Who Made the First O Gauge Polar Express?

[Jumijo]

This past weekend, I was reading an issue of CTT from 1994/95 time frame, and happened upon an article about making an under the tree layout. The train on that layout was an O gauge 3 rail Polar Express. The cars looked amazingly like the ones in the current Lionel set, but the locomotive looked like a K-Line Pacific. Many of the buildings were noted as being K-Line, but no mention of the train set's manufacturer was made.

Did K-Line make a Polar Express set 12 years ago?

Jim

[Anonymous]

What you probably saw was a K-Line set of Erie Lackawanna heavyweights made around that time. The PE color scheme is pretty close to EL's and these may have been custom decorated.

[Anonymous]

Only Lionel has made the Polar Express--the one seen in the movie and book--in O gauge.

[Anonymous]

I don't think any O gauge set was made prior to the Lionel one, but Bachmann made a G scale version of the train a number of years ago. It had an 1800's 4-6-0 and wooden passenger cars-certainly a far cry from the train depicted in the book and movie! I believe the set included a copy of the book and a sleighbell.

[Anonymous]

I remember that article. What you saw was a K-line Pacific based on the Marx 999 and a set of Williams Lacawanna Madisaon cars. It made a nice representation of the Polar express for the time.