Next Loblaws/PC Trainset?

RobertInOntario

Active Member
For $99.00 you are buying the locomotive at a discount and getting the rest of the train for free.

Yes, exactly. That's just how I viewed these other train sets sold by the other store chain (Loblaws).

I have a pretty nice CNR Hudson that I bought about 3 years ago. It's not 100% accurate in detail but it at least looks something like a CNR Hudson! I've now weathered it and am pretty pleased with it. I've either given away most of its freight cars, although I did repaint a couple of them in realistic CNR colours with appropriate decals -- that was a fun project as well. Most of the Loblaws freight cars had tacky food-product graphics and cartoons on them!

In the past, Loblaws would discount their prices from $100 for the set to just $50, so it became an even better deal! :mrgreen:

Rob
 

Triplex

Active Member
With steam it was totally different. Every railroad seemed to have the idea that they knew better than anyone else what the ideal steam engine was for the job at hand, so there was virtually no commonality from one railroad to anotheron the various classes of steam engine. It would not surprise me if there were 20 different designs for a Northern type locomotive alone.

http://www.steamlocomotive.com/northern/

36 North American railroads had 4-8-4s, almost all with unique designs and several with more than one design. And this is for a wheel arrangement introduced quite late.
 

Russ Bellinis

Active Member
http://www.steamlocomotive.com/northern/

36 North American railroads had 4-8-4s, almost all with unique designs and several with more than one design. And this is for a wheel arrangement introduced quite late.

Probably being introduced late in the development of steam contributed to the diversity of the designs. By then many railroads had some prejudices toward one design over others for various components. Of course the other thing that factored in to the variety of steam designs compared to the standardization of diesels is diesels run a gear box between the traction motor and the wheels. Steam engines, with the exception of geared locomotives, changed their gearing by changing driver sizes. This resulted in a railroad like the New York Central that seldom had to deal with even a hill between N.Y. and Chicago running different style locomotives than the nearby Pennsy that had quite a bit of mountain running. If you look at the Santa Fe, it was almost like 2 different railroads in the steam era. From Chicago to Raton Pass, it was a plains railroad. Between Raton Pass and California it was a mountain railroad. From Los Angeles to Bakersfield in California was a mountain division, but Bakersfield to San Francisco was a plains division.
 

Triplex

Active Member
Probably being introduced late in the development of steam contributed to the diversity of the designs.
I'm saying that the ~40 designs of 4-8-4 aren't even diversity by steam standards. I have no idea how many hundreds of classes of 2-8-0 there were.
 

GWoodle

New Member
I have heard on another Forum there will be no PC train set this year. The series may have ended due to poor sales of the last one.

I have seen some Lionel items at Target & Linens N Things. With the bankruptcy of L&T they has some 10% closeout sale on some items. Could be a way to get a discount on a Polar Express & other G/O train sets.
 

Glen Haasdyk

Active Member
I have heard on another Forum there will be no PC train set this year. The series may have ended due to poor sales of the last one.

Actually The last set (the big ten) sold out so fast that I ony saw them once in the stores before they were gone. My club was fortunate to get one before they were gone.
The Hudson set from the previous year was over-produced and at the end the stores were giving them away for 49.99.
If they did produce another set I would suggest a smaller loco like a 2-8-0 or a 4-6-0 which would look better on mose layouts (IMHO).
Does someone have a better picture of the Costco engine? I'm wondering if the tender is a hicken tender.
 

msowsun

Member
Yes, it is a Hicken Tender

8184.jpg
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
Actually The last set (the big ten) sold out so fast that I ony saw them once in the stores before they were gone. My club was fortunate to get one before they were gone.
The Hudson set from the previous year was over-produced and at the end the stores were giving them away for 49.99.
If they did produce another set I would suggest a smaller loco like a 2-8-0 or a 4-6-0 which would look better on mose layouts (IMHO).
Does someone have a better picture of the Costco engine? I'm wondering if the tender is a hicken tender.

In general, the Hudson set went on sale about year later at half price. In the Toronto area, I don't recall seeing the Big 10 being discounted. I did, however, still see several sets still for sale several months to a year after it was released. Around here, it did sell well but I don't recall seeing it sell out immediately. Rob
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
Do you think this Costco Northern could be kit-bashed into a more authentic CN engine? Or is it so inaccurate that you couldn't even do that ... would it be too much of a challenge?

Several Gauge folks will be much more familiar with both the ATSF and CNR prototypes.

Thanks,
Rob
 

Squidbait

Recovering ALCO-holic
Do you think this Costco Northern could be kit-bashed into a more authentic CN engine? Or is it so inaccurate that you couldn't even do that ... would it be too much of a challenge?

Rob, I think it would be much more work than it's worth to try to bash that loco into a CN 4-8-4. Depending on how much you want it to look like a CN, loco, of course.

But even to get something squint-and-look-at-it-sideways close, you'd really need to do major surgery to the boiler. It and the cab are the wrong shape. Overall the loco is too big.

Besides, how are you going to fit that huge loco on your 4x6' layout? :p :D
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
Rob, I think it would be much more work than it's worth to try to bash that loco into a CN 4-8-4. Depending on how much you want it to look like a CN, loco, of course.

But even to get something squint-and-look-at-it-sideways close, you'd really need to do major surgery to the boiler. It and the cab are the wrong shape. Overall the loco is too big.

Besides, how are you going to fit that huge loco on your 4x6' layout? :p :D

Thanks! Yes, I can see that the boiler looks too long and the wrong shape -- I think that's the first thing that stands out as being incorrect.

Good point about the layout! :eek::confused I probably shouldn't have anything larger than a Pacific, especially with my layout's tight curves.

Cheers, Rob
 

train1

Member
Newsflash
I just recieved the 'PC insider' for the holiday season, and they admit there is no train this year.
 

60103

Pooh Bah
Rob: CN Northerns are among the smallest 4-8-4s, so bashing anything else into one is not a happy job.
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
Rob: CN Northerns are among the smallest 4-8-4s, so bashing anything else into one is not a happy job.

Thanks!

That's interesting because my family and I had a good look at the Northern that's located at the CNE grounds this summer. To us, it appeared HUGE especially compared to the British steamers that we've seen. It was not only apparently longer but taller. So, to see one of these Santa Fe type Northerns much be truly impressive!

I took some pics of the CNE Northern that I could post sometime.

Cheers, Rob
 

RobertInOntario

Active Member
http://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/loadgauge/loadgauge.htm The US steam-era loading guage was about as wide as Central Europe, and between that and USSR in height.

Thanks! I asked a similar question on The Gauge 1-2 years ago. Someone here posted a pic of the Flying Scotsman (when it was over here on its North American Tour) sitting next to a CN Hudson, so something similar. The Scotsman was quite small compared to the Hudson -- the size difference was quite striking.

Rob
 
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