“Yes, they are shorter than the full lenght passenger cars. The “normal” length of a streamlined passenger car is 85 feet (around 12” HO), the Athearns are 72 feet (just over 10" in HO)"
This quote from another thread (Does a car exist"?) reminds me to ask…
Are the short Athern cars based on prototype cars and close to correct length or have they been shrunk to fit the model environmet?
Put another way… did modern passenger stock come in regular lengths shorter than 89’?
Most modern streamlined cars used in the USA built from the 1930s forward were 85 feet in length. RPO and Baggage cars tended to be shorter in varying lengths, depending upon the manufacturer (Budd, Pullman Standard, ACF, or a railroad with its own car shops like the Milwaukee Road).
Notable exceptions: Southern Pacific.
According to a friend of mine who is an SP modeler, many of the Daylight series cars were 77 feet in length. These cars were custom buillt for SP.
Another exception were the Budd RDC cars used in Australia, which were (I vaguely remember) between 65ft. and 70ft. in length.
To sum it up, the Athearn streamliners are short “generic” versions of 85ft. passenger cars with the intent in mind to help modelers with small layouts and/or tight curves. Back in the 60s and 70s these HO cars were very popular with modelers.
Fast forward years later. The bar was raised high and for many modelers these cars no longer fit the bill as their body and truck detailing is crude by today’s standards… Model Power even produced 72ft. long streamlined “shorties” complete with interiors and underbody detailing that look attractive and more realistic.
I’m not knocking the Athearns as I had a batch of them (NH, Amtrak) for nearly 20 years. I traded them in and switched over to Rivorossis’ once I started looking closely at prototypes and photos.
It seems what goes around comes around. Everyone who can should at least glance through the magazines from the 40’s and 50’s to see numerous small realistic layouts and how for some reason we seem to be going back in that direction. Somehow the logic escapes me as houses in the 50’s were mostly 700-1200 sq. ft. and today nothing under 2000 sq ft is being built. Most manufacturers of the era including Athearn, Penn Line, Tyco, Mantua and others all lopped sections out of the long cars so they would perform on smaller radii that were prevalent. If you read some of the reviews of the times it was called genius and supported by the press. But then the MR review of rubber band drive thought that was brilliant also. Athearn also shortened the RDC none of which has been corrected until the Lifelike version recently. If I am not mistaken the streamlined RPO by Athearn is a shorter car as a prototype but all the people carrying cars are wrong. As knowledge increases so does the desire for more realistic representation. Even with Rivarossi cars there are discrepencies. We are in an era of rivetcounting that should not disuade anyone from enjoying the hobby. Once in awhile we all need to go back to our toy train roots and just run something for tne fun of it and take ourselves less seriously.
I agree with this so much I’ll even say “Amen” to it! [:D][:D]
I refuse to call my hobby “scale modelling” and always call it “Toy trains”… partly because i play with the full sized toys for my work… you can’ call them real… you just get in, start up the computer and off they go - no Hostlers, cleaners, fire lighters… no tons of coal thudding into the tenders or hot a***o damp down… these modern things just aren’t real [;)]
I’m really lucky and have model mags going back years. I waded through these in the years before I had time and space to model. I totally agree that every modeller that can will benefit from going through these old mags… if nothing else people will realise how lucky we are today [8D]… Also there were lots of really good articles about the real railroads over the years… especially examples that could be copied or imitated.
A lot of newbies would really benefit from accessing these sources… they would get more of a feel for the real thing and a broader picture than we can ever really give in our short (instant) answers in the forum.
ANYWAY… Thanks for the responses… I’m now wondering whether any of the shortlines or preservation roads did the same thing as Athern and shortened cars to make them suite their purposes better???
I know from my reading that during WW2 some four bay coal hoppers were shortened to three bay so that they would fit specific dumping gear in an area they were moved to. Adapting the cars was quicker/cheaper than making new ones when steel and time were short. I think that they then recycled the cut-out bays into new ca
It would be rare for a baggage car or RPO to be 80-85’ long. Most were 60’-70’. Not that familiar with the Athearn streamlined cars, but their heavyweight RPO, Baggage and Coach cars (I believe 63’, 67’ and 70’ respectively) are full-length models of the prototypes, the other heavyweights are shortened to 70-72’ length. I assume the streamliners are similar, the RPO and Baggage cars at least are probably ‘full size’
BTW the heavyweights are based on Santa Fe cars, I assume the streamliners are based on ATSF cars too??
The RPO and baggage cars are prototype length. Santa Fe’s streamlined Budd and ACF baggage cars were both in the 70’ range. Both the RPO and the baggage most closely resemble Santa Fe prototypes. The rest of the cars may be based on Santa Fe prototypes, but very loosely. The heavyweight cars are a whole other story. First off, they do not have the channel sill that is most commonly associated with Santa Fe heavyweights. The below site is a pretty good reference for Santa Fe prototype models…
And the only railroad that I can think of off hand that had the longer head end cars (80’ +) would be the Union Pacific, although I know there were more.
The Athearn ‘streamline’ cars have no protoype. The RPO is maybe the most close to a ATSF prototype, but does not have the Budd roof coutour or the Budd ends. The Athearn cars are really a ‘mish-mash’ of styles - real ‘generic’ stuff. BTW, the Athearn baggage is a good stand-in for a lot of cars. I modified one with Pastruct channels on the roof and rebuilt ends to make a ‘phoobie’ CB&Q car about 35 years ago. The old Mantua metal streamline cars are a very nice Budd profile cars, just the length/windows/etc are all wrong! Same with the Model Power streamline cars…
I recall reading in a previous discussion of these cars that the diner was in fact a segment from an SP 3-car articulated set - is this correct or have I garbled the facts somewhat? If so, can anyone point me towards a photo of the prototype car - articulated stock is something of an interest!
The SP triple-unit diner has a smooth roof and large windows, something the Athearn cars do not have. There was an article in a past MR were a guy kit-based some SP articulated equipment using Athearn parts…
