Have any manufacturers, other than Branch line, marketed Great Northern passenger cars, not in brass , painted in the Pullman Green livery with yellow lettering? There are lots in the Empire yellow, orange and green livery.
I contacted Con-Cor trains to inquire if they would be releasing their Suburban 65’ coaches in the Great Northern Green, livery. They have been releasing their coaches in a variety of names.
Con-Cor replied back, they had considered releasing some of their coaches in the Green Livery, however, a focus group that they have recommended that they should not as demand would be very low.
I can only hope that Atlas has plans to re-release the Branch line coaches in their previous road names.
That certainly explains why it is not unusual to see steam engines hauling GN passenger trains in the wrong livery for their eras
I feel your despair, I model the other "Hill Line’, the Northern Pacific and there isn’t much available for this line either. It would appear Model Railroading is controlled by profit now-a-days.
It is not a big job to buy passenger cars from another line, paint and decal them for your line, especially if they will be solid Pullman Green, then buy Microscale decals and your problem has been eliminated and you have had the enjoyment of fixing a problem with a “dam the bean counters”, full speed ahead attitude!
Buying the appropriate unlettered Branchline or Walthers olive drab heavyweights and decaling them yourself is certainly a good way to go. I’ve done similar with Athearn undecorated and the results were great, and unique to the RR you model. I’m not a Hill lines expert (I do admire them), but believe their color schemes would be fairly easy to mask off and paint. I’ve also done that on a few Athearns and the results were pretty acceptable, and gave me some more airbrush experience.
With very few exceptions, the MR businesses are profit motivated. Said another way, they will rarely produce anything that they don’t feel will sell. And of course, they are just like any other business out there…
If you want a specific paint job on a specific type of equipment, you have to think about putting it there yourself.
LION did paint some cars himself, with a paint brush. They do not look too bad, but then again they do not look all that good either. LIONS do have thumbs, but they are not oppose-able and besides him tries to keep the paint out of his nice fur.
Keep this in mind - for some time now there has been the strong trend of RTR models that are more prototypically correct, as we have all debated repeatedly on this forum.
Passenger cars tend to be one of the hardest things to get exactly right for each railroad since many were “one of a kind”, or built in very small batches, often unique to each railroad.
Whether or not the majority of modelers are really “demanding” these higher standards of accuracy, manufacturers has responded with a reluctance to offer “foobie” or “stand in” paint scheme cars.
And until recently it seemed that market pressure might drive out “generic” passenger car models like those from Athearn and ConCor.
BUT, ConCor bucked that trend with their “branch line” series - totally freelanced, fictional, but very nicely done and geared to those with sharper curves. And they and Athearn have maintained and improved their 72’ “shorty” car lines, apparently with good success.
So maybe we will see a return to a better selection of roadnames even if the cars are somewhat generic? Maybe that trend has already begun - sales numbers will drive the future choicies from these companies and others.
Personally, even with my 36" and larger curves, I prefer selectively compressed passenger cars like the Athearn and ConCor 72’ cars - I have hundreds of them.
I believe that would be the correct car, however, I do not think GN had a smoothside car after the Heavy weights other than the Empire Builder in its orange and green
I’m almost certain they had an all pullman green car set of something, I’d have to check my G’pa’s lines west book. maybe I’m thinking of SP&S coaches that never joined the EB pool.