New LIONEL PRR N5c Cabin Car Review

[Kooljock1]

I just recieved my NEW LIONEL Pennsylvania N5c Cabin Car(6-29709) from Jeremy Grzyboski. Here's a quick review:

The LIONEL N5c Cabin Car is somewhat of a Post War icon. It was almost perfectly scale, at a time when few things were. But in fact, the LIONEL N5c was the opening salvo of several near scale pieces, along with the larger milk cars, barrel gons, and 6464 boxcars. The LIONEL N5c was a nice piece, with clear glass windows(a single piece plastic insert), die-cast bar-end trucks, couplers on both ends, and nicely molded end-platforms, with rivited brake-wheels. The car came in a couple of PRR versions, labled for the "New York Region" or not, as well as the ubiquitous "LIONEL LINES" in Tuscan, and D.L.&W. in gray.

All was well with this crummy in to the 1970's. General Mills management even added a set of non-illuminated plug-in marker lamps in 1973. And then, something horrible happened. You might say: "I smell a rat"!

In 1977 LIONEL, a division of Fundimensions, General Mills...created a "Disney Train". In order to apply their crass Disney graphics(sorry...I'm not a fan of modern Disney), LIONEL eliminated the horizontal double row of rivits along the mid-point of the body. They also deleted several other horizontal and vertical rows of single rivits.

AND THEY NEVER RETURNED!!!!

Until now. Some have celebrated the fact that LIONEL finally restored this tooling. I celebrate this as being entirely new tooling. As the old mold deteriorated, you could begin to see areas where the surfaces on the sides of the car were sinking in. I have a version next to me from 1997, and when held in the right light, you can clearly see mold deterioration around the portholes. The new car has none of this.

In fact, the new car not only has full rivit detail, but separately applied yellow safety grabs on the sides and ends too. Missing are the 1970's markers, but so too are the big end screws holding the body to the frame. Instead, there are four smaller screws holding the body to the frame from the bottom. And speaking of the bottom, there is a nice tool box slung below the right side, and a brake air-tank cannister below the left. And riding in the cupola? A hand-painted brakeman!

The new N5c also has two pick-up rollers, one on each of the die-cast trucks. Oddly enough though, the trucks on the 1997 and 1985 versions were nicer. They both came with Post-War style "drop-plate" couplers, which most agree look and operate better than the "thumb-tack" style on this piece. And surprisingly, these thumb-tack couplers aren't even as nice as the die-cast ones on my daughters' starter set!

Still, compared to the aesthetic catastrophy produced since 1977, this car is a winner. In spite of the couplers design, they work, and the lights don't blink. And the paint and decoration is by far the nicest ever applied to this car.

This car will be available in three versions this year. The version I have, the Century Club II set version and the special edition version made for the TCA Golden Anniversary offer. The last version has PRR "TrainPhone" antennas on the roof.

Jon [8D]