For the NMRA National Train Show last year in Philadelphia, we published a booklet that had a little blurb about Southern Pacific Daylight passenger cars that we are planning. There has been little else said about this, and it’s time to be a bit more specific about what we are planning.
Basically, we are making the 1937 Southern Pacific Daylight. These were two specific trains that traveled daily between San Francisco and Los Angeles via the SP Coast line.
Train #98 and Train #99 had specific consists that will be faithfully recreated with the Athearn Genesis Daylight cars.
Train #98
Chair Baggage #3300 (Class 77-CB-1)
Chair #2400 (Class 77-C-1)
Articulated Chair #2402-2403, #2404-2405, #2406-2407 (Class 64ACW-1 and 64-ACM-1)
Tooling for the Chair car, #3300 and #3301 is nearly complete. To whet your appetite, we have a few photos of the car, showing how we are progressing. We have some “tweaks” still to do, but we are definitely making progress. It’s a long and arduous process to get a good passenger car designed, tooled, finished and into your hands, and we think they’ll be worth the wait. Enjoy these photos-we’ll have more when we get decorated samples.
Note also the photos of the de-skirted version. We’ll have those in the future, with
Yeah , I got the newsletter too. I’m seriously tempted to finally run passenger service on my SP layout thanks to those cars. They look really nice. We’ll see.
Somehow I don’t get it. PCM already announced the Morning Daylight and recently BLI announced the Coast Daylight.
Now Athearn practically announces the Morning Daylight as well…
Why do they have to do the same stuff others already have announced? Why not make the Shasta Daylight or the Golden State or The Lark? There are enough other Trains only released so far as Brass models but with enough potential for the Plastic Market.
I have written to several producers as to my wishes for Passenger Trains (El Capitan or Texas Special or City of Miami) and they always reply with a “great idea but we have currently no plans in that direction”.
I agree these will probably be very good overall. Check out the detail on the interiors.
This is the model version of the 1937 train, which was updated again in 1941. PCM has announced the 1941 train, which has variations including baggage doors to load luggage.
My question is! Will we really get two of these complete trains, or will one company drop out?? The market for Daylight cars will be saturated.
I hope both versions are completed and both will be available to us all.
When did Southern Pacific start painting those cars in the “Daylight” (red & orange) scheme? Any guesses on what the prices on these Athearn cars will be?
The two daylight trains look much the same but are different in detail and consist. The problem with all of the early and replacement trains along with the post war version is the market will be flooded.
I would like to see the El Cap train offered in plastic.
When it rains, it pours seems to fit this announcement.
They will certainly be cheaper than the PCM/BLI offerings… but by how much only Athearn knows.
If in the RTR series they will be much cheaper - if Athearn decides to make these Genesis models then they will be only a few Dollars below the PCM/BLI cars.
The lead time to produce such models may have a lot to do with why PCM/BLI and Athearn are doing these cars. Athearn was probably was already quite a ways along in its R&D and tooling for this project when BLI/PCM announced their cars. By that time, it may have been too late to cancel their (Athearn’s) plans. Especially if they are looking at this as their first offering in a new effort when it comes to passenger cars. Yes, I’d like to see my particular passenger set produced too, eventually it may be. At least we are moving in the right direction.
Athearn is making the original 1937 Daylight train and PCM has announced the 1941 Daylight updated new train. The 1941 train has different details including doors to load baggage onto the train. The original 1937 train run on the Coast (Morning) Daylight assignment until the 1941 train was received. The Morning Coast Daylight departed at 8:00 AM each day would pass each other somewhere in the vicinity of San Luis Obispo if they were on time. Overall, both versions are very nice and would look great on any SP layout.
The 1937 equipment continued to be used after 1941 on other runs to expand the Daylight type service, but the new 1941 trains were used on #98 and #99, which was the Morning Daylight and also referred to as the Coast Daylight.
The name Morning Daylight for the early train came into use after the Noon Daylight was introduced later on. The Noon Daylight had a different train number, but people remember names rather than numbers in many cased.
I’d say, considering the fact that BLI/PCM is always announcing then usually failing to follow through, that we’ll see the Genesis cars on the market LONG before the PCM’s. I like the stuff that Genesis has released, lately, and they always seem to be somewhat on time with the releases.
As I said in an earlier post, I’ve got a wonderful Balboa GS-4 that REALLY needs a neat Daylight behind it, and if Genesis comes out first–well, guess who gets MY business!
I agree with you on using the Balboa Daylight and I have a Balboa and a Westside to pull either train. Both of my KTM GS4 engines run great and pull fairly well.
My thought is the Athearn cars will be nice and they will probably will get to market first. The pictures show work has been done but the PCM announcement last year used brass models to illustrate their product.
in HO scale the high level El Capitan cars have been done in plastic. I wish I could remember the names of the companys. One company sold them in dull orange boxes. Without trucks and couplers as I recall. No one bought them, so they sold the tooling to the second company who added trucks and sold them in dull yellow boxes. The did them undecorated, painted for Santa Fe & Amtrak. They also made plated ones. Apparently no one bought them, because they sat on the clearance rack at Caboose Hobbies for almost a year. I thought they were Amtrak high levels and ignored them. When I finally realized what they were, I only got two 72 seat coaches and all the rest were the lounges and diners. Which of course I don’t need since I have Hallmark sets.
But this means the tooling is out there…still… somewhere.
Cheer up! These Athearns are WAY better than I have ever seen since the Blue Box days. I dont do the Daylight but the quality seen in the photos make these a candidate for future business should a suitable set be built by Athearn.
I believe that the bellows between the cars across the full width would be a break through if that can be made to work reliably without breaking off due to fatique over time.