Hello Crew [8D]
This is in response to a request from forum member Sean62485 regarding the 1980s tooled Rivarossi Budd cars.
Although loosely based on New York Central and Canadian prototypes, and crude by today’s standards, these are not bad looking units. They’re very easy to work on and with some detailing and TLC, can be made into very nice looking passenger cars. I mix my Rivarossi, Walthers, and Rapido passenger cars within the same train. (Ok, here’s where I dodge the ripe tomatoes! [:P])
Taking them apart is easy. Turn your unit upside down, place it on top of a terry cloth towel, and gently pull out the black plastic pins holding the trucks in place. The floor is snuggly held in place by a tab on each end that protrudes into the center of the bulkhead/vestibule sill (directly behind the diaphram). Carefully insert a small flat blade screwdriver or hard plastic wedge tool and pry out the floor:
Once the floor is out the window strips should pop out with gentle finger pressure as they’re usually not glued in. To remove the plastic diaphrams, use your thumb and index fingers, hold the sides, and gently pull in a side to side motion. Once off, I normally cut the gate off with a pair of nippers.
DONE! Take your time. Once you do a couple of them, you will probably be able to take one apart in less than two minutes…but don’t rush it.
Adding Weight: I should have taken photos, but if you look in the floor, you’ll see the empty pockets that are actually the insdes of the various tanks and boxes of the underframe. Just fill these pockets up with birdshot, BB gun pellets, or other 'weighty" material. Cover with a thin layer of a waterbased glue.
You can add additional flat weights to the floor
This must be some new production cars. My older Rivs are more similar to the IHC cars with tabs on the bottom sides which are used to push the roof / windows section out.
Hi GPaine,
I should have mentioned the tabs. My Rivs are the old ones, similar to the IHC units. I literally bought my cars new, at Happy Hobo Trains back around 1984-85. MSRP was $22, but the cars were always discounted to $16-$17.
Usually when I remove the windows, I literally push them in with my finger and they pop inward. The tabs in the floor help to hold them but in my cases they offered very little resistence. In fact whenever I reinstall windows on Rivarossi Budds, I usually apply tiny dabs of Microscale’s Krystal Kote on several spots, to keep them from falling inward (just like the Walthers units).
Word of caution to those considering purchasing these older units on Ebay for the purposes of repainting into your preferred scheme.
Be smart and don’t jump the gun.
Often times I’m amazed when I see an Ebay seller post a “plain jane” Rivarossi Budd unit with an opening bid of $25 or is offering a batch of 8 cars for $300 (due to a popular paint scheme). Guys, for those prices, you might as well target the older run Walthers and Rapido units which are much better in overall quality.
If you check regularly and do a thorough search, you’ll find Riv Budds “New-in-the-box” or in good condition starting in the $10 to $15 range. Imho, winning a unit that, with shipping, costs around $25 or less is a decent deal.
Since my intent is to paint strip whatever car I win, my modus-operandi is to target Rivarossi and Walthers units that are in less popular paint schemes. These usually wind up selling at a lower winning bid compared to units decorated in “Santa Fe” or “Pennsylvania Congressional” schemes.
Thought I’d post this here as a modeler who’s a member of another forum brought up an issue:
The bolsters on Rivarossi lightweight passenger car trucks protrude upward enough that the gap between the body and truck is noticeable as seen on this Rivarossi Chair Car (coach) that I hopped up a few years ago:
An inexpensive “quick fix” for this is to CAREFULLY file the bolster down, but don’t eliminate it. It must remain flat, otherwise your car will wobble noticeably from side to side, even if it’s weighted. Notice the difference in this shot of the Rivarossi sleeper. After filing down the bolster, adding weight, and installing P2K 36" metal wheels this car rolled and tracked very nicely.
Now if in filing down the bolster you accidentally take too much off (yes, I’ve done it too![:P]), don’t sweat it. You can cut out a square shaped piece of 1/32" thick styrene approximately “1/8 x 1/8”. Before cutting it out, make sure to drill a hole in the center of what will be your “square” that’s large enough in diameter for your pin to fit through. Glue it to the top of the truck.
Interestingly, my Rivs still line up with my Walthers units, heightwise.
Keep in mind you can simply upgrade to a more expensive, higher quality truck and body mount the couplers. But this is targeted for modelers that want to keep costs down on, what is considered, an inexpensive generic model.
Originally I had planned to go “all out” with my Rivarossi’s back in the early 2000s. Once the Walthers streamliners hit the market (and ebay) my focus shifted to them since they were much more accurate.
Still, the Rivarossi’s s
Thank you SO much for this. I’d gotten (cheap) a Riv CN noodle smooth side mid dome and after body mounting the couplers with Kadees realized I now had to replace the trucks. Still, as Rapido’s mid domes still won’t be out for another year or so it’s an acceptable fill in.
Hi Bigpianoguy,
Nice seeing this thread again. The old Rivs do seem to fit in nicely as “stand in” cars. A nice plus about them is that now that they’re often available at bargain prices at swap meets and on ebay, they’re great for experimenting on. As I’ve stated on other threads, for those interested in metalizing passenger equipment with Alclad-2, starting with Rivarossi Budd shells is a good way to go before moving on to Walthers Mainline or older run Proto units.
