Cities on Lionel cars

Lionel chose local names for its streamliners

Q Lionel paired its no. 2033 Union Pacific Alco diesels with silver passenger cars (nos. 2421, 2422, and 2423) named for towns that were located near its factory in northern New Jersey. That practice departed from realism. Why would Lionel have a West Coast locomotive pulling East Coast cars? – Matt Sanders, Orange, Calif.

A Lionel was never a stickler for authenticity with road names. Most of its steam locomotives carried the Lionel Lines name on the tenders. Also, many diesel and electric locomotives had paint schemes that didn’t exist on real railroads, and in some cases the same railroads may never have owned the particular locomotive model being produced. So, using the names of towns in New Jersey on cars pulled by Union Pacific or Santa Fe diesels didn’t feel like a big deal.

A bigger mystery, one that has yet to be solved, is why the no. 2436 observation car, which followed the trend by being named "Summit" when cataloged between 1954 and ’56, was switched to "Mooseheart" in 1957 and ’58. No such town exists in New Jersey or anywhere else in the U.S. Where did the name of “Mooseheart” come from and who decided to make the change? Maybe CTT readers can enlighten us.

During the 1950s, the various passenger cars Lionel packed with its O-27 outfits pulled by Union Pacific Alco FA diesels should logically have been named for western cities. But the firm opted for towns in northern New Jersey in the vicinity of its factory in Irvington.