Looks like Z Scalers may be the winners this year at the Hallmark Store. The Lionel ornaments for 2007 will be the American Freedom Train.... a PA1, and a heavyweight Pullman and Observation Car. If my calculations are correct the stated dimensions work out pretty close to Z Scale with the passenger cars being about 72' long... they are models of the Lionel O Scale stuff so they would be shorter than the 80' prototypes. Looks like they might be worthwhile just to get the standard six wheel Pullman trucks. The PA looks like it will be about scale ...the picture has it correctly proportioned. The tiny ornaments are of a entry trainset with the Atlantic that was derived from the Lionel "Scout"... and the Lionel style clear vision eight wheel tender, a short gondola, boxcar and revamped Lionel caboose. They are listed as being 2" long so they might be good for Z shorty cars... they are much bigger than the minature series has been in the past. Charlie Vlk
I scoured the web, and can't find anything on them. Have to wait till the end of July I guess. Waiting.. that's what we do in Z.
Wow!! And I thought my UP Turbine was the coolest thing ever for under 25.00 bucks!! I can't wait to get those and try to paint 'em GN, even if they are only stationary!!:teeth: I can see me try'in to cut down the PA into an FA, which the GN had also. Oh, boy!!
That is great news! I have to get one of theese and repaint it to SP, i have to try to power it to :teeth: The PA-1 is one of my favorite engines, but the AZL model is too expensive for me :embarassed: BTW: Any ideas if this one is close to z scale? http://www.hookedonhallmark.com/2003-Lionel-Train-8-_p_142-6617.html it seem's to be some problems with trainboard/ this computer today, so no direct link, sorry ...
I can't speak for that one specifically, but the4-6-4 and 4-8-4 that I have from that series are about N scale. Dan S.
The Hallmark "Wish Book" is available for free at Hallmark Stores. It shows the American Freedom Train and it appears the photos are of the actual ornaments. The miniature items look to be mock-ups of actual O-27 items. Charlie Vlk
Can you scan the "wish book"? I would love to see pictures! too bad no one has Hallmark in Norway... When will the items be available for sale?
I have seen the UP Turbine pic in a couple of places and always wondered what these looked like in real life - yesterday I went over to a guy in my town who was going to "loan" some of his "toy" trains to us for the Pre-Grand Opening (is there such a thing???) of our new Railroad Museum. I wanted into his living room and over in the corner was a display case with twenty-thirty? plus hallmark locos and rolling stock. Right in the front was the UP Turbine. I was led off to his basement to pick up some of his old Lionel trains and had to scoot but he invited me back to check out his collection when I take his Lionel trains back. (Don't tell him, but we didn't use his Lionel "toys" in our display. I set up some MTH O, KATO/Athearn/Walthers HO, KATO/MTL/Atlas N, and an AZL/UWFT/MTL and a Marklin SOU F/Pass train. Pretty cool little display, even if it was last minute and for a three hour public open house preview.) If I can get some pics of the Hallmark collection I'll post them up for you guys to check out.
i have a turbine and tender i secured for someone who wanted it ... and then didn't want it. maybe someone else wants it. dave f.
Just picked up a Hallmark catalog to see and they do look nice, especially the observation car w/heavyweight six axle trucks. The sleepers nice too and that PA is to die for! I can see the re-paints comin' now. I wanna kitbash one for an FA, take a pair of trucks off of one of my turbines, and presto, a GN FA! Average price for all three, 'bout $30 bucks, can't beat that!
Some of those Hallmark ornaments look pretty good. Last year when the UP Veranda came out, we ran on down and looked through the selections. While looking through the stuff from the year before we found a N Scale NYC Low Cupola 18000 series caboose ornament. Since I had made N and Z Scale kits for these, I remembered all my research, and pulled it out of the box to examine. It looked remarkably accurate, with the exception of some details being kind of thick, and the trucks being non functional.
Be on the lookout for churches & other small buildings. with a little work, they fit great into a Nscale scene. The old LL N Village Church kit may be a bit taller but about the same size to fit into a residential block. Last year Hallmark did a nice Nscale Thomas the Tank engine. Had one of the 4 wheel gons filled with Xmas goodies. http://www.hallmark.com/webapp/wcs/...namentClub/2007DreamBook/2007_DREAM_ONLINE_01 Found this link to this year's DreamBooK Ornament Premiere is set for July 14-15 Ornament Debut about Oct 6-7 Check out "North Pole Central" on p20, "Kringles Christmas Trees" p 11,"Hometown Holidays" p15
They new SP Daylight is definitely N scale, maybe a bit more. Will post pix. Looks pretty good though, nice to at least set out as a conversation piece. Last year's UP turbine was very close to Z. The year before that, they made the even smaller steamer.
Jeff, The Turbine scaled out to about 1/209th scale if I remember my measurements correctly. The small 0-6-0 PRR B-6 (in the miniature series) was actually relased in 2006 as well. It scaled out to something like 1/240th or so. The larger size PRR B-6 ornament was released in 2005 I think (along with a NYC caboose that Robert mentioned, I'm still scratching my head on the PRR/NYC match up). Randy
4" for the heavyweight passenger cars would come out to 72' (if they are not including the hook and eye "couplers"). Pretty close for a 70' car. The North Pole Central Train (set of 5 miniature ornaments) on page 20 of the dream book may have possibilities as well. Says each one is approximately 2" long which comes out to about 36' in Z scale. Has a 4-4-2 steam engine (replica of Lionel toy, really) as well as a tender that is different from anything we've seen in Z so far and a caboose, gondola and boxcar (look like 40' cars, so again, not too far off). The boxcar looks like it has a grain loading door on it! Someone correct me if I'm wrong, buty that's what it looks like to me. The shell of the steamer looks like it might have possibilities, but the wheel arrangement is a faithful reproduction of the original Lionel toy. $20 MSRP for set of 5 ornaments. Weird thing is that we used to see the previous year's full size release done in the miniature series, but this year for the train, it is all new with this "North Pole Central" set. By the way, the NPC logo is similar to NYC. Still no miniature firetruck or airplane this year. I wonder if letters to Hallmark have any impact on what they release. They must really be cutting back, because they discontinued the miniature tractor series last year or the year before as well. Most of those were too big for Z, but I've seen them used in HO (before so many models were available). Randy
Just looked up the data on the PA as well. 3.5" scales out to 63' in Z scale versus the prototype's 65' 8". Again, not sure how accurate the 3.5" is. Randy
