Well today I received a notification that MTH has just released a NYC set of these passenger cars, The attached video showed a fairly well designed passenger car,
BLI has just recently re-released their entire California Zephyr cars and of course Rapido has now released their third set of the CPR Canadian train in stainless steel finish.
In addition to these sets, Walthers has just re-released their Budd cars in their new ss finish.
Can anyone comment on which of these sets of cars are to be considered the better set and which of these would be considered to be the least in terms of quality?
Rather than whistle I’ll just post that I don’t go by finish but which train is correct for me. While the Rapido cars are very nice, I don’t model Canada so they are out. I model western so that narrows things down quite abit. Basically I had a full CZ set and most of the Rio Grande Zephyr CZ cars, to which I’ve added the last two (Silver Colt and Silver Pine) and am now working toward a second set since I’m half way there already.
I don’t know that the quality of the stainless steel should be the deciding factor. I would think the prototype of the train would be a more important factor. I mean if one is modeling NYC why would the California Zephyr cars be of any interest and vice-verse? If one is a Canadian modeler then the CPR would be the logical choice, wouldn’t it?
In my opinion the California Zephyr cars are second to none. I have some from the first couple runs (I am approaching (4 full sets and 2 short sets). The only issue on the first run was the wheel gauge. All too tight. Then there is the last Walthers El Capitan cars. They are also great, but pricey. My problem with them is that they don’t match either the my painted (first run) nor plated (latest run) Super Chief cars. They also used too small a wheel base truck. The issues have nothing to do with the stainless finish. So if their new plating is the same as the El Capitan set I would think their Budd cars will be great. Can’t say anything about the Rapido. I have zero knowledge of them. And then there is MTH where I don’t care about the quality of their product, it is the umm umm character of the company on which I refuse to even consider them as a vendor.
I was interested in the new NYC MTH cars since they are models of the prototype and not just representative of general cars from the review I read. After watching the video, I emailed MTH about the cars and got a reply they are painted and not plated. It was hard to tell in the video and that is the reason I emailed them with that question.
I am surprised that this posting was not clearly understood, comments wanted on the quality and finish of these various passenger cars. Could care less if you are modeling these trains or not.
The posting was meant to solicit comments on the overall finish of the various passenger cars.
I do not think it is necessary if you model the railroad or not.
The MTH cars are NYC, the BLI the Californai Zephyr, Rapido the Canadian, Walthers are more or less generic and come in a variety of road names.
Is it not possible to comment on the quality and finish of the various modles of these passenger cars?
After all, that is what the train magazines will do in their reviews.
I understand that you are interested in comments regarding the finishes.
Of course, you realize that this can be quite subjective. But here is my take based on my personal research with metalizing. I’ll just comment on the MTH and BLI series since you’ve likely already read my comments on the Walthers’ finishes on previous stainless steel / Alclad related posts.
I’ll keep it simple:
Empire State Express finish: These beautiful cars are painted a bright silver that leans toward a medium-light tone.
Pros:
The size of the metallic silver flakes used for this finish appear to be very fine which contributes to a smooth, high quality finish up close.
The surface reflectivity is good (although I would prefer to see photos in natural outdoor lighting).
Cons:
The D.O.I (Distinctiveness of Image) is low. The stainless steel on new Budd units featured a #7 reflective finish, which yielded an almost “mirror” effect.
Color Tone: The finish is realistic as far as a metal appearance, but imho, the exhibited tone is a light gray and more closely resembles Aluminum alloys, such as the series often used on jet aircraft or that of aged stainless steel. Again I’m referring to “Tone” which for our purposes this refers to Grayness: light, medium or dark.
When new, the 300 series stainless steels that are polish
Thanks for the evaluation of the finish. I was very interested in this train but I would have to view it up close at a LHS before I would purchase it now that MTH has replied to me about the paint.
As far as quality with the MTH passenger sets in general, I have both the Daylight and the N&W passenger sets and they roll extremely nice. The cars are detailed well and compare very well to any passenger sets available today. I would purchase these if they were plated.
The video did not define the finish at least for me. Hopefully, a good review of the model will show us more in the near future.
The question was very well understood. The purpose of asking such a quesiton was not, as it seems a moot point. I believe people were trying to probe and find the question behind the question. It would have made perfect sense if it had been concerning the finish on two sets of CZ, or Empire State cars.
Train magazines inclue the finish of the car in the reviews for people who are intersted in that specific car. This was very important in the El Capitan set because the cars are often mixed and matched or at least sit side by side with other Santa Fe trains. I know I wanted it to look good in a 1970s version of the train where the El Cap and Super were actually coupled together behind 1 set of locomotives.
As far as comparing finishes. The older Walthers plating - used on the Amtrak cars and plated Super Chief gave one the iimpression of a highly polished car straight out of the cleaning shop. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a real car that birght, well, I would go as far as saying they are glaring.
This is a rather interesting question, because it really brings up two things: on the one hand, there is the question of what is objectively the best quality (simply on the basis of fidelity and level of detail, quality of finish, etc.), but then there is also that question of what really appeals to people. One set of cars may be absolutely brilliant, but will never appeal to modellers with no interest in that prototype. In a similar vein, some people comparing quality may fall subject to a certain bias due to which models they have a particular interest in.
Now aside from that, here are a few of my thoughts on the quality of each of these:
-I haven’t seen the MTH cars in person, but they do look good in the photos. Their other cars have looked good too, so I suspect the NYC cars are fine, despite being non-plated.
-Same goes for the BLI cars, in that I haven’t seen them in person, but have looked at plenty of photos. The overall level of detail looks outstanding, and the fidelity to the prototype is supposed to be quite good. The only major issues I can see is that the Solex tint is definitely too dark in the windows, and it’s disappointing to see that the dome windows are not flush fitting. If you’re a CZ modeller, I can’t imagine you being really disappointed with these.
-Out of the four manufacturers products you brought up, Walthers is certainly the bottom of the pack in this category. I have a dozen of their Budd cars (pre-plating), so I know them quite well. While the quality of the cars is decent, the level of detail is nowhere near the others. The underbody is pathetically lacking, the interiors are blobby and unpainted, and the other details are pretty basic (grab irons, and that’s about it). Prototype fidelity is questionable, as they are far off from many of the prototypes they are painted for. This is to be expected when it comes down to it (they do need to sell more), but apart from modellers of the prototype on which the cars are based