Modeling the
Super Chief in N scale involves a bunch of different models from different places.
60' ltwt Budd corrugated
RPO: the old ArnoldRapido item#5222 is right on if you can find one.
ltwt corrugated
full baggage: Concor item#4231 is close. It has the number 3430 on it but is actually closer to ATSF 3432-3452 series. Concor’s literature says it is modeled after the ATSF 3500 series which were used on the mid-1950s
Super Chief, but the 3500s were corrugated with a short section of non-corrugated side next to the baggage doors, so that the corrugations wouldn’t be bunged up by baggage carts. The model appears to be actually built from a California Zephyr prototype, and on the Santa Fe roster, seems closest to 3432-3452 as I said earlier.
About 1960, smooth side “semi-streamlined” baggage cars began running on the
Super Chief. Concor’s 1-04081/04082 smoothside full baggage might be used.
Or American Model Builders car sides item#5502 for a Santa Fe smoothside baggage, series 3750-3799.
Ltwt corrugated Baggage-bar lounge-dorm: best “stand-in” is probably Rivarossi baggage-dorm #(not sold separately anymore and sold out in Santa Fe sets.)
It is “dead–on” to Santa Fe baggage-dorm #3477-3479 which was not the series usually assigned to the
Super Chief but is a similar authentic Santa Fe car which ran in a similar place in the train. The 1380 series which ran regularly in the
Super Chief had a small baggage door on each side flush against the end of the car, large wide windows in a lounge section and a Budd corrugated roof. The Rivarossi car has small windows in a dorm-only part of the car, a baggage door more than ten feet from the end of car (don’t have my scale rule handy) and a Pullman Standard smooth roof (non-corrugated.)
The
Super Chief being an all-first-class train had lots of sleeping cars: in the early 1950s, 3 or 4 10-3-2s in the “Blue” series and 3 or 4 4-4-2s in the “Regal” series. By the mid-50s, the “Blue” sleepers were replaced by 10-6 sleepers in the “Palm” and “Pine” classes. Often a train had both “Palm” and “Pine” 10-6s in it.
JnJ item#344-3435 photo-etched car sides are for the “Blue” sleepers
I haven’t found a model for “Regal” sleepers, but you could substitute a “Blue”.
Concor’s Budd Sleeping car item#4211 is marked “Palm Leaf” but it has a corrugated roof like the “Pine” series, and the window arrangement is closer to “Pine”.
An old Concor/Rowa car from 25 years ago was a 10-6 sleeper marked “Pine Beach”, but its smooth (uncorrugated) roof was similar to Santa Fe’s “Palm” series, and its window arrangements match “Palm”. So if you can find some of the old cars, and buy some of the current Budd sleepers, you can have both Pine and Palm sleepers (but they will be lettered with names “reversed”!)
Beside the sleepers, there were a dorm-lounge, a dining car and the dome lounge-“Turquoise Room” car in the middle of the train.
The new Concor 1-426101 Budd “Parlor car” appears fairly close to Santa Fe’s 1370-1376 or 1390-1395 series dorm lounges. The parlor car probably was for daytime trains that did not have dorm space for crews. Has one or two more large lounge windows on each side than the dorm lounge, and fewer small windows.
Ltwt corrug dining car: JnJ item#344-030 brass car sides (not currently catalogued at JnJ)over a Concor smoothside dining car, item#04071. Matches the Santa Fe #600-606 dining cars EXCEPT that it does not have small square windows in the kitchen section.
Ltwt corrugated Dome lounge-Turquoise Room 500-505, a signature
Super Chief car, run on no other train on the Santa Fe. I have a model from 25 years ago that was sold then by Concor as its item#0432A. Fairly close but possibly actually based on some similar but not identical prototype. By the way, since I do not plan to model the
Super Chief, only trains that ran in southeastern Texas, I would be willing to dispose of this car “cheap”.
Concor has a current dome lounge in their series of Budd passenger cars-- I don't know how closely it matches Santa Fe prototype, can't tell from small picture on internet.
Budd cars generally had corrugated roofs. Santa Fes 500-505 domes had smooth roofs.
Finally on the end of the train, in the early 1950s, the round-end sleeper observation car, "Vista" series: Rivarossi item#(not some separately, and sold out in Santa Fe sets)
Is very close to this car.
And now just for laughs, a 30” x 40” layout built in ten days in 1976 using an Atlas train set to create an “impression” of a Santa Fe streamliner.
http://www.railimages.com/albums/kennethanthony/aak.jpg
You asked, "So are you telling me that nobody in the world makes the Super Chief in N Scale?" I think it has been made in limited edition brass for something like $1500 a set. But in general, almost NO MANUFACTURER of mass produced model trains makes a model of ANY actual passenger train, and never have. They make models of cars they can sell in reasonably sized sets of 3 or 4 or 5 cars to make up a "typical" train. Usually the individual cars are authentic models of some prototype, but not necessarily all ran together in a train, and there are not necessarily all the cars to make an actual train. More often there are "typical" kinds of cars, one baggage or baggage-combine, one coach, maybe a dome, one observation car. I think N scale sets were out for 15 years before the first streamlined dining car was manufactured. (Atlas/Rivarossi DID have a heavyweight diner...) Same for the common garden-variety full-baggage car. Train sets had baggage-RPO combinations and baggage-dorm, and baggage-coach combinations for 15 or 20 years before Concor came out with the first full baggage car.
Often manufacturers would make rare "specialty" cars like the domes, and dome-observations. But try to find a dorm-lounge. Commonly found on every long-distance streamliner. I don't think any have ever been made. (Not counting bra$$)
Repeating: almost no manufacturer of mass-produced plastic trains has ever madew a model of any real passenger train. What about special sets marketed for the Santa Fe "Blue Goose" train or the "Valley Flyer"? Those are sets of cars that have been selected and PAINTED to approximate name trains. But they are not necessarily models of the actual cars.
Perhaps I should make an exception for trains that run in special prototype sets such as the Metroliner trains, bullet trains, etc. I meant trains made up of ordinary passenger car construction, heavyweight or streamlined.
What types of freight cars in the 1955-1960 period? 40' steel boxcar was everywhere and some 50' boxcars too. Beginnings of DF and Shock Control boxcars towards end of period. Boxcars used not only for boxed goods like appliances and furniture and canned goods, etc, but also for grain and bagged cement. Some wooden boxcars left and some rebuilts from WW2 "war emergency" design cars built with wood sides to save steel for the war effort. 40' iced reefers and the beginnings of mechanically refrigerated cars. Stockcars. Beginnings of open-side autoracks right at end of 1950s. A few trailers and containers on flat cars over a few routes, generally on modified standard flatcars, not the big 90' TrailerTrain flats. Short 2-bay covered hoppers for cement and a few heavy bulk materials requiring protection from elements, and beginnings of hauling grain in 3-bay and larger covered hoppers. 10,000 gallon tankcars not quite 40' long were common.
Paint schemes for freight cars are a huge topic, involving knowing the periods of railroad mergers, etc. Find all the pictures you can of train from the period. Unfortunately, most photos concentrate on the locomotives, caboose or one or two unusual cars, rather than on what was common and ordinary.
Were F-units used in the 1955-1960 era? Yes. F-units were used on Santa Fe passenger trains from the mid 1940s up into the 1960s. And the F-units were placed BACK on the passenger trains in the first 2 years of Amtrak.
What about normal diesel body engines? What do you mean by "normal diesel body engines." Do you mean "hood units" like GP and SD units that are commonly used today? Yes, they were used on freight trains in the 1955-1960 period. Steam-generator equipped GEEPS (GP-7s) were used on a few local branchline passenger trains and mixed trains.