Greetings all,
With Pennsy being so popular has any manufacturer considered doing a Queen Mary type open platform observation-parlor car? Pennsy had some, some went to Wabash (open and closed platform, and I believe New York Central may have had something similar. I have seen drawings of Queen Mary on the net as well as pictures of Wabash parlors. What do you folks think? Is there any hope or am I going to have to convert something? The research would be easy.
Thanks for your thoughts,
Bob
In N scale in particular, Pennsy is probably more popular with modelers than with manufacturers. For all of its publicity proclaiming it “The Standard Railroad of the World”… there was precious little standard about it. Their steam had very individual features, as did their earlier diesels… the models may have been from the manufacturer’s catalog, but the radio phone antenna, cab signal boxes and other subtleties made them uniquely Pennsy.
As such, manufacturers of mass produced models are loathe to fund the creation of tooling that has such a limited appeal. Recently Kato went out on a limb and produced the Broadway Limited set, with all or most of the cars being new tooling exclusive to the PRR. Kato is relying on the broad appeal of passenger trains in general to drive the sales of these models, not just the narrow sliver of people who:
But the Broadway is also a complete train set, and can be run with Kato’s E-8/9 or their GG-1, so it should have a reasonable appeal to collectors as well as runners. It also spans the transition era, so modelers with steam era layouts could scare up a brass K-4, or modify an old Trix K-4 to haul it around.
A single car like the Queen Mary would best be approached by a specialty manufacturer, such as Train Cat, that specializes in custom etched brass kits. Since it’s not part of a complete set, it would have limited appeal to collectors, and since it’s such a limited model in terms of era, roadname and scope of service, it will have a very limited audience in terms of model railroaders.
But hey, dream big, and make noise… sooner or later someone might hear you!
Lee
Lee,
Your last paragraph says it well but QM was not a “one of”. I was hoping for some interest from modelers and maybe someone like Microtrains. I know Kato or Concor would have been great, but too mass market and unlikely to make one class of heavyweights. I was hoping that with PRR, Wabash, NYC, KJRY, and Public Belt of New Orleans at one time or currently (NOPB) operating them there might be hope. As many as 5 cars still exist that I have heard of. 2 Ex PRR/ex Wabash/ex private cars in operating condition in New Orleans(PRR/Wab/KJRY/NOPB), City of Peru(PRR/Wab in pieces for a now cancelled restoration in New Orleans, One in the Delaware/Virginia/Maryland area(PRR/WAB), and Queen Mary (PRR)herself is (was last I saw) at Wayne Station Restaraunt in Wanye, NJ.
Some of Microtrains molds already look close. I believe one side of the 10-1-2 already looks close to the Wabash closed end parlor City of Peru, a former PRR car. I haven’t seen the other side. Now hypothetically if they used slide mold technology, and the mold sides could be changed, simple CNC machine program changes could produce a new mold side in hours. I know this is simplistic but it could be done. The internal passenger section would take a little longer.
I will admit to ignorance as I have not heard of Train Cat. I will be looking them up in a few minutes. My original plan was to try to modify a Model Power heavyweight observation the next time I find one at a show, but now I’m starting to see more heavies appearing. I’m feeling hopeful.
Thanks for letting me put in my 2 cents,
Bob
One more thing,
I forgot Norfolk and Western had the Wabash cars in the 60’s and Seaboard operated one of these later as Fernandina. Fernandina later becoming Keokuk Junction’s Chiel Keokuk. With the various name changes and owners I don’t quite know the total number of cars in this class built by Pullman. I believe a minimum of 5. Can anyone out there help?
Thanks,
Bob
You are probably looking at a kitbash/styrene conversion. See Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Car Information, and its PRR Queen Mary conversion pics/plans (zip-file) for starters. Lots of good “Pennsy-stuff” here!
Tgindy,
Thank you for the reference.
Bob