Hey, I am STILL working on my Branchline Passenger Car kit(Im goin' all out this time!)
I bought those cheap 50 1:100 scale sitting figures made from China for my passenger cars...They actually fit very well because the interior of the car isn't really to scale either...
I repainted them....Spent wayy too much time for $1.88... (around 4 hours)
Anyways, how many Seated and Standing figures should I add per car?
(it is a 12-1 sleeper with shades added so you can't see through all the windows)
Thanks!
Charles
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Modeling the Santa Fe & Pennsylvania in HO
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLb3FRqukolAtnD1khrb6lQ
Instagram (where I share projects!): https://www.instagram.com/trainman440
Here's the thread I posted when I detailed the interiors of my Walthers Amtrak Budd passenger cars.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/216497.aspx
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
I'd say it depends on era and location. After WWII passenger numbers dropped off to very few during late transiton era. Earlier times had good ridership.
If you are modeling an intercity train pre or during the war, probably quite crowded, if you are on a branchline to lowly populated areas, not many.
Have fun,
Richard
Trains sof LION have Lotsa pax in them, SRO rush hours, and most of the rest of the day as well!
Count 'em if you can.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Lots of passengers coming and going and standing and sitting on station platforms, but no HO scale human has ever stepped foot in any of my 70+ passenger cars.
Rich
Alton Junction
Whenever I get around to working on my passenger cars I plan on having lots of people aboard. So far, the only long train that I have is CP's 'Canadian'. I rode it in 1965 and it was pretty full so I want to have a similar look.
I also have three RDC Budd cars which I would like to run in a consist. Logically, the only reason to run two or three RDCs together would be if there were lots of passengers.
I have purchased tons of 1:100 figures to populate the trains with. I will use 1:87 figures outside of the trains.
I hate having to re-paint the figures from China. It is my least favourite chore. They come with far too many oddball colours. Have you ever seen a guy in a purple suit?!?
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
richhotrainLots of passengers coming and going and standing and sitting on station platforms, but no HO scale human has ever stepped foot in any of my 70+ passenger cars.
chutton01BTW there are a surprising number of images of men in purple suits on-line
Where were the pictures of guys in purple suits taken - Walmart?!?
When I first met my wife, the only suit I possessed was black and white hound's tooth! She still ridicules me about it today!
I repaint the figures in batches too. It just bothers me that I have to re-do them at all. Oh well, you get what you pay for!
As far as numbers, it doesn't take too many people to make the car look 'occupied'. Let's take a 60-seat coach, it will have 15 rows of seats, two on each side of the aisle. Because the walls of our cars are thicker than a real car's, thee seats are narrower, so normally you can only fit one adult in each seat that in the real world holds two. So even if you were representing a packed commuter train, the most people you could seat would be 30. On a longer distance train, not every seat will be occupied at any moment. Some seats will be vacant, some occupants will be in the diner, in the bathroom etc. so having maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of the seats occupied should be about all you need...so for a 60 seat coach, maybe 20 people should do it.
hon30critter Whenever I get around to working on my passenger cars I plan on having lots of people aboard. So far, the only long train that I have is CP's 'Canadian'. I rode it in 1965 and it was pretty full so I want to have a similar look. I also have three RDC Budd cars which I would like to run in a consist. Logically, the only reason to run two or three RDCs together would be if there were lots of passengers. I have purchased tons of 1:100 figures to populate the trains with. I will use 1:87 figures outside of the trains. I hate having to re-paint the figures from China. It is my least favourite chore. They come with far too many oddball colours. Have you ever seen a guy in a purple suit?!? Dave
I used to run a four car RDC train in Pittsburgh, Pa. The morning and evening rush trains would be standing room only, but the mid day runs would have lots of empty seats.
Mark
Hi Mark:
Thanks for that information. If I put most of the passengers on one side of the RDCs I can have 'full' trains going in one direction and relatively 'empty' trains going in the opposite direction. Hmmmm.
hon30critterthe only suit I possessed was black and white hound's tooth!
That should be a fun job to replicate in HO.
The Passenger Department around here has been inundated with complaints about the lack of working doors on coaches, and authorities have been reluctant to respond. I happened to stumble upon these photos, below, from a disgruntled former employee:
Apparently, the only way into the road's coaches requires the roofs to be removed. Further investigation reveals that the washrooms are filled with large lead blocks, making the cars unsuitable for occupancy.
"Folks is welcome to stand about on our platforms", offered a spokesperson on the promise of anonymity, "but ain't nobody gonna be ridin' these trains!"...
Meanwhile, the nearby Erie Northshore line was keen to point out their passenger-friendly diesel-electric railcar, known locally as "The Bee"...
"Folks 'round here love it, and the passengers kin be seen anytime - you'd almost think that they wuz glued in their seats:
The motorman's control cab is a spartan place, but engineer Homer Stumpf was quick to laud the road for it's open-minded hiring practices, "Where in heck is two guys without a leg between 'em gonna get such cushy jobs?", he exclaimed. "Yeah!", chimed in fireman Bessemer Klotz, "Ain't no way they ever gonna get us outa here!"
On an equally positive note, it appears that crews have now been hired for all locomotives...
...perhaps a precursor to passengers in the coaches?
Wayne
Wayne:
If hounds tooth ever comes back into fashion I will pass thanks very much. When I had the suit I was also driving an MGB painted like a Union Jack (with a brush - really!). Nobody noticed the suit.
Funny post. Thanks.
hon30critter....Nobody noticed the suit
Oh, somebody noticed the suit, and she figured that it was her key to gaining the upper hand.
Don'tcha wish ya still had the car, though?
Coaches tend to be obvious about who's there and who's not. Fortunately, on the narrowguage, the windows are small and you have to kinda squint to see in. I'll want to eventually put someone in there, but as Mel says you have to be in the mood to paint them. And too many people look odd when a car is sitting still in the yard...did those folks miss their stop?
In a car like the OP wants to populate, sleepers are even harder to see into. Plus there are often blinds that further restrict vision inside. The glimpse of a passenger or two is often enough to create the impression of many more aboard on such cars.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
My fleet of P70s at this time has yet to board a single passenger. The BLI car interiors are just not set up for HO-scale figures. I butchered the figures quite a bit to try and get them to fit but decided, I did not care for doing so. Next plan is to try the 1:100 scale figures I see on eBay. Even with repainting, it'll be fairly easy to populate the cars. I can easily see inside the cars so figures, and curtains, will be a good investment.
Alvie
doctorwayneDon'tcha wish ya still had the car, though?
That particular MGB was worn into the ground. The final straw was that the starter motor failed to release itself from the flywheel one day. That turned the starter into a huge generator and it melted all the wiring. It even melted the windshield washer feed tubes and the plastic sleeve on the throttle cable! The fuse box cover was flowing down the side of the inner fender.
The car I wish I still had was a 1968 MGC GT. It had a six cylinder engine instead of the usual four banger. Only about 9000 were made. Mine had almost no rust. I gave it up because we simply didn't have the money to restore it and we needed the cash. However, I was able to drive it for three years and I got more for it than I paid so there was some consolation. I should have just left it parked in the garage. However, had I done that, all my hobby money would have gone into the car so I would never have gotten into trains.
Sorry,
I recently painted a bag (I think 72 figures) of Walthers undec HO Scenemaster folks and spread them out over several Walthers passenger cars. Only maybe 8-10 needed trimming, and that mostly just to the feet (i.e. not removing the legs or entire lower half). Only 'major surgery' was a couple folks squeezing into chairs next to a table in the observation car, and a couple folks squeezing into booth in the cafe car. Don't know if Waltehrs designed the figures to fit better into their own cars or what, but it seems like in the past I've had to do more work to get Preiser figures to fit.