With the announcement of Kato’s N Scale 20th Century Limited with little to no information. I’m excited and disappointed at the same time.
Last week I thought I’ll get an HO scale passenger car a month. So I can slowly build the NYC 20th Century Limited 1948-54 that was made in 2008/09. Also I wanted to model the 1960s version. Little bits of pictures but not the whole train.
Planning on getting the 22 Roomette sleeper but in the 60s were no longer smooth it’s corrugated steel and the RPO were repainted into a dark gray.
Then I recently purchased a Walthers Grill Diner (6328) and 56 seat coach (30005).
The question is: What’s the full 1960s consist? Since the Wikipedia consist is like the only one and timetables lists like one car. Making it hard to pin down.
Second when did the black letterboard was placed? Would that be after 1961 rebuilds or during 1965?
Here’s a look at some of the Century paint details, mostly aimed at the '38 and '40 versions but later in the article are some details up to the “combined Commodore Vanderbilt” era (1958 or so).
I have some consists around here that I’ll try to dig up as time permits. Generally, the coaches, sleepercoaches and Budd Pullmans were toward the front and, depending on traffic, three to five of the original Century Pullman Standard cars were carried toward the rear.
Further details are here, again, mainly looking at the '38 and '40 schemes.
Here you see a 10-6, two Sleepercoaches, a grill-diner and two Budd coaches toward the head end. The Century cars begin at the diner under the cantilevered signal bridge in the distance. Sleepercoaches forst appeared on the Century on October 25, 1959.
Although I’ve seen a few photos of a black letterboard on the Budd cars I do not believe it was adopted as a standard. Dark gray was certainly more prevalent. The black letterboards may have been on the four leased Sleepercoaches from Budd before the NYC 22 Roomette cars went in for rebuilding.
Further research I found out that in May 1958 the headend car were repainted solid gray with aluminum gray lettering. Including the dark gray letterboards with aluminum gray lettering in 1956.
Car cement (black) which was used on leaking roofs is why those equipments were painted black. To hide
I noticed that picture too. I couldn’t tell if that was another coach and a 10-6 sleeper. Since the grill diner is the third car of the train making it unorganized.
I agree. It looks like there’s only one Budd coach and the last Budd car before the P-S Kitchen actually looks like one of the 22 Roomette Harbor cars.
Off Topic, but IMHO, that was one handsome train, steam or diesel, any era (I particularly love the Dreyfuss streamlined J3s, though). Not as colorful as some, but there’s something about the gray carbodies, especially with the lightning stripe.
One word of caution. When you buy a passenger set over time, you run the risk of it going out of production and being hard to get. I made that mistake with the Fox Valley HO 1935 Hiawatha set for their 4-4-2 streamlined loco. I got the loco and a few cars through Historic Rail including their unique beaver tailed observation car. I figured I would add a coach or two each month until I had a reasonable sized consist. Unfortunately that production run quickly sold out and Fox Valley began taking pre-orders for their next production run. That was over two years ago. They keep announcing new scheduled production runs but those keep getting pushed back. Last I looked there is one scheduled for this March but I am not optimistic this one is for real. I keep searching ebay but with no luck. I have three coaches on back order with my LHS but there is no telling when if ever that order will be filled.
EDIT: After posting this, I went to the Fox Valley website to get an update. This is what they have to say about their production run:
Here is an actual east bound consist from 1950. 4028 E7A
4108 E7B
4910 Baggage 60’ RPO
Calumet River 10-6
Bay Bridge 4-4-2
Chicago River 10-6
Port of New York 12 DBR
Castleton Bridge 4-4-2
Eads Bridge 4-4-2
10572 Atlantic Shore Telephone Room Buffet 30 seat Lounge Car
403 onehalf twin unit dining car with 68 seat dining room
475 onehalf twin unit Kitchen 21 crew dormitory car
Pecos River 10-6
Well that’s goes my FVM/Intermountain N Scale Auto Racks. That I preordered over 5 years ago. But I do have hope for if they surprise me. One of these days.
With the announcement of Kato’s N Scale 20th Century Limited with little to no information. I’m excited and disappointed at the same time.
Last week I thought I’ll get an HO scale passenger car a month. So I can slowly build the NYC 20th Century Limited 1948-54 that was made in 2008/09. Also I wanted to model the 1960s version. Little bits of pictures but not the whole train.
One word of caution. When you buy a passenger set over time, you run the risk of it going out of production and being hard to get. I made that mistake with the Fox Valley HO 1935 Hiawatha set for their 4-4-2 streamlined loco. I got the loco and a few cars through Historic Rail including their unique beaver tailed observation car. I figured I would add a coach or two each month until I had a reasonable sized consist. Unfortunately that production run quickly sold out and Fox Valley began taking pre-orders for their next production run. That was over two years ago. They keep announcing new scheduled production runs but those keep getting pushed back. Last I looked there is one scheduled for this March but I am not optimistic this one is for real. I keep searching ebay but with no luck. I have three coaches on back order with my LHS but there is no telling when if ever that order will be filled.
EDIT: After posting this, I went to the Fox Valley website to get an update. This is what they have to say about their production run:
Here is an actual east bound consist from 1950. 4028 E7A
4108 E7B
4910 Baggage 60’ RPO
Calumet River 10-6
Bay Bridge 4-4-2
Chicago River 10-6
Port of New York 12 DBR
Castleton Bridge 4-4-2
Eads Bridge 4-4-2
10572 Atlantic Shore Telephone Room Buffet 30 seat Lounge Car
403 onehalf twin unit dining car with 68 seat dining room
475 onehalf twin unit Kitchen 21 crew dormitory car
