I’m not a fan of the army green that most of these come in. If anyone has seen some on a website, then I would greatly appreciate knowing where to find them. I’ve been looking on modeltrainstuff.com and hobbylinc.com, but haven’t really found what I’m looking for yet…even after looking through over 300+different cars.
Also, if there’s a certain brand that makes these types of cars that is “better than the rest”, I’d appreciate knowing what it is, too Thanks in advance for any help you guys offer!
As far as colors, most of the older heavyweight Pullman passenger cars came in what became known as “Pullman Green”. The PRR may have had some heavyweights in their Tuscan Red scheme.
That is a problem since most (like 99%) of heavy weight 6 wheel trucked passenger cars came in Pullman green.
It seems like B&O might have had a few dark blue ones. In later years after most of the railroads converted to streamlined trains, they painted a few in the colors of the streamliners. GN had some that were orange and green, D&RGW had a few aspen gold with 4 stripes, NP had a few in their earlier two tone green scheme. The catch is that none of these would have been “trains” but single cars in other streamlined trains.
well if my guestimate of 99% is correct, in 300 cars you should have found 3!
There used to be a brand called “BranchLine”. They can still be found on the used market. I think Atlas bought the tooling but don’t know how long it will take them to get back to market. Then of course there is Walthers. For a middle-of-the-road car Bachmann used to make four different ones in their Spectrum line.
Welcome aboard. Do you favor any RR in particular? The ones showed are the Walther’s heavyweights. You don’t have to have them in Pullman green, RR painted their specialized “trains” in quite an array of very great paint schemes. As to the quality, most will agree that Rapido is top shelf, highly detailed to match the prototype and their $$ reflects that also, The Walther’s cars (which I have) are quite accurate and run up to my satisfaction for B&O heavyweights ( nice paint and matches up to my Fs or E units). These 85’ cars do need a min radius of 24" and some will still need some tweaking to do so reliably. There are Rivorossi, Concor and Athearn short 60’ that are less detailed and found at very reasonable $$ and will negociate 18" radius. Before the advent of highly detailed equipment these were the only ones about, w/o buying brass or scratch building or kitbashing your set. Many were/are quite happy w/ them and have made modifications, added details and changed trucks to have a decent stand-in for their standards to a prototype.
I see you have scoured links of quite a number of cars, however, i would do some research as to what road you really want to model first. It seems you are looking for a passenger train just by appearance alone. Most of these “new” cars are $60-80 ea and you may end up w/ quite an expense that you may later find is not what you really want. I spent many years “dabbling” w/ the Rivorossi’s in my B&O paint and never was happy w/ them to accurately run the National or capital Limited, I had the power but only generic stand-ins. Luckily walther’s produced these in the heavyweights and are rather accurate for the consist.
I need them to run on 22" radius curves at the least…18" would be ideal.
Price range needs to stay below $70/car if possible. I’d go over a little bit if the car was just top notch.
I don’t have a specific roadname in mind.
As for the color, I already have purple and green passenger cars, so those colors are out. Red, grey, and blue are the colors I’m really looking for. Just nothing that is “pullman green”.
For 18" radius turns you will need to go the shorter models (60’-70’) like Rivarossi, Concor or Athearn. I would consider a repaint into whatever colors you want. Below is a shot of one of my Rivarossi cars after I stripped and repainted it, and decaled it for my own railroad:
Not a diffficult project, especially if you own an airbrush, but quite possible with rattle-cans, as well.
As to operation - the Rivarossi cars, with 36" Kadee wheels, are about the best-rolling HO cars there are. The Athearn cars are noted for their excellent tracking ability, and the Concor cars are at least adequate in that regard, with bit of tweaking…
The blue box Athearn heavy weight cars are easy to find, and will run happily on 18 inch radius curves. You probably have to go to train shows to find them now. But they have 6 wheel trucks and they are very convincing looking. They are a bit short, but to operate on 18 inch curves, you have to do a little selective compression. So long as you don’t mix them with real long 80 foot cars, they look fine. Back when we actually traveled by rail, the cars we rode in looked just like the Athearn cars. Altho most roads had a couple of flashy streamliners, we didn’t get to ride in them very often. It was the plain old clearstory roof, non air conditioned, heavy weight cars that carried most of the passengers.
If you don’t like the color of the car as it comes to you, repainting and decaling is straight forward. The cars are a solid color, you don’t have to mask off a two tone paint job like so many locomotives, you don’t have to strip the old paint off. Home depot gloss rattle cans work and come in railroady maroon colors. After decals you give them a coat of DullCote to make the decals blend in and to give the car a flat finish.
Like this. It’s a baggage car, but doing coaches is about the same thing.
Thanks for all the replies. I’m really looking to just go with something pre-made. I don’t want to have to worry with painting, assembling, etc. It seems like I still can’t find any with 6 axles. Almost all of them only have 4. Does anyone have a link to some that are “ready to roll”?
You might want to look for the Athearn Santa Fe Valley Flyer cars. Not Pullman Green, and there actually were a few Santa Fe cars painted like this, so somewhat prototypical as well.
Although these were never available in the ready to roll line. At least I don’t think they were.
But Athearn “Blue Box” heavyweight “kits” are so simple to assemble. Pop in the windows, snap the body onto the underframe, and screw in the trucks.
I did a quick Google search and it looks like these were available factory assembled in a box set (ATH1024). Might try finding this on eBay as I’m sure these are available from time to time.
There are shortened passenger cars out there that come with the three axle trucks and are ready to run. The OP should look on Ebay or at www.modeltrainstuff.com to see what all is currently available. Also, at that website–they are one of the best, most reputable and lowest priced dealers you will ever find anywhere.
Also you should realize that three axle trucks can be a pain to operate on tighter curves–that is why some of the shortened cars only come with two axles.
The ConCor 65’ cars are ready to roll and now have lighted interiors.
They are the only shortened cars I’m aware of that come with lights already installed.
Attempting to install lights in other cars can sometimes be a pain in the rear end.
Also–the OP poster has specifically stated his desire for “three axle trucks”, which the ConCor cars do not have.
He should be aware that indeed most of the “heavyweight” passenger cars–with a few notable exceptions–did have the three axle trucks in real life BUT when the real railroads began switching to lighter weight steel and welded steel construction, they only needed two axle trucks to carry the load, because the welded construction was much stronger and much lighter.
Also, I respectfully point out that in real life most passenger cars were actually 85’ long. The ConCor car represents no real passenger car that I’ve ever seen a photo of, and indeed most of the “shortened” passenger cars also are fantasy cars with no known prototype. Perhaps that will not be of any concern at all to the OP, but is a notable fact.
Exceptions: some of the former MDC “Harriman”-style cars now being offered by Athearn do represent a couple prototype Union Pacific and/or Southern Pacific cars.
Also, I believe Fox Valley Models offers some brightly painted (orange
It’s not that you are not looking hard enough, you’re just looking in the wrong places.
eBay should be your web site of choice in this instance. You will eventually find what you are looking for if you limit your search to eBay. New items in this category appear all of the time.
The absolute best of passenger cars out there that will run 18" curves is Bachmann’s Heavyweights. They track extremely well, have interiors, accurate exterior detailing, and they are lit.
Good luck finding them though.
You really missed the boat by about 5 years. The market was flooded with heavyweight cars by Walthers, and Bachmann in a variety of colors. And yes a lot of Pullman heavyweight cars were painted in “Pullman Green” because he owned the cars, and leased them to the railroads. But due to an anti trust lawsuit, Pullman was forced to sell the cars to the railroads. After that the railroadscould do with them what they liked in terms of paint scheme.
I’m afraid your only source of new heavyweights would be Branchline Blueprint series by Atlas. https://secure.atlasrr.com/mod1/items.asp?Cc=H998&iTpStatus=0&Tp=&Bc= They are some of the most detailed cars I’ve ever encountered. But the trucks can be flakey. And they barely run on 24" curves, not 18"
Your best best for heavyweights is the used market on eBay. If you want it to run on 18" curves, look for Bachmann, Atthearn , or Rivarossi (in order of preference)
Yes, well if you want them to go around sharp corners you can take both the Branchline and Walthers off the list. I would not try them on anything less than 30". The Bachmann’s would be good as they have pivoting couplers and were designed for 18" radius curves.
