I have several of the Walthers HO ATSF passenger cars and am trying to determine if they are close to being correct for the ATSF prototype car, and the approximate time period in which they would have been in service. The Budd cars in question are: #6385 52 seat coach, #6425 Lounge, #6465 Baggage/Dormitory, #6485 Dome Coach, #6505 Tavern Observation, # 6325 Grill Diner, and # 6365 Slumber Coach.
My second question concerns the Walthers Santa Fe Super Chief Cars (#9001 thru #9008). While I understand that these are correct for the prototype, when were they in use?
To answer the second question first, the Walthers Super Chief cars represent prototypes that were used into the Amtrak era and until the introduction of the Superliner cars. I saw these cars in use in 1974 and in 1981.
The Walthers “standard” Budd cars do not represent ATSF prototypes.
The “lounge” is really a parlor and does not represent anything used by ATSF.
ATSF never used slumbercoaches (although Amtrak did use these cars on the Southwest Chief while the locos and cars were still in ATSF colors).
The dome coach is nearest to a Burlington prototype but ATSF did not use these.
However, ATSF was the first user of standard Budd lightweight coaches and the Walthers model is a reasonable representation. The Tavern Observation is similar to cars used by ATSF, as is the baggage dormitory. The Grill Diner is similar to cars used by ATSF.
These cars were used at least up to the Amtrak period.
Thank you for your comments, they are appreciated!
I recently confirmed that the Walther’s Super Chief cars are good representations of the prototype - as you indicated.
And as for the Budd cars, isn’t it a shame that in this day and time that “Santa Fe” would be stamped on cars that are not close to the prototype. While this might be OK for some, I would gladly pay an extra $5-10 to get a more suitable representation of an ATSF car.
Just keep in mind that you cannot accurately model the Super Chief as it ever appeared with the cars that Walther’s released. The “Hotevilla” 4/4/2 sleepers are too early to be used with the rest of the cars in the Walther’s “Super Chief” run. You would need ACF or P/S built “Regal” 4/4/2s and even ACF built “Palm” 10-6 sleepers to have a correct consist, which Walther’s has never produced. Bear in mind that the Budd “Pine” 10-6 sleepers are correct for the 1950+ Super Chief, so you could get away with not needing any “Palm” sleepers, although it seems that the Super normaly had both Pines and Palms in the consist.
The long and short of the whole thing is that Walther’s royally screwed up their “Super Chief” release (this includes the Genesis F7s they had produced specially for this release).