieghts and I have a UP set. The MTH car bodies are pretty well proportioned for 0-27, but they ride so high above the trucks that the height of these cars makes them look out of proportion behind certain traditional sized locos. I think the MTH heavyweight cars would not be a great choice for the new Lionel Berkshire unless one did some modifications to the bolsters to lower the bodies. As I have not tried this, I cannot comment on how it might turn out or whether it is practical.

Regards.

[lionelsoni]

I think I have the same MTH UP heavyweights; and I agree with your assessment of their looks. I generally pull them with larger locomotives. They also seem surprisingly stiff for modern cars. I was able to get an 8-car train around the corners only by removing one of the pickups from each car.

[wrmcclellan]

lionelsoni,

You are right. The MTH cars do not roll easily. I traced it to the spring bronze fingers that are used to connect the lights to the common rails via the wheel axles. If you carefully hold one of the fingers off the axle (I did not want to ruin it) and the wheels turn easily. Removing this assembly would make the car twice as easy to roll at the expense of a pickup assembly and thus flickering lights over switches and crossovers. This is the curse of a full plastic frame on the car vs the metal frame the other manufacturers typically use. So the light weight and free wheeling trucks are cancelled by the need to connect to the common rails. I wonder how it would work just removing one set of bronze fingers (and still have two pickup rollers) or maybe one bronze finger from each truck (better to avoid flickering)?

The modern era Lionel cars have just one pickup (flicker), but the spring bronze finger to the axle is not a significant force to deter free rolling.

[lionelsoni]

I solve the flickering problem by rectifying the track voltage and putting a capacitor across the resulting DC. I do this for all my one-pickup cars anyway, except that I have way too big a backlog!

[laz 57]

Noel,
Gryzboskis in Scranton Pa. have a breakup set of the 2002 NYC FT (61932) for about $100.

[Anonymous]

Noel,

If it is truly an A-2 Berkshire, it is a freight engine. It would never have pulled passenger cars. That being said, I would run whatever type of passenger cars behind it that you think look best.

It is your engine and your railroad.

Enjoy.

[Anonymous]

I want to thank everyone for helping me with the choice of passenger cars for the NYC Berkshire. Thank you so much. I appreciate all of you. Mr. Sell

[Anonymous]

Bob - What size caps and diodes do you use to rectify voltage to the lights on the passenger cars?

[lionelsoni]

I use the little 1.4 ampere bridge rectifier from Radio Shack and about 5000 microfarads, more if a car has several lights.

Prewar amd postwar cars often have the light socket grounded to the frame, which usually requires putting in a new socket. This can often be done without damaging the car, by mounting the new light at right angles or upside-down from the old, but so that the new lamp filament is in the same location as the old one. Modern plastic cars are very easy, by comparison.

If you can't find a place on the floor for the capacitor(s) because of furniture inside the car, as in the Rail King heavyweights, consider mounting it just under the roof, as I did.