hi whats the best passenger cars

[Budliner]

who makes the good ones like observation cars and such

I need a budliner



B -

[Anonymous]

In the last 14 months Walthers has come out with some nice HO cars.
Look at www.walthers.com Beware the longer HO passenger cars
require 22" to 24" radius curves.

[CP5415]

I'm extremely happy with Walthers Dome cars. These seem to be more prototypical.
These will go around an 18" curve, barely!
IHC makes some nice cars for the money except I'm not too happy with the wheel sets.
The detailing isn't too bad & I only paid $15 Canadian each for them.
If you don't mind short passenger cars, Athearn's arn't too bad.

Just my [2c]

Gordon

[Anonymous]

You can order the IHC directly over their website for $7.99 (!-800 number) and they compare to some of the older Rivarossi's at a fraction of the price. The wheelsets are not all that great. I like the Bachman Spectrum heavy weights and at $17 they are a bargain. You may need to hunt for at that price but they can be had. I have Spectrum Doodlebug that I haul a heavyweight coach with. Athearns short cars can give you a lot of bang for the buck but don't look for any refinements they are cheap and generic. The good news they get around 22 in radius curves well and can even make well laid 18 in. The new Walthers look nice but $30+ is a lot of money.

RMax

[AntonioFP45]

The Rivorossi cars in the red boxes, if you can find them look great! [:D][tup]For those of you modeling post 1960, consider cutting the skirts off of some of the cars. It's easy, but be patient. Take an exacto knife and repeatedly scribe the length of the skirt in the same groove over and over. I put a strip of 1/4 wide masking tape in the groove just above so I don't accidentally go up (been there, done that). Eventually, you can gently snap it off and fine-sand the bottom edge thats left.[;)][8D][:)]

As with IHC cars, on Rivorossi's if you leave the extended couplers and weigh the cars down, they will negotiate 22 radius curves, though it won't look realistic. [:0]

Some internet discount dealers sell the new Walthers cars for $24. Considering the depth of detail plus the interiors already installed; it's not a bad deal! I like them and am buying them one at a time as my budget allows. [:D][^][8)][swg][tup]

I had Athearn passenger cars for 15 years. I sold them after I started to notice the 85t. Rivorossis back in the 90s, the Athearn's generic appearance turned me off, though the streamlined baggage cars come reasonably close to some prototypes and I wouldn't mind purchasing one or two and add minor detailing. Athearn's short length make them good for layouts with tight curves, however, Model Power also makes 72ft. long "shorties" that come with interiors and better detailing.

The Athearn windows are hard to see into. I usually suggest to modelers to get some thin plexiglass, cut out long strips and glue them onto the car sides for better looking windows you can see through if interiors and interior lighting are planned for installation.

[:D][8D][:p][:)][;)][8)][:o)]

[Anonymous]

Rivarossi makes the best, in my opinion. They're streamlined cars a gorgeous! And the just released a new UP car set (yay). But, I don't know if they make budliners.

[Budliner]

The Rivorossi cars look nice
what do I look for lights wide range of prices

the heavy cars is that for a faster speed


B -

[Anonymous]

My Bachmann McKinley Explorer car is the best piece of passenger rolling stock I own. It has swiveling couplers , for negotiating tighter turns. I've never had to re-rail it during an operating session!

[CP5415]

The "heavy weight cars' were those built from a heavy steel. It had nothing to do with speed.
Rivarossi passenger cars are extremely nice. I had about 9 of the "red box" that Antonio talks about.
I sold all but 1 of them because they were in CN livery & not CP that I model.
The one I have left is a sleeper that I plan on painting to a different livery or painted to do time on my work train.

You won't be dissappointed with Rivarossi.

Gordon

[AntonioFP45]

CP5415,


Regarding your CN Rivorossi cars? You didn't consider repainting them into the CP scheme? I believe CP had smooth and corrugated side passenger cars.

I've seen the 1970s movie version of "The Silver Streak" which uses an all CP passenger train. The red box Rivorossi corrugated car bodies, while not exact, look very similar to the CP cars in the movie.

Just curious! Peace out! [:D][8D][:)][8)]

[Anonymous]

Personally I'd say Walthers make the best passenger cars. Athearn do make some very nice Bombardier bilevel commuter cars, but for scale-length passenger cars Walthers are the best. I have a 5-car set of their Superliners which are superb - I'm in the midst of adding the grab irons and fitting Kadee #58s to them, which does improve them considerably. Their Pullman bilevels are also very good - have a set in CNW livery which looks superb. However, as mentioned above you do have to watch the radius of your curves, as these are full scale-length cars and don't like tight curves.

I would suggest the Athearn regular and streamline cars as being a reasonable alternative if you have tight curves. While these are 72' "shorties" they do look convincing in a train, especially if you add diaphragms and other details. I have one of the "work train" tool cars which went together very nicely and uses Kadee #5s as a drop-in part - I'd suggest swapping to these if you buy the RTR cars as they look and function better than the "E-Z Mate" couplers that are supplied in the box

[CP5415]

Antonio;

I didn't consider re-painting the cars.
I didn't have any coaches, I had 3 observation, 3 domes, 1 baggage & one other. I can't remember what it was, & the sleeper.
The only smooth-sided cars I've seen on CPR were heavyweights. I'll have to check in my books to see otherwise.
I do know that the CPR & CNR pooled their passenger fleets up until the mid 60's for trains on the Toronto to Montreal run.
CPR does have, right now, several ex-VIA coaches which were ex-CNR coaches that they use with 2816. These are smooth-sided.

I'll find out if they did or didn't.

Thanks for the tip though Antonio.

Gordon

[Anonymous]

I have both the Wathers and Rivarossi Budd coaches. When you place them side by side it is apparent that Walthers did not simply update the Rivarossi cars. They are different in just about every detail. The fluting is a slightly different size, the two large ribs on the roof are done completely differently, the doors are quite different, etc. It seems that the Walthers cars are completely new molds.

[Anonymous]

I agree with antonioFP.... Rivarossi is a good starting point (and this includes the IHC versions in my book) The 1940 series (I believe) are fluted and carried a more detailed underframe and diaphram. Also, their construction was different from the 1930 series so you could modify the carbody skirting as the floor was not a part of the same molding.

Concor made nice corrugated 85 foot cars in the 70's and 80's. As with the AHM/Rivarossi, they needed truck modifcations and coupler conversions. Even the Bachman Super domes were not bad if you repainted and detailed.

Athearn, with the exception of the baggage cars, were toys because of their less than
85 foot length. My opinion, but then again, I only watch widescreen DVDs.

I have over 40 passenger cars and all are either AHM/IHC or Concor (with the exception of several Athearn baggage cars). At present, they are painted and detailed as either ATSF or phase I Amtrak. The latter is doomed as I am slowly converting the AMTK to a freelanced C&O style of Enchantment Blue and yellow. The freelancing aspect even applies to the motive power's being back-dated via paint and details to C&O from CSX.

I am convinced that C&O would have had SDP40F's if life had not taken the AMTK fork in the road.

But then again, my current medications may be skewing my thought processes.

[jsoderq]

At the present time Rivarossi is not in production having been bankrupt for the umpteenth time - sold to Hornby and in the process of being moved to China. How long before they get back to production is problematical. The tooling goes back to the 60's so may not be in good shape. Be aware some of the Rivarossi cars are based on peculiar protoptypes where there may have been only one or two cars.
Current IHC cars are bad - major mistakes in the tooling and some cars have absolutely no prototype at all.
The Walthers cars are certainly not reworked Rivarossi but all new tooling. The recent 60' cars from Walthers were tooled by Rivarossi right when they went bankrupt again and there is some question about ownership and whereabouts of the tooling at this time. In any case Walthers still has the cars for sale.
Actually the most accurate cars are the kits from Branchline . They too have a few problems but still make great cars and have interiors as part of the kits. Some of the most accurate cars are made from sides and a core kit - Brass Car Sides, American Model Builders, NKP, Athabasca and several others including some of the historical societies.

[siberianmo]

Seems like you are getting some great information in response to your inquiry. I've figured "what's the best," lies with what one is trying to achieve, and of course one's wallet!

My inventory of HO passenger cars is rather extensive and is separated into two groups - railroads from my past and railroads of today (let's say, within 15 years).

The passenger cars from my past include those made by Athearn - IHC - and Rivarossi. The Athearns are the "shorty's," whereas the others are 85 ft. I like the appearance of my Athearn RDC's - but absolutely don't like the rubber band arrangement that contributes to very balky operation. Fortunately, all of the cars I've mentioned here are now in a large wall mounted display case - retired.

The passenger trains from today are either on my "Can-Am" layout or in a wall mounted display case. They are made by Walthers (Trainline) - Con-Cor - LifeLike - IHC and Rivarossi. Since my layout features lots of Canadian passenger operations - my preference is with the Con-Cor Budd stainless steel cars of VIA Rail. (The display case is full of Con-Cor Canadian Pacific and CP Rail versions of the "Canadian.")

My RDC's are all LifeLike Proto 1000 series with BC Rail and VIA Rail roadnames. I purchased them from Canadian sources on the "net." They run fine - require a bit more power - but look great.

My IHC and Rivarossi 'stuff' features the smoothsides and some heavy weights kept on display, with CN - CP and VIA Rail markings. They look fine too.

So, what's the best? For me - each and every consist I put together looks great!

I really like my Walthers Amtrak Superliners I and II. Also am very pleased with the Amfleet cars along with the Horizons.

In operating terms, I'd say that once a track system gets "perfected," along with coupling heights and curves to accommodate the 85 footers - they all do quite well for me. By the way, I use 22" radius curves and my passenger cars handle them just fine. I'd like much broader curves - but it's the old "space" consideration that forced me into what I wound up with.

For anyone who is interested - there is an interesting topic being discussed on another forum - Trains/Railroads - CANADIAN PASSENGER TRAINS - Let's talk! - you may wi***o check it out.

Enjoy!

[AntonioFP45]

Seberianmo,

Most impressive. Pretty cool how you have your retired cars on display.

Jsoderq, thanks for the updated information about the passenger car tooling.

Just a few years back, before the Walthers cars came out, the word at LHS's was that these were "retooled" Rivorossi cars. When I compare my Walthers to my Rivorossis, the improvements on the Walthers are evident, so it make sense that they were from new tooling. They look sharp!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by AntonioFP45

Seberianmo,

When I compare my Walthers to my Rivorossis, the improvements on the Walthers are evident, so it make sense that they were from new tooling. They look sharp!

Just may get better. Truck over to www.broadway-limited.com to see the CZ car

[gvdobler]

4884bigboy

Jonathan

What is the new Rivarossi cars set you referred to?

I have the two 4-car excursion sets and individual extra excursion cars.

Do you have a set number?

Share the knowledge oh well informed one.

Jon - Las Vegas

[Don Gibson]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Budliner

who makes the good ones like observation cars and such

I need a budliner - B.

what's a "Budliner"? A beer train?
Passenger Cars:
Most Passenger cars were 80 - 87 feet They don't fit-well on small layout's regarless of brand. That being said ... In preferential order

BRASS cars from COACH YARD. @ $400 (you asked)
BUDD cars from Walthers *
RIVAROSSI cars with 36" metal wheel upgrade
ConCor with metal wheel upgrade
Spectrum 72')
ConCor 72'
Athearn 72'
Misc.Brands
IHC A bad Rivarossi imitation - Too long, too light, with 31" wheels.Add IHC's $25 trucks they'll roll and stay on the track, but now theyr'e $33.

*The new WALTHERS' heavyweight's are too recent to include.

Observation car: The forthcoming BLI CZ Dome Observation should set new standard's for looking 'cool'.

[Dbcxyz123]

Observation cars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]

[CP5415]

IHC cars arn't that bad.
The detailing is off, no prototype to speak of, but for $15 Canadian, I'm not complaining.
I added IHC's metal axles, not the truck assy, added weight to get it to about 7 ounces & now they roll!.

I do prefer the Walthers cars though.
I have a bunch of Budd cars & a couple of Horizon cars in my collection so far.
I love them
No problems with 22" curves at all!

Gordon