P.S. Have you seen the December issue yet? Charle's Irace's Standard Gauge layout pictured on pages 16-17 is my idea of a perfect Christmas layout!
Becky
Trains, trains, wonderful trains. The more you get, the more you toot!
I'd go with the 225E because of it's versatile appearance. You can run it with anything and mix and match tenders of different roadnames or simply stick with a Lionel Lines tender. I agree that post-war tenders were much better looking than their pre-war brothers. So if you've got the Pensy mojo you can run a basic post-war Pensy tender with a pre-war engine like the 225E, which was one of the best scale-like steamers. But you wouldn't pair a 258T with a Pensy turbine any easier than you could put a 700T behind a 258E. I've also noticed that the 225E can be harder to acquire if you're limited on budget (as I am). However there's a lot to be said for distinctive engines like the Turbine! Bottom line, all 3 are extremely desireable so the best price may end up making your decision. Don't forget you can always have them all sooner or later!
Pre-war cars can be a bit pricey but it all depends on which series we're talking about. The largest cars like the 700 series passenger cars command the highest values most of the time. But more often than not they come up on the bay at lower starting points than the post-war extruded aluminum streamline passenger cars. Similarly, you might aquire a scratch and dent 813 cattle car for the same price as a good condition and complete post-war milk car set. Both can be had for less than 40 bucks (on the right day) but which one is the greater value? It all depends on which you prefer.
Personally I like to keep pre and post-war trains separate as a rule. However I run Standard gauge next to G-scale and a 259 with 258T along side a 300AC Flyer set. On the Standard/G layout the buildings are all paper or tin and the accessories are all out-of-scale to both trains. On the O/S layout the structures are Plasticville which screams post-war, and I have plenty of post-war equipment including my first set, a 1964 Scout. But the inclusion of out of scale toys like Tonka trucks and repro Marx 54mm figures make pre-war engines like the 259 from 1929 look right at home. Similarly a 225E would look just as much at home on a layout of this type simply because the theme of the whole environment is "toys and Christmas".
So which ever way you go I think you'll be right!
That's funny I'm restoring a fixer-upper 224E gunmetal myself at the moment...needs a repaint and I don't really do those anymore but I though what the heck, I never did a gunmetal repaint but read a lot about them and want to try out a new airbrush.
BUT my choice is to run it with a postwar tender. I just like all the extra options because of everything that is compatible with those couplers and didn't want to have to mess with a transition car.
I have had both styles of turbines, while the double worm with the idler gear set up is noiser, it does save on side rod wear. I dont care if it smokes as the smoke bothers my asthma anyways so I disconnect them while I own them. I ended up with the 225E, has the plastic/bakelite tender, remote box coupler. Then I found another 225E under the table for sale, just the locomotive as a fixer upper, but it had a nice boiler face with both marker lights intact, so I bought that to. I will restore it back to new over time and find a tender for it. The other one is complete, just needs cleaned up from years in storage. I have been around pre/post war Lionel since I was knee high, 37yrs old now. I do repair work for a couple local shops, mostly Lionel but I will fix anything I can get parts for. I used to have quite the collection with most of the late prewar engines including scale hudson and a OO set. Gave it up for a few years and sold everything except for my Dad's set from 1949. I have always loved the late prewar era with its mix of diecast locomotives that are a taste of whats to come as Lionel transistions from colorfull tinplate engines and cars, to more lifelike diecast engines and plastic cars with more prototypical colors/road names. The high cost of prewar is what kept my collection small, most all were basket cases that I rebuilt over time. I have my signed off membership app for TCA that hopefully our now stable income will allow me to finaly officaly join that group of folks. While I have dabbled in other scales, mostly due to the local HO scale club, my scale of choice has always been 3 rail O scale, and mostly all Lionel. Grandpa couldnt afford much when dad was little, but what they did have was the best. Fast forward to my childhood and after the Tyco HO set I got at Christmas 1980 all but died the same day and I ended up running the old 1949 Lionel the rest of the day. Come the following March and all the HO stuff was replace by my own Lionel set for my birthday. Been running the circle L ever since!
LHS mechanic and geniune train and antique garden tractor nut case!
Sorry, can't help you make up your mind.
The 225E is based on the New Haven I-4 Pacific. Most 225 with the "E" versions had a larger die-cast Tender. Later production dropped the "E" on the number plate and used a "Bakelite" (an eary plastic) Tender. Same motor as the 224E and 226E, they run great.
Post War, Lionel re-worked the 225E locomotive body to look more like a Pennsylvania K-4 Pacific and added a smoke unit. Still a great runner.
The 2020 or 671 Turbine are the same except for the number. The "Double Worm Drive" was used in 1946 only, it was noisy and used a "one year only" Smoke Bulb" system. 2020 & 671 from 1947 on to 1949 used the standard single worm motor and a heater type smoke unit, a much better runner. The 671 with the 12 wheel Pennsylvania Tender is a big plus.
Don U. TCA 73-5735
I'm building a wind-up based tin litho layout that follows typical toy train building standards so it looks like something from the 1920's and early 30's. From what I've seen and read their really isnt much difference between a mid-30's pre-war fine-scale layouts and post-war fine-scale layouts from until you hit the late 40's early 50's when alot of new items and methods come on the market. So it really depends on what specific year you want to try to hit, personally I would think for electric trains I would do Post-war as the range of products is so much greater.
Have fun with your trains
You could do something like even numbered days prewar, odd numbered days postwar, Sundays and holidays a combination of both!
I am building a small layout that will feature my collection of xmas buildings, so it will be a winter theme layout. I have the chance to purchase a nice 225E in black with the plastic tender, or a really nice early 675 and 2020 duel worm drive turbine. There are pros and cons to both sides, one con being the higher cost of prewar rolling stock. I already have my fathers 1655 set from '49 that will run on the layout and with my wife being from Pennsylvania and having lived there for 10 years, I do have a fetish for things PRR like K4's, GG1's and turbines. I keep leaning toward a PRR layout, but then I see that 225E. To many darn decisions!! Have to see how well the turbine runs when I am back at the shop on Saturday morning. Mike
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