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Next Walthers Name Train?

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Posted by 7j43k on Sunday, December 31, 2017 12:41 PM

coachrider

Big vote for the North Coast Limited. Been prodding Walthers, even Rapido to do this beautiful train. Broadway Limited is doing a run of Lowey, and Athearn has told me they would be open to another fun of NP Fs, so maybe time is right!!

 

None of the North Coast Limited cars had corrugated sides.  How is BLI going to deal with that?

The NCL is such an obvious train for Walthers to do.  I have wondered for years why they don't.

My suspicion is it's based on the paint colors.

Remember, Walthers did a pretty bad job on their green and orange Empire Builder.  And they have certainly been aprised of that, more than once.  Now consider the NCL.  What color of each green would they use:

The same as the NP car(s) they've already done?

The same as the cars that have been done by W&R?

The same as the cars done by Challenger?

The same as the colors that have been developed by the NPRHS?

Or, heaven forbid, the same as done by Athearn on their F's? (not likely)

(And now, BLI?)

 

Whichever they pick, SOMEONE will be in a bad mood.  And not too many manufacturers want their potential customers in a bad mood.

 

 

Ed

 

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Posted by kingcoal on Sunday, December 31, 2017 1:29 PM

I'd appreciate it if they did a CNR Super Continental dining car. Rapido came to a dead stop on that one......

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Posted by NHTX on Monday, January 1, 2018 12:13 AM

     I would like to see NYC's New England States and PRR's Congressional Ltd/Senator of the mid-1960s.

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Posted by ATSFGuy on Monday, January 1, 2018 12:54 AM

Do another run of the Hi-Level El Capitan!

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Posted by andrechapelon on Monday, January 1, 2018 1:50 AM

What they ought to do is a named train that was a mix of heavyweights and lightweights like SP’s “West Coast”, “Owl” or “Overland” (also UP, C&NW), Santa Fe’s “Grand Canyon”, to name a few. When I was a really young kid, I recall taking D&RGW’s “Royal Gorge” from Denver to Colorado Springs to visit an aunt and uncle. IIRC, The consist was a mix of light and heavyweight cars.

 

Andre

It's really kind of hard to support your local hobby shop when the nearest hobby shop that's worth the name is a 150 mile roundtrip.
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Posted by ATSFGuy on Monday, January 1, 2018 1:54 AM

How about doing Santa Fe's "Chief?"

It was an economy streamliner.

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Posted by JWhite on Monday, January 1, 2018 1:28 PM

Every year I suggest the 1940 IC City of Miami.  A 7 car all coach train pulled by an E6.  The original paint was beautiful.  The E6's that were factory painted in that scheme bring a premium on eBay every time one is listed.

The City of Miami was repainted in standard IC orange and brown in my era, but I'd buy and run one anyway. 

Jeff White

Alma, IL

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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Monday, January 1, 2018 1:39 PM

I'm not allowed to comment here, because I won't be buying in any case.....

But if I did (suggest or buy), how about some earlier "streamlined" B&O trains?

Oh, that won't happen, those trains were all heavyweight rebuilds from the B&O shops that are truely unique to the B&O, don't expect that tooling in plastic would ever pay for itself.

But my roster is full at about 200 passenger cars........some I need to finish building yet.....

Sheldon

    

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Posted by 7j43k on Monday, January 1, 2018 2:20 PM

Streamliners sell better than heavyweights.

Just ask the real railroads, who spent a good bit of money on them.  And it's not just because they were lightweights.  The B&O, for example made their own streamliners from heavyweights, at no significant weight savings.

Or ask the railroading public, from back in the day.  The ones the railroads were trying to please.

Lightweights are prettier:  Brighter and more varied colors, better graphics, less bumps on the cars for no visual reason at all........

Also, newer is generally more popular than older.  Do ya notice that our manufacturers are selling models of locomotives that are just a "kupla" years old.  And NOT 4-4-0's from the 1800's.  That's because they sell better.

That's just the way it is.

 

Ed

 

PS:  I expect I have more passenger heavyweight cars than most modelers have ALL passenger.  A quick count reveals 80.  Very approximately.  And there is a list of others I would purchase.  If you are in a position to build them, brass or plastic, please contact me for my list.

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Posted by gmpullman on Monday, January 1, 2018 2:50 PM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL
But if I did (suggest or buy), how about some earlier "streamlined" B&O trains?

Anytime these "I'd like to see" kinds of threads come up I also put my 2¢ in for some "betterment" cars. Walthers DID dip their toe into the "modernized" pool just a bit with their B&O coach and to some extent the baggage car.

 B&O_coach1 by Edmund, on Flickr

The coach was probably available some ten years ago and I don't believe has been run ever since.

The baggage car below was more recent, say in the past year or two.

 B&O_Baggage by Edmund, on Flickr

Still, that leaves a big void if you are also a PRR, Erie, Nickel Plate, Monon or — several other roads that I cant think of at the moment — modeler. 

I did snag a brass Keystone Banks modernized PRR Pullman a few years back. Sure could use a few more like it. 

 Keystone_Banks by Edmund, on Flickr

 

Regards, Ed

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Posted by JWhite on Monday, January 1, 2018 7:15 PM

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

I'm not allowed to comment here, because I won't be buying in any case.....

But if I did (suggest or buy), how about some earlier "streamlined" B&O trains?

Oh, that won't happen, those trains were all heavyweight rebuilds from the B&O shops that are truely unique to the B&O, don't expect that tooling in plastic would ever pay for itself.

But my roster is full at about 200 passenger cars........some I need to finish building yet.....

Sheldon

 

 

If rebuilt heavyweight cars is a disqualifier, they wouldn’t have included the Panama Limited which had several heavyweight cars that were rebuilt into streamlined cars in the IC Burnside shops.  They retained their 3 axle trucks.

 

Jeff White

Alma, IL

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Posted by Mheetu on Monday, January 1, 2018 8:28 PM

This might be a long shot but i am going try it

 

What are the chances of seeing walther do something like the Central Railroad of New Jersey " The Blue Comet"  mind you i am not sure if they would have the 4-6-2 G3a but i wonder did the Blue comet ever use the F units

  

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Posted by ACY Tom on Monday, January 1, 2018 9:41 PM

With only a few exceptions, the most likely candidates have been done. A name train needs to have a very broad appeal to justify the expense of tooling up for production, and not too many trains have that appeal. Several Santa Fe trains do. The North Coast Limited, Empire Builder, CZ, and Overland trains operated over several different railroads to get where they were going, so they might appeal to modelers of several roads. With the exception of the NCL, these have been pretty well covered. Such roads as PRR, NYC, and B&O operated in fairly populous parts of the country, so they would be popular. For the most part, they have been covered. But there are gaps that could be filled by individual cars, and I do wish those individual cars would be produced. 

Some examples:

1. The Walthers B&O Capitol Limited represents the train as it operated in the mid 1950's to mid 1960's, with coaches from the Columbian and 10-6 sleepers obtained in the early 1950's. I have often wished Walthers had produced the Columbian diner and observation car, as well as the 14-4 sleeper that operated on the Columbian.

2. Pullman Standard 14-4 sleepers were operated by several railroads. MoPac, T&P, SL-SF, and MKT 14-4's operated through to the East on B&O and PRR, and the B&O 14-4's were sometimes seen on those Southwestern roads in run-through service. P-S 14-4's were also operated by Southern, KCS, and I believe others. 

3. The PRR Broadway Limited has been done, but some of the cars, such as The Broadway's observation cars and lounge cars, were unique to that train. A much more flexible car is the 2 DR, 1CPT, 1BR obs lounges assigned to the Cincinnati Limited, the Spirit of Saint Louis, and the Washington to Chicago Liberty Limited. These were named for Presidents of the PRR. These trains also used PRR 6BR lounges in the ...Falls series, rather than the unique Broadway Limited lounge car previously produced. Just producing those two cars --- the "PRR President" obs and the "Falls" lounge, in conjunction with reissues of the previously produced companion cars, would allow modelers to operate three additional PRR name trains.  Adding the L&N road name to the 4140 sleeper, which was available in the past, would fill out the Cincinnati Limited consist nicely. 

4. For my part, I'd like for Walthers to re-release the Santa Fe "Vista" series observation car. I don't model the Santa Fe, but need the car for a conversion to something else. They just don't seem to be very easy to find.

Tom    

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Posted by steemtrayn on Tuesday, January 2, 2018 7:17 PM

Mheetu

This might be a long shot but i am going try it

 

What are the chances of seeing walther do something like the Central Railroad of New Jersey " The Blue Comet"  mind you i am not sure if they would have the 4-6-2 G3a but i wonder did the Blue comet ever use the F units

  

 

The Blue Comet fizzled before the diesels came out, and the F.s were freight units.

 

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Posted by novahoops85 on Wednesday, January 3, 2018 8:50 AM

ACY Tom

2. Pullman Standard 14-4 sleepers were operated by several railroads. MoPac, T&P, SL-SF, and MKT 14-4's operated through to the East on B&O and PRR, and the B&O 14-4's were sometimes seen on those Southwestern roads in run-through service. P-S 14-4's were also operated by Southern, KCS, and I believe others. 

3. The PRR Broadway Limited has been done, but some of the cars, such as The Broadway's observation cars and lounge cars, were unique to that train. A much more flexible car is the 2 DR, 1CPT, 1BR obs lounges assigned to the Cincinnati Limited, the Spirit of Saint Louis, and the Washington to Chicago Liberty Limited. These were named for Presidents of the PRR. These trains also used PRR 6BR lounges in the ...Falls series, rather than the unique Broadway Limited lounge car previously produced. Just producing those two cars --- the "PRR President" obs and the "Falls" lounge, in conjunction with reissues of the previously produced companion cars, would allow modelers to operate three additional PRR name trains.  Adding the L&N road name to the 4140 sleeper, which was available in the past, would fill out the Cincinnati Limited consist nicely.

Long time reader and seldom participant but I thought I would chime in on this one.  I have accumulated 12 Walthers Broadway Limited cars (10 from the '52 set and 2 from the '60 set).  Yet I do not model the Broadway Limited.  The 10-6, 21 Roomette, Duplex were popular with so many other PRR trains.  I picked these cars up to model a number of other PRR trains.  

It would be interesting if Walthers could do a mix bag of sorts with a 10-12 car production that make up 2-3 different trains (rather than 1 specific train) based on the combination of specific cars. 

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Posted by Run Eight on Wednesday, January 10, 2018 10:57 AM

Made in the United States of America.

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Posted by ManOWar on Tuesday, January 30, 2018 10:02 AM
For what it's worth I would like to see either Central of Georgia's Nancy Hank's II, Man O'War or the joint IC/CG/ACL City of Miami/Seminole circa 1950's with Central of Georgia lettered, chocolate-orange E8’s.  On a side note: Walther’s already has the base core Budd cars for a very accurate Man O’War consist with their stock coach and tavern-lounge observation.  The only new tooling needed to complete the consist would be a set of sides to make a 44 seat baggage-coach combine over an existing body core and a reconfigured left side for the tavern-lounge to include the kitchen access door midway.  With repainted E7’s in both the classic blue-gray livery with orange pin strips along with what I call the Central’s “Collard Green” simplified paint scheme of the early 1960’s.  If you want to take it to the bitter end do an E7 in the post 63 Southern merger tuxedo paint job with “Central of Georgia” lettering.  The same applies for the Nancy Hank’s II consist.  Walther’s pretty much has all the Pullman Standard equipment in production or the dies idle in some warehouse.  Again repaint the consist in Central’s gray with blue striping and motive power in both blue-grey, “collard green” and Southern tuxedo livery.  As for the City of Miami/Seminole consist again Walther’s already has most of the heavyweight, Pullman Standard, ACF and Budd cars in production and a “little selective compression” could be tolerated for the sake of a reasonable representation of this classic passenger train that was one of the last hold outs right up to the end of intercity service in April of 1971.  In closing, the Man O’War gets my vote because it not only would be the most economically feasible model to produce but it is also the quintessential “Pike-Sized-Passenger Train” as per Model Railroader’s 1980 feature article of the same name.  The Man would be right at home on any small home layout throughout America and it’s time to diverge from the big name, premiere varnish like the Chief, Broadway Ltd, and Capital Ltd.    

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