I have 3 trains on Christmas Village display. I have the Lionel Winter Wonderland Train set running through the center of my Christmas Village and now I want to move it to the outside track because it’s very long with all the expansion packs and I’m thing of maybe a small passenger set in the town.
I have the Polar Express on the 2nd level because it’s closer to my Santa’s Village on top and it’s a little too large for the town.
I also have the Hogwarts because I found an after Christmas clearance sale that was just too good to pass up and the kids thought it would be fun. The Hogwarts train is so wide and the long passenger cars knocks everything down. I never really liked it anyway and I don’t want to add more cars.
I liked the smaller 4-4-2 locomotive running through town and I’m thinking of getting away from freight trains in town, but just don’t see anything I like.
I bought an MTH Amtrak train a few years ago from eBay, and was blown away as how big it was and I have never been able to even run it. I don’t want to end up with that situation again. So I guess I’ll have to forget about passenger trains.
I have another 4-4-2 locomotive that needs a little work that I would like to use with the Lionel Pullman Passenger set if they are small enough to go through the town
11” would be OK.
I just measured the Hogwarts cars and they are 14”. My Polar Express is 12”
I put the Hogwarts train on the town tracks and it was a disaster. I got it working but I had to move everything around and now I have my wife upset because of what I done. I just got to get rid of the Hogwarts.
My Amtrak is a monster. its packed away in a box so i can't measure it, but I know its bigger than these.
Well I ran the Hogwarts around the track with a camera and the clearances look OK, but i still want a smaller train.
watch?v=d HRNcbIV5E&feature
This might be even a better answer http://www.readymadetoys.com/rmttoytrpaca.html these passenger cars are only 7" long
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
rtraincollector This might be even a better answer http://www.readymadetoys.com/rmttoytrpaca.html these passenger cars are only 7" long
That’s interesting, I don’t know that I could get use to those short passenger cars in my town, but I’ve wanted to do something in my Santa’s Village for years and the BEEP EMD GP7 Christmas and those Christmas cars look like there exactly what I need. Thanks! Years ago I had a loop of O-27 with a handcar running around then I made some big changes and forgot all about it until now.
Hi,
Don't know if you still need the measurements, just measured them on the layout. The cars are exactly 11" long (body Length) and 12" long (coupler to coupler).
We run them behind a mint 1688E and they look cool. Besides a 1937 Loco and 2011 cars is way cool.
Hope the info is of some use.
Patrick
Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono
Monsieur Don't know if you still need the measurements, just measured them on the layout. The cars are exactly 11" long (body Length) and 12" long (coupler to coupler).
Thanks Patrick, I did still want the exact measurements to be sure. That’s the same size as the PE cars and they work just fine although the Berkshire takes up a lot of room on the curves.
Yesterday my 6yr old grandson was playing with the trains and somehow derailed both my Winter Wonderland Train and the Hogwarts in the tunnel at the same time. It was really a mess and I could not push either train out. I ended up using a stiff cooper wire with a hook to pull them out and really was expecting the worst for damage. But except for some scratches they were fine. I would have really been upset if it were the Berkshire
I had an access hole in the middle of the tunnel from underneath for just this situation, but thought it would be cool to make a video from the trains view. So I enclosed the tunnel and even painted the inside to look like a tunnel, but forgot the lighting and this little camera I got needs a lot of light.
Well I ended up buying the Lionel Angela Trotta Thomas Steam Locomotive 6-38692 and Lionel North Pole Express Passenger 2-Car Set 6-35250 which were both on sale.
I'm going to put the Hogwarts back in its original box just like it was new and probably sell it, but not right away because I'm still undecided on what the future of this Christmas layout is going to be. i have a few ideas, but not sure if i want to go through all the work.
Oh boy did I ever make a mistake, I just received my Lionel North Pole Express Passenger 2-Car Set (6-35250) and it’s exactly the same cars as the Hogwarts except for the paint. I just don’t know what I was thinking because I was expecting them to be the same size as the Polar Express cars.
I get my Lionel 6-38692 0-4-0 tomorrow, but I might end up turning it into another freight train and put up the new cars along with the Hogwarts.
A dockside switcher and the RMT passenger cars would of been perfect
Ya, you are probably right. I just could not get used to how short they were. If they had just two more rows of windows I would have jumped on it and now the only set that I was interested in is sold out.
It turned out that my loco showed up today instead of tomorrow and I had just went to the store and missed it by 10 min. Now I got to wait till tomorrow.
OK, I'm looking for 2 or 3 Passenger Car that are 11" or less and preferably in Christmas colors like RED or green.
I saw some on eBay but I can't tell how long they are. Would O-27 be an indicator of the size?
I think I might even buy some Polar Express car and paint them red if i don't find something soon
It sounds like the North Pole Central Passenger Expansion Pack is just what you're looking for. The pack has three cars painted up like this one:
Here's a set of seven of them being pulled by a starter set 4-4-2 (similar to yours):
These are the cars mentioned above that are 12" long including the couplers. They are a bit smaller than the Polar Express cars. The only problem with them is that they were cataloged a few years ago and may be a bit difficult to find.
Hope this helps, and Merry Christmas!
J White
Here's a better shot of a car next to a starter set engine:
Thanks J White!
The North Pole Central Passenger Expansion Pack looks exactly what I’m looking for. I think I saw one of those on eBay or somewhere, but I could not find any dimensions. Ok then that’s what I’m going to look for.
I wanted a bright red flashy passenger train to draw the kid’s attention as it comes into town.
I moved my older Holiday freight train to the outside track because not only does it have a lot more cars, but also because it’s pretty dull and not as visible anymore. I just added a new shiny candy cane tank car and there was so much excitement over it that I’m thinking of painting the other cars. I just need to learn how to paint.
I just looked at the box the set came in and the catalog number is 6-30039. The set comes with a combine car, a coach, and an observation. It also comes with four straight Fasttrack sections, a station platform and a few pine trees.
lionel's website says it was cataloged in 2011, so it may still be available at some hobby shops. The cars are each named after one of Santa's reindeer, and they made five extra cars to make a set of eight cars. If you don't care about having an observation car for the end of the train, it may be just as easy to find three of seperate sale cars. The full dome car "Cupid" seems to be going for a pile of money, but the other seven are pretty reasonablely priced.
Thanks J white, I just looked on line and I only see one on eBay. My wife’s going to shoot me because I’ve already spent over $500 on Lionel Christmas items this month.
I think I saw that set last year on sale, but I didn’t want to add anymore tracks and now I’m pulling my hair out trying to figure out what to do with all this Christmas stuff. I may have to redesign my Christmas layout to add another track.
Well I was able to find the North Pole Central Passenger Expansion Pack and I just bought it. I will not receive it until after Christmas, but I don’t plan on taking the layout down for maybe 3 weeks after taking the tree down, so I’ll be able to run it for a little while anyway.
I sure wish I had a place to leave it up all year long.
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