General Discussion (Model Railroader)

I purchased a set of the new 60' passenger coaches and am very pleased with them, the detail, finish and rolling characteristics are great.

What surprises me is that the new coaches are only available in CNW, Pennsylvania and undecorated in a pullman green finish.  I contact Hornby/Rivarossi and was informed that there is no plan to offer any other roadnames at this time.

What a far cry from when the old Rivarossi was at their peak, I seems with the new owners that there is only minimum interest in the North American prototypes or market other then the Big Boy, Challenger and Hudson locomotives.

Don--

That is too bad.  I remember when Walthers was distributing the 60' Rivarossi coaches, there was a very good selection of road names.  I acquired a set of D&RGW 60-footers that became a neat little local passenger train.  I was hoping to acquire a couple more baggage cars in Rio Grande. 

As you said, they're very well detailed and very good runners. 

Frankly, like you, I was hoping that when Hornby acquired Rivarossi, we'd see IMPROVED re-releases of most of the classic American Rivarossi steam that was so popular with modelers when Rivarossi was a major player in HO, some years back.   Rivarossi's last major release--their Allegheny--was a work of art, at least IMO.  I've still got one of the original ones, and it's still a beautifully detailed, smooth running, VERY powerful locomotive (even without the traction tires). 

It's too bad that Hornby has that kind of mind-set about American steam prototypes.  I think that they might be missing a major share of the HO market, unless they decide to up-grade the Rivarossi that they acquired.  And certainly it wouldn't hurt to put out those nice little 60-footers in some of the RR names that Walthers did when they had the distribution rights. 

Tom   

If anyone wants to sell the U.P. in good condition at a fair price let me know via PM?

I did email Hornby after the sale suggesting more road names with proper promotion.

I'd like to see the old Rivarossi full-size passenger cars reissued again. They're often confused with the current IHC cars but the old Rivarossi ones were much better IMHO and rode very well. With the truck mounted couplers even the 80' cars would take an 18" curve.  

For a number of railroads (mostly eastern: Pennsy, Norfolk & Western, Boston & Maine, Long Island, Erie, Penn-Reading Seashore; but also Santa Fe) there is now a viable alternative for "shorties", the (ex-)Pennsy mP54 by Con-Cor.  They are very close in length to the Rivarossi/Walthers 60 footers, and take 18" S-curves without any problems.  Qualitywise, they are miles above the "old" Con-Cor stuff, but comparable to their newer offerings, as the Zephyr.  All the grab irons are installed, and, at least on my layout, the factory-installed lighting is flicker-free (much better than the Rivarossi/Walthers lighting).  So far, they offer only the coach versions; a combine is supposed to be available in November, a baggage car later. 

My only complaint would be Con-Cor's sales "strategy": you have to buy two cars at a time.  Either coach/coach, or coach/combine, or coach/baggage.  The price for a pair varies from ~ $ 90 to $ 120 (including lighting).  

JW

don7:

I purchased a set of the new 60' passenger coaches and am very pleased with them, the detail, finish and rolling characteristics are great.

What surprises me is that the new coaches are only available in CNW, Pennsylvania and undecorated in a pullman green finish.  I contact Hornby/Rivarossi and was informed that there is no plan to offer any other roadnames at this time.

Not only are the roadnames very limited but apparently so are the product's quantities. The original four car sets offered by Walther (baggage, RPO, combine, coach) from a few years back sold out unusually quickly and it seems the newer runs may go even faster. For example, to my knowledge the new cars appeared first in a tiny ad in the 2010 Walthers, issued early to mid September. According to Walthers on-line listings, the painted but undec versions sold out within three weeks, were re-stocked in mid October and are once again down to but a handful by just the end of the month!

This leaves me with the impression that either the demand for these cars is extremely high, as one might assume from several years of threads here asking for more of them, or the runs exceedingly small. It is disappointing to also note that only the coach and baggage car from the original 60' series are being produced, as there really isn't and hasn't been anything of comparable quality and price in the marketplace in a long time (the new ConCor P54 cars sell for almost twice the price per unit and aren't nearly as ubiquitous). Honestly, I considered both the RPO and combine as probably the two most desirable and widely useful cars of the set!

CNJ831 

I have before me one of the new Hornby/Rivarossi 60' coaches and one of the coaches from the older 4 car sets. I can see no difference between the two what so ever. Same metal wheels sets and the same body mounted pivoting kaydee (I assume) couplers.

I have been keeping an eye out on e-bay for the 4 car Rivarossi 60' sets. Depending upon the road names bidding seems to vary from around $50.00 to $100.00 plus. The Union Pacific set seems to be the most expensive.

 I was lucky during the summer and bought two sets for around $50 plus shipping, Just recently the sets have been going for around the $80.00  to $90.00 mark. I really lucked out though a few days ago and there was a set of 4 plus two additional coaches up for bid. I lucked out and got the lot for just under $60.00

There are a few vendors who have some sets and are asking $120.00 to $130.00 range as Buy Now Items.

The new Hornby/Rivarossi sets are on e-bay currently. They are on the Favorite Spot web site.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RIVAROSSI-HO-3-CAR-PASSENGER-SET-TRAIN-C-N-W-HR4036_W0QQitemZ200405431075QQcmdZViewItemQQptZModel_RR_Trains?hash=item2ea9183323