Well first of all Quality Craft Models is now Weaver electric trains, they make both reproductions of classic Lionel as well as a line of their own trains, the cars may have been around 1993 production, was unable to find the loco in the archives at weavers website. The loco may be actual lionel???

Cool stuff in the pic you posted by the way. Hope this helps some.

Tasha - You may have an Lionel expert right in your backyard. You may want to get in touch with Rev Allan Boyd in Perth Ontario.

He collects Lionel trains and is quite knowledgeable on the subject.

From eBay description:

Here's  the VERY DESIRABLE    Lionel 0 or 027 scale old Canadian Pacific Passenger set   , all original made in 1957 ONLY and in FULL EXCELLENT condition , ,   , the 4 aluminum passenger cars  are in FULL EXCELLENT condition by any TCA grading guidelines  all complete with no damage or rust, super clean,, the roofs have no scratches, they are 3 of the SKYLINE 500 and the 2551 Banff Park Observation, and the 2373 F-3 diesels are also in full EXCELLENT condition, with no damage, no rust, no chips  or cracks..   I tested out the power unit  and it lights up and runs like brand new, but I really doubt anyone is going to buy this set to run it,, it's probably more suited for the display shelf,, and yes the battery compartment is spotless clean too,, The whole set is full TCA excellent , all original with no touch-ups or anything funny like that.. Absolute collector quality old set here ..

cgi.ebay.com/RARE-1957-LIONEL-TRAINS-CANADIAN-PACIFIC-2373-F-3-FULL-/230494891113

There is also info here:

www.tandem-associates.com/lionel/lionel_trains_2551_passenger_car.htm

www.tandem-associates.com/lionel/lionelcarpass.htm

-a

Google "lionel canadian pacific passenger". There is a wealth of information about your Lionel.

The 2552 Canadian Pacific Skyline 500 Vista-Dome Passenger car is part of the 2551, 2552, 2553 and 2554 family of Canadian Pacific passenger cars. These passenger cars are arguably the most coveted passenger cars produced during Lionel's postwar era. Additionally, the Canadian Pacific set (# 2296W) was only available for a single year -- 1957 -- making this an extremely difficult -- almost rare -- set to locate.

Beginning with the first postwar passenger car set -- the Madison cars -- and continuing up to 1955, all passenger cars carried the roadname of Lionel Lines at the top of each car. In an effort to increase the realism of their premier passenger cars, Lionel replaced the Lionel Lines roadname with the roadname of a real railroad. In this case, the Canadian Pacific name was only the second Lionel passenger car set to wear an actual railroad’s roadname on each car -- the first being the Pennsylvania Congressional set produced in 1955 and 1956.

The 2296W Lionel set consisted of three 2552 Vista-Dome's and a single 2551 Observation car. As an added bonus to set buyers for that year, Lionel produced two additional separate sale cars carrying the Canadian Pacific roadname; the 2553 Blair Manor Pullman and 2554 Craig Manor Pullman.

I think you missed the line in the original post about Quality Craft Models as manufacturer??? If it is Quality craft models it is a repro. On the other hand it listed in the original post a 2540 REA car is this a "real" lionel number??? If so maybe it is a mixed set? Either way it is a nice train.

 "The Canadian Pacific model train is one of the Lionel train set and was manufactured by Quality Craft Models."

The above line from the original post is kinda confussing as it mentions both Lionel and Quality craft Models(Weaver electric trains)

A close up photo and a list of car numbers would be helpfull in Identifying the train for sure, I am hoping that I am wrong and that it is the real thing

Lionel car laid over tasha's image (reversed).

hmm I may be wrong about the repro, but it would be nice if we knew where the origanal poster got the quality craft model name from. Let's hope that it is the Lionel set

According to this article www.toytrainrevue.com/hayter.htm Quality Craft made HO only prior to 1980. Their first O scale was in 1980. If the train has been in the display case since before 1980 then it isn't a Quality Craft.

Isn't researching old trains fun??? Great work on info gathering

I collect and operate Lionel and American Flyer trains, and experiment with scratch building train cars in On30 and S gauge.

Google and I have been best friends since we first met!

Hoping tasha posts some close-up images. Curious to see how the saga ends - priceless artifact or common toy.

-a