Can someone advise on the (scale) length of the Athearn blue box heavyweight cars? I want to create a set of UP 2-tone gray scheme and these cars (with a repaint) might do nicely. And perhaps a good starting point for my airbrushing “expertise” (learning). Are the trucks generally useable or are replacements of trucks or wheelsets recommended?
I see Con-Cor offers 65’ versions, a bit on the short side, while the Walthers 82’ versions are on the long side for my curves. I like the non-round roofs, which lets out the Con-Cor streamline 72 footers, I think.
The Athearn heavyweight coach, sleeper, diner and observation cars are (depending on which source you cite) 70’ or 72’ long; the RPO and baggage cars are slightly shorter, I think 67’. In reality, many/most heavyweight coaches, RPOs and baggage cars were around 70’ or so, so these cars are the correct length. The sleeper diner and observation cars are shortened versions of 80’ long cars. Athearn has made the coach in both round-roof and clerestory-roof versions.
Although some dispute this, it seems pretty clear the cars were based on ATSF cars.
The Walthers / Rivarossi 60’ heavyweight cars are based on real cars that were 60’ long. The coach and combine are based on 60’ “utility” cars built for the Chicago and NorthWestern. I believe the heavyweight RPO and baggage cars are also based on CNW cars, but many railroads had similar 60’ cars.
For many years Athearn passenger cars have come with metal wheels; I’ve never had any trouble with Athearn cars and find them quite reliable. They have “talgo” trucks, the couplers are connected to the trucks rather than the body of the car. It’s very easy to convert them to Kadees, it’s basically just a ‘drop in’ with No.5s. You could convert them to body-mount, but that might increase their minimum radius.
Both the Athearn heavyweight coach and baggage measure 72 feet with my scale rule. I like them, the roof profile, the size, the boarding steps, the windows arrangements, all look right to my eye. Way back when, pretty much all passengers rode in cars that looked just like the Athearns. I certainly climbed into plenty of coaches that looked very simular back then. There are plenty of them kicking around at train shows. You can add diaphragms. You can add wire grab irons and hand rails. Painting and decalling is straight forward, that sort of car was mostly given a single color paint job, sometimes maroon, sometimes pullman green. Even the Bangor and Aroostook, white with a blue stripe can be done with rattle cans. The somewhat wavy looking factory windows can be replaced with clear styrene sheet.
You can build up a very good looking passenger train from the Athearn heavyweights.
As for the trucks, they will negotiate 18" radius curves, though they hang over quite a bit. I did use a truck tuner on them, as I do most of my trucks. Be careful when putting the wheels back on. They are designed to have you put a lighting package in them, thus one side is insulated, the other side not. One truck needs all the wheels one way, the other truck, the pick up wheels need to be on the other side. The resulting lighting is a little iffy, but I’m sure can be improved with a little work. Not sure what you have to do to make them work properly with DCC.
Thanks, all. I bit that bullet and have 5 ebay items on the way, a RPO, coach, 2 pullman and an observation. Found a thread that recommended interiors from Palace Car, which I like the idea. Not sure I want to get into lighting as that would imply taking on the Walters streamliners and MOW cars I have.
I like the 2-tone gray UP scheme but two questions. What grays are available that fit the bill and how best to do the narrow white stripes above/below the window line? Make it 3 questions: should I strip the old paint first or just repaint (will the prior lettering show, etc)?
I’ll try to find and add a photo link. (See the UP Overland scheme part way doen the Con-Cor page):
I had to do a project similar to yours. I repainted some Roundhouse Harriman to NYC two-tone grey. Badger ModelFlex has various paint colors (I used them) and they have SP Overland Grays for you. For the white stripes I used painter’s tape and hand painted them. For the results, there are pics of the coach and the combine that I have already finished in the link below.
Thanks, Alex, good tip. I see Walthers has Modelflex SP dark & light gray, so I guess that’s the right ones. I saw an article that noted the UP, SP, Pullman & NYC 2-tone grays were very close. Need to confirm whether the stripes and lettering should be white or “letter gray” or “striping gray”, slightly different from the light Lark gray I presume. I tried reading the attached (twice) but tonight I’m too tired to absorb it (more than I ever wanted to know).