Lionel Blue comet 8001

[Fred Bear]

I bought this set off Ebay, it has a chip card in the caboose. Does anyone know if this was factory or after market? Also, what year was this made? Came with six blue plastic passenger cars. The engine itself weighs about 400 pounds, or at least a couple of pounds. Jake

[iguanaman3]

I assume you mean the tender has a circuit board. The board is for the "Mighty Sound of Steam" chuff effect which is triggered by the tether to the engine. Also called the "mighty sound of electrical interference", it is a primative version of railsounds which Lionel used in the 70's and 80's. Be sure to check the board before hooking it up. Lionel used foam to mount the board which disintegrates with age causing the board to short out on the tender frame. I reccomend removing the board and applying new foam mounting tape before using.

Neil

[Chris F]

Jake, I think you mean the 8801 New Jersey Central, a 4-6-4 cataloged 1978-79. It had a decal, "The Blue Comet", on the feedwater heater tank. It is indeed a hefty locomotive; it used the same boiler as the postwar 736 Berkshire (but the boiler front and feedwater heater from the 665 Hudson - a unique combination).

Five small Madison cars were cataloged as separate sale items from 1978-80:
9536 - Barnard baggage car
9537 - Halley combination car
9538 - Faye Pullman car
9539 - Westphal Pullman car
9540 - Tempel observation car

The 19000 Giacobini diner car was cataloged in 1987.

As a passenger set, there wouldn't have been a caboose. I don't know what you mean by "chip card". I'm guessing that you mean a circuit board, which might have been added to the observation car to light an after-market rear drumhead.

[Fred Bear]

Yes, it's a circuit board and the chugging sound is minimal at best! It has a speaker inside the tender along with the circuit board. The thing runs great, but the sound just isn't all that great. Makes a guy wonder if converting the stuff to DCC would be a good idea. I love the old locomotives but the new sounds would be nice. Anyone have an opinion on that move? Best Regards, Jake

[dwiemer]

Fred,
Not to be nosey, but, what did you get it for? I am interested in a Blue Comet set and an not sure what is the best route to go. I hope that it brings you much happiness. One avenue I may pursue is to get the Williams set if it is not much more than the current market for used ones.
Thanks,
Dennis

[csxt30]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Fred Bear

Makes a guy wonder if converting the stuff to DCC would be a good idea. I love the old locomotives but the new sounds would be nice. Anyone have an opinion on that move? Best Regards, Jake

I think a lot of people are putting the DCS, or Railsounds in there engines now days !
the speakers are probably better now,also. You may want to give Digital Dynamics or TAS a call about adding it if you really like the engine !
Thanks,

[Fred Bear]

Thanks John for that connection. I paid $325.00 for the set, with all the cars, etc. It's in great shape, appears not to be used a bundle. Has the red cowcatcher and red wheels like the old ones, it's one reason I bid on the set, I sorta like that feature. Jake

[fwright]

Jake

Your descriptions and prices don't match up with the 8001 Blue Comet and passenger car set Chris F described. I have all the passenger cars, but no Blue Comet loco :-( There is no red as made at the factory; it is all blue and cream with black trucks. There is also no caboose in the set from the factory. In the past 12 years, I have not found anybody willing to break up the set to sell me the loco separately; nor have I seen a set go for less than $700.

There was a pre-war Blue Comet set that could easily have had red wheels - I'm not an expert here. But the pre-war would not have had a circuit board from the factory. There was also a reproduction of the pre-war Blue Comet in the '90s. Last, MTH Rail King made a Jersey Central Hudosn in Blue Comet colors - don't know what cars, if any, it came with. The Rail King engine would have had a Protosounds board - don't know what version. With the Rail King, neither the cow catcher nor the wheels were painted red from the factory - I know, I've drooled over one at my LHS.

Until we establish whether you have a modified 8001, a repro pre-war Blue Comet, or something else, we're probably chasing our tails trying to help.

yours in training
Fred W

[Kooljock1]

Agreed. A friend of mine has sold two of these sets in the past year, and neither have a red anything! The engine should be two-tone blue, black, and gold lettering. The cars are blue with cream stripe and gold lettering.

The engine is a #2046 type hudson with #665 boiler front casting and #2046 type tender. The tender rides on six wheel trucks and has Mighty Sound of Steam, and I believe electronic whistle.

Jon [8D]

[Fred Bear]

OK, I messed up a few things on the description. The Blue comet that is red is my neighbors that I cannot buy, but I can use. It's old, it was his dads. 2nd thing, there is not a caboose, but one car is different than the rest, I thought it would be considered a caboose. I did pay $325.00 on Ebay, it was an open auction. The train is blue, says Blue Comet on the side, had the plastice blue & cream cars. Is this thing from the 60's or 70's or later? thanks again for all the input & help, Jake

[Chris F]

Jake, if you used a buyer name like "bowhunter" and the winning bid was $326, the set is as I described earlier.

[Fred Bear]

Ebay name is BambooFlyRodMaker**BearArcheryCollector. Yes that is the set I believe you saw. I'm new here, so I get things mixed up sometimes. So new in fact, I didn't realize the pre war cars would not couple with the post war! I bought 4 pre war cars, is there a way to deal with that? Thanks, Jake

[dwiemer]

Jake, Most prewar couplers can be changed out for postwar. Not knowing much about the set that you purchased, you may want to have a train store do it. Another forum member "Jerry" repairs trains and perhaps he could help.
Dennis

[dwiemer]

Fred,
You may want to give Williams a try. They have some very nice looking Jersey Central Locos. I have thought of ordering one myself. While it would not be original, it would look great with your set and Williams tend to be good runners.
Dennis

[Kooljock1]

Your set is from the 1978-79 time frame. The engine is #6-8801, and features smoke, headlight, The Electronic Mighty Sound of Steam, Magne-traction, illuminated running(class) lights, transformer controlled forward-neutral-reverse, PullMor motor, die-cast metal body. It is the Post War #2046 tool and motor with the #665 boiler front.

The cars were sold separately, and are #6-9536 "Barnard" Baggage Car, #6-9537 "Halley" Combo Car, 6-9538 "Faye" Coach, 6-9539 "Westphal" Coach, and 6-9540 "Tempel" Observation Car.

A matching Dining Car was added around 1987.

It's a great set. Enjoy it!

Jon [8D]

[fwright]

Dennis

Thanks for the suggestion. I completely forgot about the Williams option. I presently have a 2026 that doesn't look bad pulling the cars. The LHS's Rail King Jersey Central Hudson is priced at $425 - out of my league.

Fred W

[krapug1]

Just for the record, 8001 is a 2-6-4 DC ONLY Nickel Plate Road K-4, made in 1980 only. This engine is the same as the 8007 DC ONLY New Haven that headed up the New Englander Freight set.

Ken

[Mikado 4501]

I did something a little different. When I got the 8801 Blue Comet Hudson, I didn't really like the Mighty Sound of Steam either, so I found some seperate sale 2046 style tenders, including one from 1993 with RailSounds, removed their black shells, put the Blue Comet tender body on instead, and TA DA, I got a Blue Comet engine with RailSounds, or even a postwar air whistle. This is fun for people like me who like conventional sounds :3

[steinmike]

Fred W:

I also have the six car set without the original locomotive.  I used a custom repainted baby Hudson with magnetraction and a conventional whistle for a few years until Williams came out with their Jersey Central, 2-8-4 Berkshire.  It's a great engine, pulls the full consist without any problems and at a much lower voltage (in conventional mode) than my post-war engines, you just have to ignore that the Jersey Central did not have any 2-8-4's on the Blue Comet!

There's a great history to the train - it was run as an all-reserved seat express train between Jersey City (with a ferry connection to New York) and Atlantic City.  The normal consist was six cars: baggage, baggage-combine (which was the smoking car and open to all passengers), diner, two coaches, and the observation (although the JC ran two trips each way, there was only one diner, so one of the consists ran without one).  As needed, they would add additional coaches.   It's not often that you can run a complete consist - but with this set you can.

BTW - the MPC Blue Comet cars have a problem with the spring mechanism keeping the roller in contact with the center rail and Lionel has a fix for it - a coil spring that replaces the original "arm" spring - have done that for all the MPC passenger cars in my collection and it works great.

Mike