Rapido News 160 - Lights! Commuter! Action!
Dec 10, 2022 11:07:39 GMT -8
gevohogger and edgecrusher like this
Post by slowfreight on Dec 10, 2022 11:07:39 GMT -8
Here's a picture of BN 802, one of the cars they're showing:
www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=935158
No letterboard.
796 through 820 were delivered without the letterboard.
As mentioned earlier, anyone wanting to model a present-day BNSF Metra train will need to buy at least one Atlas car (a cab car), since the ex-CB&Q cabs no longer serve as cab cars any more. Despite Rapido offering them painted as fully-functioning modern-era cab cars.
One more thought: Now would be a good time for someone to announce a run of 1970s-era Budd bilevels.... Would be good for BN as well as Milwaukee, RI modellers etc.
Would have to check pics as I don't model the Raceway, but the cabs didn't get blanked until we were into the Nippon Sharyo/Super Steel/Amerail era. But IIRC they got demoted to trailer service and may have lost radios, cab signals, etc. prior to blanking. But you are otherwise correct.
Letterboards on the prototype are fitted in over the fluting, so Metra did remove them from MILW and RI cars eventually. I remember as late as 1988 seeing them on ex-MILW cars with ghost lettering still visible.
The remaining Budd cars came in multiple distinct versions. For BN, the WSMTD ordered a special series that matched the 2M lb buff loading strength of the Q cars. All others were the normal 1M lbs. The 1978 order came with anticlimbers at both ends of the cabs and trailers, which becomes the main spotting feature. From the roof, original Q cars don't have cooling fans over the vestibule (all underbody HVAC), while all others do (HVAC over vestibule).
Until the 1970s variant comes out, I'm stuck on the sidelines running my H&R cars with their mishmash of versions...