I guess there's no end to doofy Texas Special models...

Maybe Lionel got a heads up from Warren Buffet!!
Dan

 

I mentioned on another thread that Athearn has released their own versions of fantasy schemes for a number of fallen flags in HO scale. Perhaps the Lionel O gauge model will have our Administrators contact Athearn and tell them to leave our Frisco alone! I think the red/orange and white scheme would have been acceptable with a coonskin on the nose. There are a mess of strange things coming from Lionel's "Funny" Factory. Check out their 2012 catalog on their web site and then Duck & Cover!

Be sure and visit www.mthtrains.com and get a tank car to go with your Lionel caboose! Search "Texas Special" and go to Page 2!

Joe Toth

 

As the saying goes, "Let Sleeping Dogs Lay".

 

Better yet,

 

It would seem to me that the arguments over the Lionel caboose is "much ado about nothing". The market it's aimed at is all about things bright and shiny and this certainly fills the bill. If all of you that had Lionel as a tot would remember that we weren't concerned about scale or proper markings-it just had to run and be fun to run. If you as an adult are offended by the car then don't buy it. If a child was given this car or any other Lionel car today and it piqued a future interest in the Frisco or any other railroad it would be a very good thing. I'm a firm believer in scale and proper colors but I will buy this car and place it with my other Lionels and watch it appreciate in value. Hey, it'll look good behind the 4500 Larry F.

 

Larry F-very well stated. Toys like this drew many of us into the hobby.

Pat Moreland,
Union Mo.

 

I had the cheapest Lionel "Scout" (Lionel euphemism for "budget") trainset they made (I still have it) and nobody loved toy trains as much is I did, but the very first time I saw the streamline Texas Special pull into the Springfield depot, I knew Lionel didn't make anything remotely like it. I also knew many Frisco steam engines had six and eight driving wheels (Not four) and their passenger cars had six wheel trucks (Not four)! You can fool some of the kids some of the time etc...

Tom G.

 

I mentioned earlier on this thread that my start into the wonderful world of toy trains got its beginning with Marx wind-ups until I received my first Lionel O27 set for Christmas 1951. Lionel TV commercials and the operating layout at the Sears store on Ross Avenue (sadly gone) in Dallas convinced me to tell Santa that's what I want for Christmas when I was five and a half!

Nothing great you understand, just a 2-4-2 steam locomotive with smoke unit, a "tender behind", orange Pennsy/Baby Ruth boxcar, black NYC gondola and the "SP" Lionel Lines caboose. I lived just north of Dallas on my grandparent's chicken farm with the Frisco behind the place through the woods and the Katy's Denton branch to the east of us across US 77. Hey, I didn't give a hoot, toot or whistle if the trains were prototypical or not. I put a million scale miles, mabie more, on that set. It ran and ran and ran and would still run today if I hadn't traded if off for HO trains in 1962. It is now long gone but I still have a boxcar full of memories of that long ago Christmas 1951 and the Lionel Lines Railroad that indeed brought me much happiness thanks to loving grandparents on a small Texas farm. Item: My grandfather worked for a small Dallas electrical contractor and if they didn't have any work he was laid off. They sold large farm fresh eggs at 50 cents a dozen in 1951 and pecans from the woods behind the farm to help make ends meet. That set wasn't that cheap even in 1951 so I know they bought it with lots of love for a kid who loved trains who would wave to the engineers on the Frisco and Katy freights that ran through Farmers Branch and then rush back home and fire up that 2-4-2 and make another on time run!

I also mentioned that Lionel has marketed the Texas Special name since 1954. I sat on the floor wide-eyed in front of our black and white Westinghouse TV looking at the Lionel Texas Special F3 in the 1954 catalog. It was only a dream but I should would loved to have put her in service on my layout. Lionel went on to produce their shorty O27 Alco FA as well as adding it to their HO line along with a Texas Special freight set that included a Texas Special caboose! Check out the website I have on this thread to see other O gauge Texas Special items from other manufacturers as well. www.hoseeker.com will show you the HO trains. None of us who are now senior citizens complained about any of these trains not being prototypical. Many of you converted to HO like I did only to discover that there were two companies that offered Frisco decals (Walthers and Champ) and that got us starting to model the Frisco as prototpyically as possible despite using generic equipment. It still didn't stop us from painting an Athearn GP7 black and yellow despite the fact the body was a shade too wide did it?

The Texas Special tank car offering by Mike's Train House will go great with the Lionel caboose and Lionel's F3s or FAs or even the MTH models as well. I agree, even though I don't plan to purchase any of these items, if I had grand kids you can bet your caboose that this is what I would consider to get their interest in model trains that like most of us did with a Lionel or American Flyer or Marx electric train set. Some of you probably even received a Sears Allstate set that was produced by Marx for them.

One neat freight car that I would get for the Texas Special freight in O gauge would be the yellow Frisco hi-cube boxcar that Lionel produced when MPC owned Lionel. It was only offered in a set but I remember Train World selling it as they often broke up sets and sold the contents so modelers and collectors would have a chance to pick up that certain piece without having to buy the whole nine yards. None of these trains are prototypical but hey, if you got kids or grand kids or just want to enter your own second childhood, don't even think about counting rivets or complaining about some fantasy color scheme. If you just want 100% Play Value these trains are for you!

If you demand 100% prototypical models then you are better off modeling in Proto:87 or Proto:48 and be sure and prototypially weight the equipment before placing it on the track too! Wonder how much a boxcar should weigh to be prototypically correct?

Have fun!

Joe Toth

 

Tom, I followed the same natural progression that you and most other people involved in the hobby did. I'll reiterate my earlier statement that toys like this attracted many of us into the hobby at an early age. And that's just what this is-a toy. The only thing that this item has in common with the finely detailed scale models that we appreciate is that it's a piece of a 110v electrically powered train.

I personally would not buy this for the same reason I wouldn't buy a four cylinder Mustang LX. To me, it's not the real thing. But my first car was in fact a four cylinder Mustang LX and for a couple of years, I loved it. Same way my six year old son would love a Lionel train set and this caboose.

Pat Moreland,
Union Mo.

 

I'd like to add that even though it's not for me, I wouldn't ridicule anyone, young or old, for having something like this in their collection. Larry F stated that he plans to purchase one of these, and if it gives him the same enjoyment that my lone Frisco Proto 2000 E8 does for me, then it's served it's purpose. To each his own.

On a related note, I have often considered purchasing an undecorated dummy Athearn GE P42, spraying it with Scarlet Red paint, and adding some spare gold Frisco E unit decals that I have. But if I do, it will be for my own personal enjoyment. I wouldn't dare post a photo of it, because it would be the subject of scorn and criticism, or the butt of a lot of jokes, or all of the previously mentioned.

Pat Moreland,
Union Mo.

 

Lionel 6-30142 blue and aluminum Texan Frisco tank car found on ebay. While not Texas Special should still look great in our ever building freight train!

Joe Toth