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Post by SantaFeJim on Apr 30, 2012 18:00:23 GMT -8
Just checking in.
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Post by Donnell Wells on Apr 30, 2012 18:18:59 GMT -8
Hi Jim, I know we just saw each over on Atlas, but hello anyway!
Donnell
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Post by calzephyr on May 1, 2012 13:58:53 GMT -8
Jim
I am using Calzephyr here which is what I used on TO instead of Auburnflyer. I also have the WP version of that train.
Did you get the rest of the Hi Level train? I believe Walthers shipped the last of the cars except maybe the diner. Let us know if it is complete and ready to run.
Thanks
Larry
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Post by SantaFeJim on May 2, 2012 7:58:54 GMT -8
Hi Larry, aka CalZepryr - I like your new handle. As a kid I lived 1 block north of the Santa Fe main line out of Chicago and about 1.25 miles south of the Burlington main. So I saw a whole lot more of the Super Chief and El Capitan but I was also very familiar with the California Zephyr. I spent a lot of time at the Windsor Hobby shop which was located right along the Burlington 3-track main line in Berwyn Illinois. I was always amazed at how many more dome cars the Zephyr had vs the Super Chief. Yes I did get the Diner last week. You probably missed it with all the other traffic on the Atlas forum. Here is the link to the thread I posted on 4/47. forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=70708I am glad to see you are giving this forum a try. I don't know how it is going to shake down but I will ride it for a few months and see.  |
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Post by calzephyr on May 2, 2012 9:52:39 GMT -8
Hi Larry, aka CalZepryr - I like your new handle. As a kid I lived 1 block north of the Santa Fe main line out of Chicago and about 1.25 miles south of the Burlington main. So I saw a whole lot more of the Super Chief and El Capitan but I was also very familiar with the California Zephyr. I spent a lot of time at the Windsor Hobby shop which was located right along the Burlington 3-track main line in Berwyn Illinois. I was always amazed at how many more dome cars the Zephyr had vs the Super Chief. Yes I did get the Diner last week. You probably missed it with all the other traffic on the Atlas forum. Here is the link to the thread I posted on 4/47. forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=70708I am glad to see you are giving this forum a try. I don't know how it is going to shake down but I will ride it for a few months and see. Jim That was a great place to grow up and see the name trains leave and return into Chicago. The Zephyr as you know was built on the basic idea of dome cars for everyone to see the great Canyons and scenes that it traveled. I got to visit Chicago several times over my early years and I remember the Madison Ave. street cars also. My dad seemed to like those. They have a least one at IRM. Living down state Illinois near Effingham, I got to see the PRR and IC when they were great railroads at least for us the railfans. Thanks for the diner link. I did miss the post. My diner and final cars should be here soon. I installed glazing in one of my 700 series cars just to check out the interiors. I may try to paint the interiors and add some people in a few of mine also later on. So far, this forum seems to me to be a perfect replacement for the old Atlas forum. Larry |
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Post by riogrande on May 2, 2012 11:12:09 GMT -8
Hello,
Speaking of California Zephyr, I read some interesting comments on Trainorder (no I haven't sprung for the subscription yet) by doing web searches:
A Western Pacific fan asserted that certain cars matched on most/all of the CZ consists, which I had never heard before. Apparently the DINER, DOME-LOUNGE and DOME-OBSERVATION cars were all same RR name. The rational was the RR assigned crews to these cars from their personnel?
This issue came up because a modeler was planning on ordering a batch of BLI CZ cars - a new run is due out this summer - and I don't think he matched up the diner, lounge and obs.
As luck would have it I guess, I have D&RGW owned diner, lounge and obs, although I had bought some mixed CZ cars to be more prototypical of CB&Q, WP and D&RGW.
What I would like to build when I get a place to run it is the following 14 car train as would have been seen in the late 1960's over the rockies:
1 baggage
2 PS 52 chair cars (D&RGW 4 stripe) chartered
1 48 seat coach (ex 16 section sleeper)
3 dome-coaches
1 dome lounge
1 diner
1 5-6 sleeper
3 10-6 sleepers
1 Dome-observation
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Post by SantaFeJim on May 2, 2012 12:31:00 GMT -8
RioGrande
That would be an :oAWESOME :otrain. Have you decided what you will use for power?
Jim
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Post by calzephyr on May 2, 2012 13:26:04 GMT -8
Hello, Speaking of California Zephyr, I read some interesting comments on Trainorder (no I haven't sprung for the subscription yet) by doing web searches: A Western Pacific fan asserted that certain cars matched on most/all of the CZ consists, which I had never heard before. Apparently the DINER, DOME-LOUNGE and DOME-OBSERVATION cars were all same RR name. The rational was the RR assigned crews to these cars from their personnel? This issue came up because a modeler was planning on ordering a batch of BLI CZ cars - a new run is due out this summer - and I don't think he matched up the diner, lounge and obs. As luck would have it I guess, I have D&RGW owned diner, lounge and obs, although I had bought some mixed CZ cars to be more prototypical of CB&Q, WP and D&RGW. What I would like to build when I get a place to run it is the following 14 car train as would have been seen in the late 1960's over the rockies: 1 baggage 2 PS 52 chair cars (D&RGW 4 stripe) chartered 1 48 seat coach (ex 16 section sleeper) 3 dome-coaches 1 dome lounge 1 diner 1 5-6 sleeper 3 10-6 sleepers 1 Dome-observation From what I read about the orginal train, the sets were purchased by the three railroads and started being used as a group, but as time went on with repairs and maintenance, they did get mixed names in each train set. I purchased the WP cars and got the PRR Silver Rapids also since it could be on any train at some given time. Having a mix of the road names is probably the better way since the train only ran early on with solid consists of one name. The California Zephyr book by Karl Zimmermann is interesting but does not mention the use of certain cars only on one train. That might be the case, but I did not find that information in the book. There are books on the Zephyr that have more information and it would be interesting to know more about the train consists and how they were run later on in the life of the train. The Zephyr is certainly a great looking train and the FP7A and two F3B units all with sound sure look and sound good. My motive power was the first set of F3A, F3b, F3b by Athearn and I added the FP7A when it came out more recently. Larry Some more information about the CZ www.american-rails.com/california-zephyr.html |
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Post by riogrande on May 2, 2012 16:10:38 GMT -8
RioGrande That would be an :oAWESOME :otrain. Have you decided what you will use for power? Jim Originally I bought the Genesis F9ABB set for the RGZ, and later added the wrecked F9AB set #5774, 5773, which are only good up until about 1968 (when they were wrecked on the prototype). Then I stumbled upon the single striped F3AB sets separately for attractive prices ($130 for one set and $150 for the other) non sound of course to build the #5541-44 ABBA set - they are gorgeous. Lastly Athearn Genesis came out with F7's in late phase of which included a California Zephyr frequent F7A #5764. I really should buy another and renumber it #5761 because those both were regular power during the last several years. So to make a short story long CZ Power for D&RGW: F7A#5764, 5763, 5762 and F9A 5771 (as would have been prototypical among F units used. Plus... F3A#5541-5544. I also have Genesis FP7A and two Stewart F3B's to hand the CZ off in SLC to. Because of cost, I originally only planned to collect the cars which matched those used on the Rio Grande Zephyr, so I bought all available domes, diner and 48 seat coach totaling 7 cars. Then I stumbled upon 8 more cars I could get for about $300 for all 8, mostly non D&RGW cars including 3 domes, 3 10-6 sleepers, baggage and 5-6 sleeper. Only one of the sleepers was D&RGW, and all the rest were C&BQ or WP cars so if I mix 'em up, I can have a regular CZ train of approx equal proportions of all 3 roads which owned them. The Walthers 52 Seat PS coaches are pretty accurate for Prospector cars and during the last few years these, along with Prospector dome-chair cars were often run as special cars at the head end of the California Zepher. |
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