Factory painted Sunshine Special passenger cars

[peggyrothschild]

Many years ago I was talking to Mike Adams and he commented on having received a toy passenger train when he was a kid in the 1930’s named after the Mopac’s Sunshine Special. I did some research and found that Hafner made this train for several years in various colors. I’ve only see a three car set as shown here with either a cast iron locomotive or a tin plate loco.

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Here’s a photo off the web of the complete train.
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[bargetanika]

That train set reminds me of Marx trains. When I was a kid some other kids around town had them. We all knew the Lionel trains were better but I have to say we had a lot of fun with all of them, maybe more fun than we have with our layouts today.

I wonder what Engine 1152 in the background is, and what scale it is. It’s pretty well detailed and looks kind of Mop-ish, but the one visible word on the tender says “Southwestern.”

[peggyrothschild]

Pat
Here’s some shots of the O gauge Pacific. It was built in the late 1940’s by Mike Adams from a kit. He was working in the roundhouse in NLRK and used the same black paint the railroad used on the steam engines. I think he told me the model was based on a Southern PS4 so this was close to a Mopac 1151 class for his tastes. It has a huge electrical motor in the firebox. I haven’t weighed it but its easily 6-7 pounds.
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[bargetanika]

Nice engine. I saw a true 0 scale 4-8-4 crawling through a yard on a home layout in Houston at the 1965 NMRA Lone Star convention. It’s unbelievable how big and massive 0 scale is compared to HO, 8 times as big when all 3 dimensions are factored. That engine rumbled and clanked because of its own weight as it crept through a slip switch. 0 scale is the way to go if you have the space and want to get close to the prototype’s sheer massiveness.

[monikabidwill9523]

😳 FWIW, Lionel has cataloged a Sunshine Special in the 2018 Vol II: Light USRA Mike 5307 + 8 Hvywt cars: total price (it is sold as mostly separate sale items) a breath-taking $3000 (give or take a little). Beautiful set far beyond my means.

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