I’ve been admiring early US streamlined passenger trains and I can’t find any examples of HO models of them on ebay such as city of Los Angeles circa 1936 or burlington and quincy Zephyrs. Anybody know where they are to be found or why they aren’t modeled so much? They seem like they would make a gorgeous model.
https://imgur.com/gallery/i8R9mtu
In the past, Con-Cor brought out plastic models of the Burlington’s Pioneer Zephyr (original and modernized versions), the Union Pacific M-10000, and the New Haven Comet in HO.
They haven’t been made in over ten years, but they do show up on eBay from time to time.
Similarly, Fox Valley Models brought out the early steam-powered streamlined Milwaukee Road Hiawatha in plastic in roughly the same time frame.
For early streamliners beyond those, you’ll need to look for brass models.
The Con-Cor 3-car Pioneer Zephyrs - the 1934 original & the post-war, twin-headlight 1948 (below) - are generally available on eBay. 2 or 3 of the early version are currently up for sale, as of today:
Even though I model the NYC, I picked one up at the beginning of January. It’s a terrific looking model and runs VERY smoothly! [Y][8D] I also purchased the 4th add-on car for it. The M-10000s show up every once in a while.
The longer Zephyrs (e.g. Mark Twain, Twin Cities, Flying Yankee) are only available in brass. I wish Con-Cor had produced the Flying Yankee. I would snatch one of those up, as well.
Tom
Thanks that’s great info.
As has been said… Con-Cor or brass.
The brass models of these tend to be very poor runners.
-Kevin
Many of the streamline cars that AHM/Rivarossi introduced in the 1960s were reasonably accurate models of 1938 Broadway Limited (PRR) cars.
And it was either AHM or IHC that had a series of packaged semi streamlined steam locomotive passenger train sets in a variety of paint schemes from the 1930s even if the cars themselves were not completely accurate for those trains.
There were also some classic Model Railroader articles on building your own Burlington Zephyrs.
Dave Nelson
Broadway Limited should soon be releasing their New York Central Commodore Vanderbilt Hudson which would be a nice addition as an early streamlined example:
New York Central 4-6-4 Hudson type Commodore Vanderbilt Colorized by George Murphey, on Flickr
They have offered a few other models of streamlined steam such as the PRR K4:
PRR_3768-speed by Edmund, on Flickr
— and the New York Central “Century” streamlined Hudson:
I suppose you could call the T1 streamlined, as well:
PRR_T1-E7 by Edmund, on Flickr
The trouble in most cases is that the main-stream manufacturers seem reluctant to “package” a full streamliner with cars and locomotives as the retail price would probably put off most casual buyers. The modeler is left to his own devices to acquire proper cars for a complete train.
MTH (Mike’s Train House) at one time did produce an Empire state Express Hudson and nice cars. These have been out of production for some time and MTH’s HO is now owned by another entity.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/NHPTL5][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/1847/30665732048_b288f3ab23
