Daylight Passenger Cars

[Anonymous]

Hello

I am stuck between daylight passenger car makers. Model Power ans Ihc.
My local and favorite train buddy, madgestrate blanton told me that he had bought some santa fe cars from model power and relettered them for seaboard and is very pleased with their performance. (He models Seaboard and Atlantic Coast Line) I told him about my daylight coach delima and he said that model power made them in that scheme. But It already has inteiriors and lights. I wanted to paint and customise my inteirior and the inside of the coaches and lights and add metal wheels. Now with the IHC, the come in an 8 pack and do not have inteiriors or lights or metal wheels and knuckle couplings.

The ihc is cheaper and it is ready to be able to let me do my thing yet the model power cars are great. I like them bothe. I know I will end up with both, but what do you think.

Nick

[AntonioFP45]

Hi Locomotive,

If I'm not mistaken, the Model Power streamlined passenger cars that you're referring to are the "shorties" that come with interiors. Instead of being a scale 85 feet long, these are 72 foot long cars, same length as the Athearn streamliners but better quality and appearance. Like the Athearns, they're designed for small layouts and tight curves (18 radius). They are attractive and come with interiors and underbody detail.

The IHC cars are the full 85 foot long versions. They look nice but are too light in weight. You can add weight by filling the open pockets in the floor with bird shot, or you can add thin, flat weigts. You can get birdshot at Walmart in the fishing/sports hunting dept. As for interiors, just buy the IHC passenger car interior kits. They're about $5.00 apiece. Cheaper on the internet. Easy to install. Lighting can be added to either brand of passenger car. Paint your interior before installing. I believe that Southern Pacific coach seats were a dark reddish color. Look for my thread on passenger car interiors. Should be between pages 1 and 5 as I write this. When you find it, scoll down some posts and you'll see the info on the SP streamlined cars.

How big is your layout? If it's small, a 7 car passenger train with 85 ft. cars might look a little "squeezed". With the 72 foot passenger cars, 7 to 10 car trains on let's say: a 4x8 looks more uniform. [:)][:D]

It's entirely up to you though! Go with what you really want. You can always get your 2nd choice afterwards. I currently own Walther's cars and Rivorossi passenger cars. I will be modeling the Seaboard Coast Line Champion and Silver series trains. Cars will be mixed in.[:D][:p]

Cheers and tell your friend to join the forum if he's not a member already! There are some SCL , SAL, and ACL fans on here too! [4:-)][C=:-)][C):-)][swg][tup]

[Anonymous]

Tahks Antonio.

I had a 4x4, but that was to small for me. It seemed just fine until my train buddy invited me to come down to the Grand Strand Model Railroad Clubs Layout and run my trains. I wanted some thing bigger. So I am in the process of tearing down my first layout and build a 4x8. Possibly a 6x8. Well. I think that after reading your post, I will buy the model power. They look sool and will be fesible on my new layout. But. Later on I will but the IHC's to.

Nicholas Parker

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't go with Model Power or IHC. They can be made to be quite nice, but why go through all the trouble doing so. You could get a nice set of Spectrum SP Daylight cars for about the same price.

[Anonymous]

The Daylight train is a train of great color and beauty but the models offered are generic in nature.

The Athearn cars are short as reported and the rest are too long. The daylight used 77' cars and articulated chair cars and Triple unit diners. These are available but not in plastic.
You can have a great model by using whatever suits your layout requirements. I used the old Athearn cars for over twenty years with a SOHO RPO combine up front behind the GS5 and it looked good on the 30" curves for the old club layout.


Enjoy the train on your layout and build the Daylight.,

[twhite]

Nick
'Tis a quandry, trying to get a decent Daylight in plastic. Most of the Daylight reproductions are in brass (triple diner, articulated chair cars) but I've been able to make a fairly representable Daylight with both the Athearn and Con-Cor cars. Just remember, STAY AWAY from the Athearn and Con-Cor vista-dome cars, the Daylights just didn't have them. The San Joaquin daylight had a home-built 3/4 dome, but you'd have to kitbash it. One of the Bachmann full-dome cars might be a good starting point. As to the Spectrum cars that Jonathan suggested, they're heavyweights, and SP only repainted head-end heavyweight cars such as baggage and RPO in Daylight colors, and that was only for the San Joaquin. But I think you'll find that the Athearn and Con-Cor cars will suffice until someone comes up with the real thing in plastic. Glad you're contemplating modeling the trains, they were about the most beautiful things on rails in their prime.

[Don Gibson]

AntonioRFP45 and Twhite are right on!
The 'Daylight' paint scheme was exemplary and costly to produce (5 colors). Forget the unaffordable 3 unit diners and Articulated coaches.

Full length 85' coaches from ConCor are available but require a layout with broad curves, and will look 'toy-like' on a 4X8. Your best bet are the Athearn coaches with an Observation. Athearn's paint scheme is also close to the original.

Daylight cars were all 'corregated' coaches although some smoothe sides appeared on Shasta Daylights. In 85' cars I would rate the ConCor corregated the best - and with the closest colors. Forget the IHC. Athearn is the best for a more reasonable sized layout.

Remember, the Daylights were an all coach train with no dome or baggage. It had a Combine at head end (not available in plastic) and Observation at the rear. It was pulled by a 4-8-4 GS-2' or GS-4's. Bachmann makes an acceptable GS-4 'Daylight'. Their 'War Baby' GS-6 is not appropriate. for a Daylight.

[Anonymous]

Thanks

The Daylight engine has been taken care of. I have a wounderfully smooth performing Bachmann 4449 loco. That is my favourite Daylight locomotive, though I will want more so, I will buy more of the Bachmann locomotives and I will have my local clubs painting master renumber them.

At first I was going to buy the bachmann spectrum heavyweights but, I decided to cancel my order and look for streamlined coaches. I know that every body would highly discourage of this, but I am going to buy the IHC coaches. Then I will weight them down and I will detail them.

Nick

[twhite]

Nick:
Nobody's going to shoot you for settling for the IHC cars. Just curious, though, are you modeling any specific Daylight train (Coast, Shasta, San Joaquin) or just a generic consist? Reason I asked, is that the Shasta was diesel from the word go, the motive power was--I think--an EMD E-6ABB consist at first, then replaced with Alco PA's in an ABA configuration. The Coast used the GS series 4-8-4's, and the San Joaquin had in steam, specially painted MT4-8-2's. When the San Joaquin dieselized, it used Black Widow F's, of all things. On the Coast, the SP used 'Deck' 2-10-2's for helper service over the 2.2% Cuesta Grade between San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles. It looked really strange to see those low-drivered helpers assisting an 80" drivered 4-8-4, but the show was spectacular. Not trying to prototype you into a coma--I've got my Coast Daylight consist running over the Sierra Nevada, after all--but just thought you might be interested. Long live the Daylight!

[Anonymous]

Do your own thing. Thats what makes this hobby great. I uses IHC cars on my HO scale EASTERN RR. I have the new and the older ones that IHC sold back in the 70's. These cars do me just fine and you can't beat the price. $35 to $50 a car is a little high for me. So I will use the IHC cars for now.

[Don Gibson]

IHC are smooth sided cheap imitations of Rivarossi passenger cars that never existed on the SP, - complete with 32" freight wheels, Talgo trucks that derail bascking up, and horn hook couplers - but they're cheap.

I have some.

After modifying the trucks for passenger wheels, Kadee couplers, Jay Bee coupler pads, and about 2 ounces of weight over the trucks in each car, they are no longer cheap - and still too long for your layout.

[Anonymous]

twite.

I have a 4449 bachmann Daylight GS4 locomotive and from what I hear it was a coast daylight, so yeah thats it

Nick

[twhite]

Nick:
Cool about the Bachmann GS-4. It's a nice running loco, especially the newer ones. Hint: I found mine was balanced a little too much toward the rear, so if you've got the same problem, I might suggest putting a couple of ounces of lead weight just over the front two drivers (insulate it with double-sided tape over the split-frame). Not too much, just enough to get the balance right. I did, and the loco pulls much better, especially if you have any grades over 2%. I've got about 10 cars behind mine, usually, the Daylights seemed to have run with about 14 or so. The Coast Route was SP's prime passenger route between San Francisco and Los Angeles (most freight traffic was scheduled at night-time), so except for the 2.2% grade north to Cuesta, out of San Luis Obispo, they usually ran pretty helper-free. As I remember, the trip from SF to LA was about twelve hours, much faster than the highways at that time ('40's-'50's) so their average speed over most of the route was between 50-70 MPH. Lots faster than the present Coast Starlight seems to manage over the same track, these days. Enjoy the train, the fact that someone from the East Coast is interested in the West Coast's most beautiful train makes me realize just how UNIVERSAL this great hobby is!

[Don Gibson]

Bachmann GS-4 Daylights are (currently) the only act in town. Their wheels sizes are off but they look nice - and run 'OK'

Westside Daylights go for $400 and older Balboa one go for less but have open frame motors. There was a reletively recent run for $1000 - $1300 factory painted, can motor's et al.

Problem with Daylights, is when there is the additional cost of a paint job (5 colors).