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Post by Donnell Wells on Jun 12, 2012 12:40:42 GMT -8
From discussions on the latest Walthers named train, to Antonio's awesome Alclad techniques, calzephyr stunning steam collection, AustralianTerrier's fabulous F-units, and onequiknova's handsome heavyweights, this is great!
Keep up the good work (and discussion) everyone!
Donnell
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Post by calzephyr on Jun 12, 2012 15:40:56 GMT -8
From discussions on the latest Walthers named train, to Antonio's awesome Alclad techniques, calzephyr stunning steam collection, AustralianTerrier's fabulous F-units, and onequiknova's handsome heavyweights, this is great!
Keep up the good work (and discussion) everyone!
Donnell Donnell From my point of view, we are all having a great time too!! Larry |
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Post by antoniofp45 on Jun 12, 2012 15:59:20 GMT -8
Hey Donnell,
Cool to see that you enjoy passenger modeling as well and that there is strong interest here.
I've been a member of forums since the early 2003s, and I admit that it did bother me a little that passenger modeling seemed to be on the bottom end of forum interest. Didn't make me feel any better that even at the model railroad store I used to "hang out" at, the majority of the regulars and customers that came in were primarily interested in freight. So within my own hobby, I sometimes felt like the oddball.
Don't get me wrong as I do enjoy freight very much, but being one of the fortunate modelers/railfans that often saw and rode passenger trains regularly back in the day I naturally grew very interested in modeling varnish.
So one can appreciate how excited I got after Walthers kicked things into high gear when they started producing the lightweight passenger cars in significant numbers as well as sets in 2004. Even with some of the problems, those cars were a long way ahead of the Rivarossi and IHC options we had before then.
On the Atlas forum model passenger rail-related topics were common and I'm glad to see that the interest here is strong. I'm hoping that more of the ex-Atlas forum members as well as our friends on the Yahoo PCL forum join here as well. I've certainly have learned some excellent info in the short time this forum has been running.
The guys here are a super group!
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Post by rhpd42002 on Jun 12, 2012 17:52:47 GMT -8
Just keep in mind, Antonio, that your willingness to share your experiences and techniques with others, makes you part of the.. super group of guys.. you mention. This Forum is what WE make it.  |
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Post by Brakie on Jun 13, 2012 6:43:35 GMT -8
I'm not into passenger train modeling(I don't even own a passenger car ) but,I still find the topics interesting.
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Post by Paul Cutler III on Jun 13, 2012 7:38:38 GMT -8
As a New Haven fan, I almost have to be a passenger train modeler (3rd most passengers carried in the US). My only problem is that other than the Osgood-Bradleys from Rapido, NH passenger cars are either a tough kit (E&B/ECW/Concord, Branchline, F&C), old brass (Soho, NJ/CB), or expensive brass ($550 per car!). There's some Walthers heavyweights that are close to NH (the 28-1 Parlor and a sleeper). The Branchline sleepers and single window coaches are right for NH, but while the coaches are numerous, the sleepers are really the oddballs of the NH fleet and not the ones they had the most of (just the ones that other RR's had). Fortunately, River Point Station and Rapido are solving the supply problem for NH fans. RPS says they are going to do every stainless steel car the NH ever had (all 200+ of them!). And Rapido just may do the 11-window coaches at some point after they do the NH Smokers. What I really want is the 7-car as-delivered "Yankee Clipper" heavyweight train of March 27, 1930. This was the last "new" train set the NH had made for them, and included the last heavyweight cars ordered by the NH. Even tho' it was just after the Great Depression started, it was, IMHO, the zenith of the NH passenger train era. Sure, the stainless steel cars of 1948 were nicer, had A/C, and were more comfortable...but nothing said old New England passenger trains like the "Yankee Clipper" and the "Merchants Limited". But at least for now I can model some accurate coach trains thanks to Rapido... |
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Post by el3637 on Jun 13, 2012 8:31:38 GMT -8
I've been a member of forums since the early 2003s, and I admit that it did bother me a little that passenger modeling seemed to be on the bottom end of forum interest. Didn't make me feel any better that even at the model railroad store I used to "hang out" at, the majority of the regulars and customers that came in were primarily interested in freight. So within my own hobby, I sometimes felt like the oddball. Up until the 1980s, the options in passenger cars were limited to the dozen or so prototypes offered by Rivarossi - a mixed bag that they painted in every road name under the sun, the mixed bag from ConCor, and Walthers and their fading wood+metal heavyweights. Well brass of course, but then as now it was expensive and hard to come by, but it was pretty much the only option if you didn't model the Pennsy or Santa Fe. And even if you did model Pennsy or Santa Fe, nobody made anything even close to a complete train. Rivarossi's "1930" series was comprised mainly of much newer cars - a 1948 PRR plan 9008 ACF 10-6, PRR "View" 1948 observation, a 1950's UP baggage, diner, and dome car, a 1910's modernized PRR RPO, a bogus coach, and only one car from the 1930s - the "Brook" series 12-5 duplex. That set of cars wouldn't even make a legitimate complete train for Amtrak, but it was about all you had if you didn't want to kitbash. Enter the 1980s and E&B Valley / Alco Models / Eastern Car Works. All had similar flat tooling, the E&B smoothside and NH cars along with the Alco Models PRR cars all ended up under the ECW line. The E&B line included four cars correct for the 1938 20th Century Ltd - the dorm lounge, RPO, 4-4-2, and observation, as well as a 1948 kitchen lounge (touted as a "typical diner", it was neither), an NYC 2600 series coach, and a generic 6-6-4 sleeper. But the really cool thing about the E&B line is that the flat kit design allowed for easy kitbashing. I was able to kitbash a reasonably accurate 1948 kitchen dorm+diner combination by slicing and dicing the "typical diner" sides, and I was able to ultimately build the complete 13-car 1938 Century using the E&B cores and some of my own scratchbuilt sides. The 1980s and 90s saw lots and lots of third party car sides in plastic, laser acrylic, and etched metal - including plated fluted sides. Manufacturers such as AMB Laserkit, Brass Car Sides, Concord Junction, NKP Car Co., Athabasca, Union Station Products, Bethlehem Car Works, Laser Horizons all capitalized on the availability of basic passenger car core kits. There also seemed to be an explosion of interest and knowledge on passenger car subjects by the late 1990s, much of this the result of the modeling and research work of guys like Tom Madden, Jeff Cauthen, Bob Chapman and many others that deserve credit for collecting, archiving, and presenting this data in usable form. Then of course came the 21st century and the Plastic Passenger Explosion that began with Walthers. If you told me back in 1983 that come 2012 I'd have complete consists of the 1951 Super Chief, 1956 El Capitan, 1937 Super Chief, 1938 Century, 1948 Century, 1948 Broadway, 1949 California Zephyr, 1954 Empire Builder, 1935 Hiawatha, 1955 Hiawatha, 1950 Powhatan Arrow, 1954 City of Everywhere, and 1955 Canadian all in my possession, I'd be thinking I must have won the lottery or done really really well in business to buy all those brass trains. Either that or I ended up in a wheelchair with a large disability settlement and nothing to do but build passenger trains.... LOL. The reality is only one of those trains (the 1938 Century) I built myself, and only one of them (the 1937 Super Chief) is brass. Ok, I have an extra El Capitan in brass that I'm keeping, but I also have a plastic one. And on the horizon... Metroliners (I'll pass on those, but I'll buy some Amfleet cars in phase 1), Reading Crusader, Empire State Express, etc. I think the root cause of the Plastic Passenger Explosion is not so much new technology, but the price point of plastic being pushed up to where people will pay the price for road specific cars, and you no longer have to project mid 5-figures in sales to justify tooling up a car and paint it in 53 bogus road names. All this RTR stuff certainly stopped some of my projects and I've as recently as this morning shipped out now-obsolete car sides from my stash to ebay buyers... one guy just bought a pair of Laserkit Cascade sides (Walthers did this car a while ago), and three N&W Powhatan side sets (MTH). All of my kitbashed 1948 Century cars are pretty much obsolete, not that I had a lot of them finished. My 38 Century, the only complete train I ever built myself, well let's see. Of the 7 car types, Walthers has done three: the Cascade 10-5, the Imperial 4-4-2, and the 1017-class RPO. The dorm-lounge was done by E&B long ago as was the Island observation. The 17-1 roomette car has yet to be done, ditto the 13 bedroom and the unique 680 class diner. Walthers was on a binge with the prewar Pullman smoothsides, but got sidetracked (permanently?) with their whole-train projects before they got around to the 17-1 and 13br. I have some Laser Horizon sides for the 680 diners, but it's likely MTH's plastic will be out long before I get those done too. What nobody has done yet in a plastic train set is *any* heavyweight consist. There's a lot of good material out there thanks to Walthers and Branchline, but I don't know of any name train heavyweight consist that can be built from off-the-shelf plastic right now. And it may not happen... so if you model prewar name trains, there's still a market for scratchbuilding and kitbashing skills. Andy |
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Post by riggelweg on Jun 14, 2012 10:31:52 GMT -8
I am not that interested in passenger cars, but considering how many options have become available, it's hard not to want to buy some of what is being offered. It is really nice to see the expansion in offerings.
I hope the Reading Crusader makes it to completion.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Jun 14, 2012 11:14:47 GMT -8
Exceptionally minor point:
The Rivarossi 1930 coach was KCS 234-238, built 8/40.
Ed
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Post by el3637 on Jun 15, 2012 12:16:27 GMT -8
The Rivarossi 1930 coach was KCS 234-238, built 8/40. I think I've looked that one up before, I think there are a couple of differences. It should be in one of my Randall books anyway. Of the Rivarossi cars, the ACF plan 9008 10-6 is the most interesting just because it's actually not a "typical" 10-6 at all in terms of arrangement. It's not the common 4129 or 4140 plan, nor the Budd type configuration of the Pine/Pacific/Valley/CZ type cars. It's reversed and it's the only 10-6 with four aisle windows - the others all have 3 or 6. And then there are the center-bedroom 10-6 with 5 roomettes at each end in a 3-2 and 2-3 pattern or something like that. Just documenting all the 10-6 plans would be an interesting project in itself. For how long, did most people think all 10-6s looked like either Rivarossi's 9008 or ConCor's crude CZ car? Oh yeah, Pennsy had, I think, a total of five *different* car types in their "Rapids" series... the ACF 9008, PS 4129, PS 4140, the fluted PS 4140 for pool service, and a lone CZ 10-6 named "Silver Rapids" that managed to fit the naming conventions of both the CZ and PRR. Andy |
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