Trains.com

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Who has passengers in their passenger trains?

16861 views
35 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    January 2015
  • From: Southern California
  • 1,682 posts
Who has passengers in their passenger trains?
Posted by Lone Wolf and Santa Fe on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 8:52 PM

Who has figures (people) inside their passenger trains? I am going to start populating my passenger cars with some riders and I would love to see some examples. My Metrolink commuter trains are going to have very light ridership, while my steam excursion is going to be nearly sold out. Please show me some pictures of passengers. Also pictures of custom interiors would be cool. K thx Cool

Modeling a fictional version of California set in the 1990s Lone Wolf and Santa Fe Railroad
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Bakersfield, CA 93308
  • 6,526 posts
Posted by RR_Mel on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 9:33 PM

I buy my passengers off Bay by the hundred.  I primarily use seated 1:100 passengers inside my passenger cars so that they fit the chairs and 1:87 for standing figures.  Their detail is poor but inside it isn’t noticeable.
Passengers
Passenger 2
Passenger 3
The car is a Bachmann Full Dome Kitbashed into an SP ¾ Dome Lounge car.
  
 
Interior 1
 
 
interiot 2
 
The two bpttom pictures are an Athearn coach with a home brew bedroom car interior.
 
 
Mel
 
 
Modeling the SP in HO scale since 1951
 
My Model Railroad   
 
Bakersfield, California
  • Member since
    March 2012
  • From: Georgetown, Maine
  • 573 posts
Posted by herrinchoker on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 10:45 PM

I run N-scale, that being said, my passenger cars are full of double amputees.

herrinchoker

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Chamberlain, ME
  • 5,084 posts
Posted by G Paine on Tuesday, June 23, 2015 10:57 PM

Every passenger car that I have finished with an interior has passengers. The loss of IHC with their line of HW and LW interior kits has put a krimp in my plans for some cars. My goal are all passenger cars with lighted interiors and passengers.

An IHC interior in an Athearn HW car, still in progress

An IHC LW coach with interior kitbashed to match MEC prototype

Same car outside

MEC 244 LW Coach with Lighting and passengers (IHC)

BM 14 Section Sleeper (Walthers) and Pullman 12-1 Sleeper (Rivarossi) - the 12-1 does not have an interior yet

BM84 Diner Mountaineer (Rivarossi)

 

George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch 

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 3,139 posts
Posted by chutton01 on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 12:01 AM

Not liking amputations, add me to the 1:100 Chinese imported people camp - although right now I am putting them in buses, as my tourist train (up next) is not ready yet.
Looks like I got the same set as Mel did (100pcs 1:100 HO TT Painted Model Train Passenger set), although that's not too surprising as there's only a few sets of Seated passengers offererd on Amazon as opposed to the standing passengers. Amusing thing is the seller, offering free shipping, originally quoted a date in mid July (OK by me, I'm in no rush for these) - I got the figures in late May.

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
  • 24,281 posts
Posted by richhotrain on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 4:58 AM

No passengers in any of my passenger cars.

Why bother?  For the most part, you cannot see passengers on the prototype anyway.

Rich

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    January 2011
  • From: NS(ex PRR) Mon Line.
  • 1,395 posts
Posted by Jimmy_Braum on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 7:55 AM

Business cars and my coaches only. Considering to do my diner and sleeper. 

(My Model Railroad, My Rules) 

These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway.  As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).  

  • Member since
    February 2004
  • From: Elyria, OH
  • 2,586 posts
Posted by BRVRR on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 8:20 AM

I have several passenger cars with people in them. For the most part they are Walther's cars with interiors. However, the most recently populated cars are a pair of Athearn BB Santa Fe dome cars that I installed Palace Car Company upper level/dome kits in.

The interior installation.

How it looks from outside the car in close up. The windows were tinted as a part of the project.

The Palace Car Company has "universal" interior kits that can be adapted to most passenger cars as well as components like seats, stairways and dining room fittings. Worth a look if you are thinking about populating your passenger fleet.

Tags: BRVRR , Santa Fe

Remember its your railroad

Allan

  Track to the BRVRR Website:  http://www.brvrr.com/

  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 8:27 AM

I've added passengers and a crew to the Bee, my doodlebug, but still haven't crewed all of my steam locomotives.

The figures were an unpainted garage sale find, and may be OO scale, as they don't fit too well into the Pikestuff seats, but they look okay when the roof is in place:

The engineer/motorman is from the same set, while the brakeman is from a Bachmann steam loco.  As you can see in the photo below, the Erie Northshore is a leader in employing the disabled:

None of the rest of my passenger equipment is populated, and it's a task not high on the list of things to do.
I'm still working on the locomotive crews, though:

Vehicle drivers and passengers take a bit of a beating, too:

Wayne

  • Member since
    January 2010
  • From: Chi-Town
  • 7,712 posts
Posted by zstripe on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 8:36 AM

Traveling in style...India.

Take Care! Big Smile

Frank

 
  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Mpls/St.Paul
  • 13,892 posts
Posted by wjstix on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 8:38 AM

I always put passengers in my passenger cars, and crewmen in my engines and cabooses. I generally use Preiser unpainted figures and paint them myself, they're great quality and it's a lot cheaper to paint your own compared to using pre-decorated figures.

Actually, some of my boxcars that have sliding doors have a worker inside with some crates or barrels, so when the car is spotted at an industry it looks like the car is being unloaded (sorry if link doesn't work):

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/m/mrr-layouts/2289595.aspx

 

Stix
  • Member since
    October 2014
  • From: La Grange Illinois USA
  • 131 posts
Posted by 16-567D3A on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 2:36 PM

.  ,        

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Mpls/St.Paul
  • 13,892 posts
Posted by wjstix on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 4:14 PM

One problem that I think holds people back from adding figures is they grossly overestimate how many they need. Let's take an HO 80-seat heavyweight coach. The seats are so close together you can only fit one person on each pair. Not every seat needs to be filled (unless you're modelling a commuter train) - people get up and walk around, not all seats get sold. I find maybe 15-20 people or so, maybe 8-10 on each side, turns out to look good.

Stix
  • Member since
    January 2015
  • From: Southern California
  • 1,682 posts
Posted by Lone Wolf and Santa Fe on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 7:19 PM

Real nice pictures and cars everyone. Keep them coming. I copied and pasted the boxcar link. Real cool. I have a FTRA hobo riding in one of my boxcars and several of my boxcars have loads inside.

My steam loco has two crews inside of it because they all worked on restoring it so they all want to ride up front. lol My other locos still need engineers and brakemen.

My automobiles and trucks all have drivers if they are on a street, not parked. Some cars also have passengers. There is also a school bus with a driver and a handful of children. Some passengers are amputees while others have had butt reductions. Most are unpainted seated figures from Preiser. I do like the look of some of the Walthers seated passengers so I'm going to get some of them. I might try the 1:100 figures also. If I don't like what they are wearing I can repaint them.

    

richhotrain
Why bother? For the most part, you cannot see passengers on the prototype anyway.

CoolBecause it's my hobby and that's what I do. It's the next level of detail. I've been at this since the 1970s. I probably have around a thousand people. They might be my favorite part of the hobby. I have people everywhere doing everything. I even have a woman sitting on the toilet in a restroom inside a restaurant that you can see if you look inside the window. Yes those are white panties by her knees. There is also a man washing hands in the right window.

When I look at my passenger trains I can see inside the windows and see empty seats. I want to see people instead. My Superliners have tinted windows so I am not going to bother with those until I get bored with nothing else to do. But like I said my steam excursion is going to be packed but my commuter trains are going to be almost empty because nobody rode Metrolink in the 1990s when gas was still close to $1.

Modeling a fictional version of California set in the 1990s Lone Wolf and Santa Fe Railroad
  • Member since
    January 2002
  • From: Hilliard, Ohio
  • 1,139 posts
Posted by chatanuga on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 7:31 PM

Here's the thread from a couple years ago on my detailing of my Amtrak cars.

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/216497.aspx

And here's the video of the finished train.  I also have two Spectrum F40PH's and an Athearn "SDP40F".

watch?v=B6GoacG2GrE

Kevin

  • Member since
    May 2002
  • From: Massachusetts
  • 2,899 posts
Posted by Paul3 on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 8:16 PM

The only passenger equipment I have people in are those that are lighted.  Unlit passenger cars I don't bother with.  The passenger equipment that I have that have people installed are mostly self propelled, including "The Comet" (a NH trainset), a NH Brill 250 Doodlebug, and another (but older) NH Brill Doodlebug.  All these are brass, and for the Doodlebugs I had to add seats, too (but just Rix ones).

I don't believe in using sub-scale figures.  I will file, cut and re-glue every figure (if necessary) before I would ever consider using sub-scale figures.

The only problem with putting people in passenger cars is that they do look awfully silly in the coach yard.  Big Smile

Paul A. Cutler III

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Maryland
  • 12,897 posts
Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 11:32 PM

richhotrain

No passengers in any of my passenger cars.

Why bother?  For the most part, you cannot see passengers on the prototype anyway.

Rich

 

The only passengers I have in passenger cars are in the domes of dome cars.

But the rest of my passenger cars don't even have interiors, let alone people.

As mentioned by Rich, 98% of the time you cannot see the passengers from the outside in real life.

Sheldon

    

  • Member since
    June 2012
  • 2,297 posts
Posted by Burlington Northern #24 on Thursday, June 25, 2015 3:52 AM
Not a person in mine. Too many cars, too few people, and I prefer mine empty.

SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.

 http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide 

Gary DuPrey

N scale model railroader 

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
  • 24,281 posts
Posted by richhotrain on Thursday, June 25, 2015 5:51 AM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

 

 
richhotrain

No passengers in any of my passenger cars.

Why bother?  For the most part, you cannot see passengers on the prototype anyway.

Rich

 

 

 

The only passengers I have in passenger cars are in the domes of dome cars.

But the rest of my passenger cars don't even have interiors, let alone people.

As mentioned by Rich, 98% of the time you cannot see the passengers from the outside in real life.

Sheldon

 

YesYesYes

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
  • 24,281 posts
Posted by richhotrain on Thursday, June 25, 2015 5:57 AM

To me, passengers in HO scale trains look toy-like, an appearance that I wish to avoid at all costs.

Rich

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: Southeast Texas
  • 5,449 posts
Posted by mobilman44 on Thursday, June 25, 2015 8:00 AM

I don't want no stinkin passengers in my trains.  All they do is mess them up, eat all the food, and drink all the adult beverages.  And they never know when to leave.

ENJOY  !

 

Mobilman44

 

Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central 

  • Member since
    April 2011
  • 649 posts
Posted by LensCapOn on Thursday, June 25, 2015 8:13 AM

Dude!   It's 2015!     Who's running passenger trains?*

 

 

 

*Now gettaway from the tracks. The stack train passing just means a tank train's coming.

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Mpls/St.Paul
  • 13,892 posts
Posted by wjstix on Thursday, June 25, 2015 8:16 AM

It depends a little on era. If you're running heavyweight cars with clear windows, not having passengers (or an interior) is more noticeable than with later streamlined cars, which usually used tinted windows.

Stix
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • 3,139 posts
Posted by chutton01 on Thursday, June 25, 2015 9:00 AM

wjstix
It depends a little on era. If you're running heavyweight cars with clear windows, not having passengers (or an interior) is more noticeable than with later streamlined cars, which usually used tinted windows.

That's actually a important observation. Depending on the level of tinting, you might need only blobs (pins with putty bodies?) to represent people, or no figures at all (paricularly if you're wrapping your transit equipment).

As mentioned before, with motor vehicles depicted as being driven or idling (vs. parked), you really do need figures in them, as having a windshield tinted enough to obscure faces is almost always not street legal (side windows can be a different story).

As for figures looking toy-like, that's not really correct either.  Even the 1:100 overseas specials, if you touch up the paint some (especially the head/hair) and dullcoat, you're good.
This, OTOH, is some toylike 'figures' in a model passenger car.

BTW, wouldn't most ground level bathroom windows be "Frosted" or otherwise obscured, especially in a public location like a restaurant, by the 1990s, Lone Wolf?  I guess the cop is there to chase away peeping toms (who wouldn't really have to exert themsleves), but doesn't seem like a valid long term solution to avoiding lawsuits and bad publicity...

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Maryland
  • 12,897 posts
Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Thursday, June 25, 2015 1:44 PM

wjstix

It depends a little on era. If you're running heavyweight cars with clear windows, not having passengers (or an interior) is more noticeable than with later streamlined cars, which usually used tinted windows.

 

OK, I will be a little more scientific. In HO three feet is 270 scale feet - at 270' you cannot generally see the people, even in a heavyweight car, during the day time.

Look at any window from a distance during the day, it is a black hole.

Sheldon

    

  • Member since
    February 2013
  • 44 posts
Posted by Steve Hunter on Friday, June 26, 2015 4:56 AM

I'm lucky, since most of my passenger service is lightly patronized mixed trains... saves a lot of work and money.

In my mostly scratchbuilt CNR combine #7377:

CN7377

Steve Hunter

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
  • 24,281 posts
Posted by richhotrain on Friday, June 26, 2015 5:43 AM

LensCapOn

Dude!   It's 2015!     Who's running passenger trains?*

Now, here is a man who fails to understand the concept of model railroading.  

Rich

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    December 2011
  • From: Northern Minnesota
  • 2,774 posts
Posted by NP2626 on Friday, June 26, 2015 5:47 AM

Who has people in their passenger trains?

I do.

NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"

Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association:  http://www.nprha.org/

  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Bakersfield, CA 93308
  • 6,526 posts
Posted by RR_Mel on Friday, June 26, 2015 9:37 AM

I guess I’m a weirdo, I want and try for maximum realism but I always end up with something very wrong somewhere.  My layout is set in a rural very small mid 1950s era town in southern New Mexico in and around the Rocky Mountains.  That said my Southern Pacific Daylight Passenger service is only somewhat close to prototype.
 
My passenger cars are all at maximum capacity as is my rural Passenger Station.  When my SP Golden State pulls into the station every car is “full” of passengers and there are over 80 passengers mulling around the station.  That’s probably more than the entire population of Susanville, my rural town.
 
Like I said I’m a strange one but I like having figures doing things and also having vehicles everywhere.  I feel that having people or figures everywhere really adds depth to my model railroad even though it blows the prototype realism to pieces.  I think I got that from John Allen’s G&D, he was and still is my model railroad mentor.     
 
My thing is more the building on my layout than running my trains, I do want realism as well as perfect train operation but I often miss my mark.
 
The bottom line is model railroading is a great hobby even for a weirdo like me.  Load your passenger cars with passengers!
 
I’m in the process of improving my blog and haven’t done the update to my Susanville Station page so pardon the lack of quality.
 
 
Mel
 
 
Modeling the SP in HO scale since 1951
 
My Model Railroad   
 
 
Bakersfield, California
  • Member since
    April 2008
  • From: Columbia, Pa.
  • 1,592 posts
Posted by Grampys Trains on Friday, June 26, 2015 9:57 AM

I have some, after I finally got the roofs off my passenger cars.

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Users Online

There are no community member online

Search the Community

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!