ATSF Valley flyer

[Anonymous]

Does anybody know anything about this train? I recieved an Athearn passenger train set for Christmas. It is the ATSF valley flyer.I purchaced better locomotives,passenger cars and track ect.I cant seem to find any prottype info any where on this particular train. I am very new to this hobby but I love it. THANKS!

[dknelson]

Andy Sperandeo is one of the great Santa Fe experts and I would be a fool to try to be authoritative on this but I think the Valley Flyer was a pretty short lived special train for the 1939/40 Golden Gate Exposition. The streamlined 4-6-2 that pulled it has been offered in brass now and then, and I think AHM or IHC offered a somewhat close plastic version. A rather handsome paint scheme. I know nothing about the Athearn train set.
I seem to recall that the same train set was used in other Santa Fe service but whether it lasted beyond 1940 in that paint I do not know. Now I am really out of my league. Help Andy S!
Dave Nelson

[Sperandeo]

Thank you very much, Dave, but essentially you have it right. The" Valley Flyer" originally ran between Oakland and Bakersfield, with bus connections to Los Angeles. Ater the fair closed in the summer of 1940, the train and its two stream-styled 1337-class Pacifics moved south and ran between Los Angeles and San Diego as train 70 and 73, supplementing the "San Diegan" streamliners.

In 1942, after more streamlined equipment had been delivered, the "Valley Flyer" train set was split up and returned to the heavyweight car pool. Eventually the cars were repainted standard coach green. The two 4-6-2s were shopped, de-skirted, and repainted standard black.

I haven't seen the Athearn train so I can't comment on its accuracy, except to say that the Athearn heavyweight cars are not models of Santa Fe prototypes.

so long,

Andy

Andy Sperandeo
MODEL RAILROADER Magazine

[dknelson]

Interesting. I suppose it is possible that some of the Valley Flyer cars did see service behind diesels before being repainted, but not in their capacity as "the" Valley Flyer.
So if I was our friend I would either pretend that we are modeling that brief period when the Valley Flyer cars were dispersed but still painted up, or investigate if there is in fact a semi-steamlined Pacific that could pull the cars.

I don't think Athearn did anything grossly wrong here -- or rather, what they did "wrong" has been done "wrong" by the industry for so long that nobody really objects to it anymore except maybe the person who falls victim for the first time (Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
I think it is pretty broadly known that they have their plastic molds and change the paint to fit the car, not the other way around. The new generation of kits changes the paint AND the mold - and of course we pay a pretty penny for it.
If our friend wants authentic Santa Fe cars in plastic, then at least a few of the old AHM/Rivarossi cars were Santa Fe prototypes (which to prove my point above, were offered in every possible paint scheme, and in the 1960s we were darned grateful to get full length cars with scale sized windows although at the time the Walthers line of kits was still pretty complete). One spotting feature for Santa Fe passenger cars is an inset side sill.
Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

Well ,I guess I should share some of the blame,but I am so new to the hobby that I just didn`t think about doing any research before I purchaced more stuff. I subscribed to model Railroader about four months ago and I have learned so much about the hobby since then That I got curious about the prototype train after I bought what I thought would make my train more realistic. I will just live with the idea that I have put together a late 40s passenger train and not worry about the pant,road#s ect. Now it is time for me to try to start to model a freight train. The Union Pacific rail road runs almost through my front yard so I will have plenty of prototype info here in Alpine Texas. Thanks for your coments again! from cehill