After getting outbid on ebay, I wasnt going to go any higher as I could drive to Indianapolis and pick up a set for $234, tried to save some $$ but didnt work. So this morning after taking care of some errands on the “honey do” list, I headed for Train Express on the north side of Indianapolis. I had called the day before and Larry had a set still in stock but not listed on the website. She is now sitting on my dining room table in all her glory. Lionel really took the HP set to a new level with this one. The Hall class ten wheels looks striking in its GWR green with shiny capped chimney. The chocalate and cream coaches also look good, not as good as the coaches from ACE trains, but for the price its a home run. The diecast trucks are a nice upgrade from the plastic ones on the HP set. I amoung many other UK Lionel modelers really hope that Lionel will follow this set up with some proper freight wagons, GWR style signals or other trackside acc. to add value to the set and all more stateside modelers to properly model the UK countryside. My set will be running amoung my ceramic Dickensville buildings which have a distinct UK flavor to them. For now I will be watching ebay for Hornby brand tinplate semaphore signals and other trackside items along with freight wagons. Now where did I put my box of lead Brittans brand soldiers? Great job Lionel, now lets not drop the ball with the just the 2 UK style sets. Even the HP train really exhists in real life. How about a seperate sale Olton Hall class engine as the HP engine is in everyday life. There are even other liverys the Hall class wore all the way up into British Railways years prior to retirement. For those not well versed in preserved UK steam, the real Kinlet Hall is restored and active today, pulling the Shakespeare Express from time to time, Olton Hall is used as well. Lionel could bury both Ace Trains, great tinplate models if you have very d
Spent the middle of the day putting the O scale track up on the overhead layout where once G scale track had been, fits so much better amoung my ceramic buildings, still have love of buildings to find and unpack. Here is a pic of her paused at where the passenger platform will be. I love the whistle, spot on for a UK style steam whistle. I have my video collection on the history of British Railways playing and the whistle is a very good rendering of a UK whistle. I may tone down the front lanterns, only the little “bullseye” should be lighted, not the whole front face of the lantern. Some have asked if the lanterns should have a white body. I have pics in my GWR books of engines with red body lanterns as well, I dont see an obvoius reason for the red or white body lanterns. I would have like to have people in the windows on the coaches over just plain backlighted windows, but the lighting is very good and pretty flicker free while running. Engine runs smooth and quiet, I expect it to get better as its run in, seems a bit stiff as new engines so commonly do. I am running the loop, 12x15 with a new CW80 transformer. While its underpowered if I want to run some of the older pre/postwar stuff. The theme of the layout will be UK and will only see the xmas time appearce of my Dad’s 1655 set for its Christmas eve and day run each year. If you fancy the colorfull steam power of the UK, I can highly recommend this set to anybody. Many good deals can be found by searching online for this set. No track or transformer come with the set, but its very well packaged and comes with spare light bulbs and smoke fluid. I dont run my smoke much due to my asthma but turn it on once and awhile as I do like the smell. Cheers Mike
Very nice. I too have a British outline layout but focusing on Lionel’s Thomas items. I wonder how this set will sell in the UK? If well, we may expect some other derivations off its tooling.
The set has been out since early spring this year I belive. Over on the Lionel UK collectors website forum, it appears that the sent has been selling like hotcakes, even with the extra expense of importing them to the UK. Many UK modelers have ordered them online themselves. That has been the lament for many years, was the lack of affordable 3 rail O scale UK models. Ace and Bassett Lowke make some beautifull models, start around 600 UK pounds sterling, double that for one in the states buying them if not more depending on the exchange rate. So thats $1200+ for a tinplate/diecast engine, and they run on 24vdc not AC power. Lionel has the chance to turn some of the Thomas models into real engines, like the “Diesel” model and the Thomas chassis. Diesel from Thomas the Tank is a class 08 shunting diesel. The Thomas chassis would be excellent to make a GWR 57XX Pannier tank engine, those were used on everything, passenger, yards and local freights. Those would sell like crazy. I think Lionel is testing the waters with this set. They alrady had the tooling from the HP set, why not use it to thier advantage. I hope the sales will encourage Lionel to follow up with add on cars, maybe a UK style station with the glass covered platform. Defintaly an untapped market out there.
I would really love for Lionel to produce a brake van for Thomas.This should be another easy one using the frame from the Troublsome trucks.The Shakespeare set is very attractive.
I think the bright lanterns are a concession to the North American market. We are used to seeing headlights switched on day or night, and get worried when you guys run at night with effectively no light.
I think the lanterns would look ok if the front had just the small bullseye lense and not the whole front of the body lighted. I will work on this next week. Mike
Great thread and couldn’t agree more! I was thinking they could turn one of the boxcabs into Toby from the Railway Series.
I created a brake van from a Bobber caboose - cut off the cupola, repainted it… some Marx tinplate works as open trucks. I wish for some closed vans like a fish van. I love the Hornby items but find them pretty expensive. It’s great to hear the Shakespeare set is selling.
I wonder if the Shakespeare set passenger car trucks could be put on the HEX? And the sound board? I wonder how much Lionel would want for just those parts? Hmmm…
If anybody sees someone doing a break up of this set, I would like to have 2 more coaches for my set. While I hope Lionel makes an add on 2 pack of coaches, I am not holding my breath either. Still running beautifully, might have 3 hours run time on the set now. When I am cleaning the house (layed off from my job right now) I fire up the set and run it for an hour or two, then put my dads set on and run it for an hour. I wish I could find some quick radius turnouts to put a passing siding in. The shelfs are only 6" deep and normal O31 turnouts wont work, I have enough room for 2 tracks side by side and close together, but cant seem to find a turnout that will connect the second track to the main line. All swing out to far, would need a 12" deep shelf for them to work. Mike
Do you have two consecutive inside corners? You might be able to put your siding between them. Put the turnout ahead of the corner and make a second 90-degree curve inside the mainline curve. With O31 track, the siding will be 10 inches from the main–way too far. But, if you add some straight track between the curved outlet of the turnout and the next curved piece, you can bring the two tracks as close as you want. For example, a single straight section will bring them to 2 15/16 inches, on centers, about as close as you can get. (My yard tracks are spaced 2 7/8 inches, with no sideswiping yet.)
Of course, you might not have as much shelf in the corners as you need for this; but filling in a little in two corners might be easier than widening an entire wall’s worth.
Another problem might be that, even though you can barely get the two tracks onto one 6-inch shelf, the train hits the wall turning the corner to that track. You might be able to fix this with a spiral. You could use an O72 piece at the end of the curve closest to the wall (1/8 curve; so you would have to cut one O31 curved piece in half). This greatly reduces the troublesome overhang coming out ot the curve and allows the train to get much closer to the wall, without adding much at all to the overall space needed in the corner. A spiral done this way increases the track separation by just about 1 1/2 inches, which of course can be cancelled by increasing the straight section by about 2 1/4 inches.
I think an O72 turnout will allow me to keep the track up tight against the main track, I have some 1/2 section curves that are on each end of that siding, just need a turnout to mate to them, from the angle of the track curve, I think it might work. Next time I am down at the shop, I will pick up a used one to bring home and test fit before I buy them. Mike
If the curved path of an O72 turnout is equivalent to a single O72 curved section (1/32 circle), the siding will be about 3 3/4 inches from the main. If the mainline is 1 1/2 inches from the wall, that will put the ends of the siding ties about 3/8 inch over the edge of the 6-inch shelf.
I made a drawing that shows both the corner scheme that I proposed and the O72-turnout scheme. I assumed a spacing from the wall of 1 1/2 inches to the center of the main line, and 3 inches on centers between the tracks. The tangent track in my scheme is 12.172 (12 5/32) inches long. The center line of the siding in the O72-turnout scheme is .740 (3/4) inch from the shelf edge. I’m sorry that I don’t know how to post it here; but, if you send me your address, I can e-mail it to you as a .bmp or .jpg file.