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So after selling all of my lGB trains and accessories, and after some saving up, I have a choice to make. I want to buy a high-quality lionel train and I cannot decide. I can only get one right now so here is what I'm choosing between:
1) Lionel Amtrak Acela
2) Lionel Southern Pacific Daylight Scale 4-8-4 GS-4#4436 (Legacy) with the Heavyweight 4-pac
I like both trains but I worry that I will not like the Acela down the line as it will look older and older. The Daylight is very old but is still considered to be beautiful. Ive wanted the Acela since I was little but fear it will not look as good as the Daylight will in 10 years. Also, it may look weird on a future layout as the rest of the trains will probably be from 1900-1950.
Well, as you can see I have a bias toward anything SP, but you're going to have to sort this one out for yourself! Easy solution: Buy both! you can get one forst and save up for the other
I would, believe me, but they are both VERY expensive. With cars, they are almost $2000 a each. Here is my reasoning for each being they are beautiful and I personally have liked both since I was a little kid. The thing that is pushing me a bit towards the SP because I think it will hold up better with the times....I wonder if 10 years on, the Acela will look old in a bad way. What do you think?
Well it reallly depends more on your priorities. If it were me, I think I might go for the Acela, because it's a reasonably accurate model of the train. The Daylight...the real one...used lightweight streamlined cars, not heavyweights, so that set is not a true representation of the real train. If that sort of thing matters to you. I'm an HO scaler and hung up on accuracy so that would sway my decision, but I also know that three railers can have different priorties. Both are nice sets.
Let's look at your situation from a logical perspective. It should weigh heavily in your final decision that your preference in models runs to the 1900-1950 period, which as you state in your post indeed makes the Acela incongruent with the era you suggest your future layout might encompass.
The Daylight is regarded as a "classic" among just about all steam enthusiasts, is familiar to model railroaders and railfans nation-wide and is likely to remain so as long as interest in trains survives. The Acela is a regional train that, in all honesty, could well be just a fading memory a decade from now depending on how government support of intercity rail travel evolves.
I also ascribe to the opinion held by Joshua Lionel Cowen that a steam engine in motion is absolutely fascinating to watch for just about anybody. On the otherhand, a diesel, or electric, powered train is more like a pretty snake moving effortlessly by and hardly evokes the same sort of vivid emotions in the viewer that a steam train does.
I really think both of you have valid points. The Acela is an odd one out for Lionel in that aside from a few other Amtrak products, its really the one and only high-speed train from Lionel. I don't know if this will change in the future. The thing that attracts me to the Acela is I think it looks really cool. I have always liked the high-speed trains of Europe but since any gauge smaller than O is too small for my taste and that I have been raised with lionel/I overall prefer the trains from 1900-1950, I think that O-Guage Lionel is the way to go for me.
Of all the steam locomotives out there, for me there is no loco more beautiful than the G4 of the Southern Pacific Daylight. Now you say the cars are wrong which is something I will look into but I do the the fact that they are metal as I appreciate that the locomotive is beautiful with its painted metal and streamlined appearance.
Ultimatly, I want to pick something that I will not only enjoy now but 10 years down the line as this is a pretty big train investment. I do like Diesil too and will eventually pick up the Lionel Super Chief as well as the famous Union Pacific. But for right now, I can only pick one train and I think I am stuck between the ones I have named, But the more I think about it, as much as I like the Acela, the fact that it is one of a kind both potentially makes it and breaks it. It would be cool to have as it is unique but if it is a forgotten victim of history where it falls out of service into obscurity, then I would rather have something that is relevant and beautiful.
Of all the steam locomotives out there, for me there is no loco more beautiful than the G4 of the Southern Pacific Daylight. Now you say the cars are wrong which is something I will look into but I do the the fact that they are metal as I appreciate that the locomotive is beautiful with its painted metal and streamlined appearance.
The cars are wrong. On this you can trust me. There were a very few heavyweights painted into the Daylight color scheme, but they were diners and RPO/baggage cars, and maybe the odd coach. The prototype matched Daylight train set was a streamliner. That is only a factor if you want a model of a real train though. if you like the set as it is, then you have to please yourself. it's your money . NYW&B also had a point...there's something about a steam locomotive and watching it run.
My only other question is whether I should get the Acela now because they probably will not make it again and wait for them to release better versions of the Southern Pacific Daylight
My only other question is whether I should get the Acela now because they probably will not make it again and wait for them to release better versions of the Southern Pacific Daylight
This was my thinking when you asked the question. They are less likely to make something like the Acela again. Though I'd personally buy the steam, I think if I were you I'd buy the Acela.
My only other question is whether I should get the Acela now because they probably will not make it again and wait for them to release better versions of the Southern Pacific Daylight
The advice that I would offer regarding that question, for both examples, is be careful. These days more than a few locomotives (and trains) have been issued very likely as a one time only, ever, deal. While especially probable concerning the Acela, I wouldn't rule out that happening for the SP Daylight too. Lionel appeals to a more limited group than does HO and I would anticipate that as the Baby Boomers, the main customer base for O-gauge tinplate/Hi-Rail trains, fade from the marketplace new production by Lionel will steadily decrease.
I would ask myself this question. "If I tired of one of these sets and decided to sell it and get another that appealed to me more, which set do I think would retain value better and be easier to sell at a premium?"
My answer to that would be the steam unit.
I still have my lionel stuff my grandfather got for me in 1950. I absolutely will never part with it.
I still am leaning towards the acela but it has issue is electrification. As far as I know it is one if not the only Lionel train that can use power from an overhead cantonary. My problem is that Lionel does not make these...I don't know if they even exist for O gauge.
the cars may be wrong, but nothing beats the timeless classic of the steam powered trains, yea I love the Acela amtrack thing, but personally I am the type that if i plan to do a certain era down the road then I might as well start off with an engine from that era, in your case your doing 1900's or so so instead of buying the acella and having it be the odd ball out just grab the steam engine so you have it fit in from the get go and your not wasting your hard earned $$$...seriously should be easy enough
Both are nice sets.
There were a very few heavyweights painted into the Daylight color scheme, but they were diners and RPO/baggage cars, and maybe the odd coach. The prototype matched Daylight train set was a streamliner. That is only a factor if you want a model of a real train though. if you like the set as it is, then you have to please yourself. it's your money 
. NYW&B also had a point...there's something about a steam locomotive and watching it run.
