Could Lionel produce City of San Francisco?

[ernesto]

To my knowledge, Lionel has produced only two items from its 1930s stable of  streamliners for collectors.  These are the Rail Chief cars and, if  I'am correct,  a special edtion of the first Union Pacific streamliner, M 10,000 for its train collectors club.  Like the scale model makers, they have avoided reproducing the M10005 City of Denver even though it's hard to find.  I obtained a set about twenty two years ago. I have seen very few since that time.  Two years ago, I saw at a train collectors show,  a four car green set.  It must had been just painted a two tone green since the department store special green City of Denver came in only three and two car sets.   It would be nice, if Lionel would reproduce the green City of Denever Set for collectors.  By the way, Sears also had a department store set of the City of Denver. Is there any collector that can tell me how this set differed from the standard set since it's is listed as being  yellow and having four cars?  By Federal Fair Trade policies, large department stores had to have their sets differ in some way from the standard sets since they sold in such a large volume, at a lower price.  If they had sold the standard sets, the smaller retailer would not have had a chance.  

Lionel  could do one better.  Instead of repeating past, why not produce the City of San Francisco?  Although this appeared to look like the City of Denver, it was different in some ways.  The power car was taller by two feet and had a larger head lamp.  The coaches were similar to the M10000 train. Lionel already has the cars.  A realistic power car could be produced, perhaps in plastic.  The exsisting cars could be cut in one half the original size since this would not be a scale model.  A four car consist could be made since the original train was eleven cars long, too long for a reasonable size toy train.  Perhaps, the same power train that the inexpensive Santa Fe FA set used  could be employed.  The hope is that they wouldn't ruin it like American Flyer did in the 1930s by making a very unrealistic model, that look like it tried to be city  a City of San Francisco and ended , up being called a City Denver.

There were concept diesels, which were similar in design to the City of Denver Diesels,  mentioned in Kambach's GM Scrapbook.  These could be considerd for production by Lionel for a limited run. They would probably snapped up by collectors.  Perhaps a powered O sized version of  Lincoln White Metal's Union Pacific power car could be considered.  Just make it realistic looking like Lionel's City of Denver.    The Lionel prototypes of The City Denver could also be reproduced for limited runs.  Finally, The 1939 Worlds Fair trains, which ran on the Highway's and Horizons diorama, the second year of the fair, could be considered.  Even non-train accessory items, such as Lionel's open speed boat produced in the 1930s, needed not be copied exactly from the past.  A model closed speed boat, which had a similar design to the City of Denver Cab, was produced by All Star models as a wood kit in the early 1940s. Perhaps it could be reproduced in metal by  Lionel.  I hope Lionel might consider these suggestions. Even other Lionel prototypes, such as the Baldwin Baby Face diesel could be considered.

 

 

[1688torpedo]

Hello Ernesto & to the forum!    Perhaps someday Lionel could produce a City of Denver. It would all depend if they felt there is a market for it. Since they do have a tinplate set in their current catalog maybe they will come out with more offerings in the future? We'll have to see what they come out with in their next catolog. Take Care.