Canadian Pacific Royal Hudson model in HO

[CharlieBedard]

Fellow Modelers,

For my free-lanced Canadian railroad (Agassiz Basin) set in the 50's, I would love to have a model of a Royal Hudson with its matching passenger cars run over my trackage.

I have searched the Web and this forum looking for an HO model of the famous 4-6-4 but have found little. IHC has their generic 4-6-4 painted in CPR Tuscan Red but it would take extensive mods to make it into a Royal Hudson. And I have not heard great things about the IHC running gear and motor (also from this forum). I found a Tenshodo brass model but it's way too expensive.

Has anyone found an existing Hudson that could be kitbashed into a reasonably good-looking Royal Hudson?

Charlie

[CP5415]

Good luck, I've looked & have only found the brass one's.

Nothing plastic even comes close without building a whole new boiler & smokebox from scratch.

Gordon

[loathar]

The IHC ones are even back ordered for the next year and a half. I can't help you, but if you know where I can get the IHC without the wait, I would love you to death!

[trolleyboy]

Brass is likely your only choice at the moment. Van Hobbies imported several runs of Royal Hudsons in the 70's. There was a recent run again in1998 which were the first Brass imported by Van Hobbies in years ran better but the prices were off the scale. The ones from the 70's run well but are a little less detailed. I see them pop up once in a while at train shows and Hobby shops. They usually run around $450 CDN much better than the $2000 of the last 90's run. I did send Broadway an email via their request a model area of their site and they said it was a model that they were concidering but were unsure of there being enough demand for one in plastic. Perhaps all wanting one should send them a similar request. Good luck in your search. Rob

[CP5415]

I'd reserve one from Broadway if they made one.

I don't see how there couldn't be enough demand for one considering the Royal Hudson was a temporary resident in the South in the 1970's.
& That one is in a California Museum!!!!!
How many locomotives have seen both the Canada & the US as excursion locomotives?
Just my two cents

Gordon

[trolleyboy]

I hear you. Hopefully they will take that into account,send them an email anyway. You know the old saying the squeeky wheel gets the greese[;)]. I hope that if broadway does do it they don't go 90% brass like they did with the CN hudson they put out two or three years back. I would have loved to had one but the $750 was too much[:0][xx(] Rob

[JohnT14808]

Charlie...can you give me run down on how the 'Royal' is different from the standard Hudson? I'd appreciate the information. Thanks.

[tatans]

The "Royal" is cosmetically altered with a bit of rounding off and a crown up front , nothing spectacular, in fact, many Canadians feel it took away the classic lines of the original C.P.R. design of a Hudson, take a look at the standard Hudson for an almost perfect example of a steam engine, much like the NKP Berkshire, now would you add a bunch of streamlining and doo-dads to a Berk?

[Anonymous]

My Father made one in the eighties in 'n' scale. He custom rolled the boiler jacket over a heated steel rod that he had turned on a lathe. That was probably the hardest part of the whole operation because at that time Minatures By Eric made an N scale conversion kit for the con-cor hudson. I'm not sure if the kit or even the 'royal' sheilds were ever made in HO though.
The Royal hudson is probably one of the easier engines to Kitbash/ scratchbuild though, since the boiler jacket covers most of the piping and other details under it.

[CharlieBedard]

Thanks Guys for all the feedback. Looks like I'm in about the same place most of you have already arrived at. That is, no decent plastic ones but some available brass for many $$$.

JohnT14808 asked about how the Royal Hudson is different. Mostly, the "Royal" version is semi-streamlined and I am particularily fond of the smooth boiler and clean lines of the cab. Personal preference of course. There are some good photos online at: http://www.rrsites.com/royalhudson/gallery.htm.

Loathar asked about getting an IHC Hudson in CP Tuscan Red (I assume). I almost hate to tell you this, Loathar, but just this past weekend, at the Great Western Train Show in San Jose (not a great show, BTW), I spoke with a dealer who had 2 of them there, along with the matching passenger cars (from both Rivarossi & IHC). He was asking $120 for the Hudson. But I passed on it 'cause I am wary of the IHC quality. I did not take his business card and can't remember the name of his shop. But I think he drove down from Oregon, if that helps.

Finally, the last message I hear from you guys is that it is worth sending Broadway Limited a note asking for a Royal Hudson version. I'll do that today. I 'm not very knowledgeable about Hudsons that were in use by other North American railroads (although I do know that NYC created the first 4-6-4 steamers that originated the "Hudson" name), but I'd bet that more than 1 railroad did some streamlining of Hudsons and that it may be worth Broadway's while to create a "smooth boiler" somewhat generic Hudson that could be close enough to a number of railroads to satisfy me.

Thanks!

Charlie

[Anonymous]

Charlie,

Those beautiful NYC streamliners were Hudson-types, as was the Blue Goose, and the Hiawatha, along with CPR (and Canadian National) "Royal" Hudsons.

You might be able to modify a Rivarossi Hudson - at least do some cosmetic changes to the boiler and smoke box - to make an approximation. The other major change that will (likely) be required to make it Canadian is the "all-weather" cab. I believe that Miniatures by Eric has parts.

Gordon - where did you take that pic of 2816?

Andrew

[dknelson]

The thought strikes me that given the vaguely British or European or European look of the Royal Hudson boiler is there a British model of streamlined steam that might be modified? I think it would be pretty tough to modify any kind of conventional American style steam engine to look like the Royal Hudson (or the somewhat similar Jubilee 4-4-4-).
Obviously what I am talking about here is something that would resemble a Royal Hudson not a scale model
Dave Nelson

[CP5415]

I have an IHC 4-6-2 steamer.

I haven't had a problem with it.
Then again, it's used only for excursion purposes only.

Gordon

[Anonymous]

I suppose in HO if you were going to kitbash a royal hudson all you would need is a hudson of some type as a starting point, being IHC or otherwise.
The N scale conversion was made by shaving all the detail off the con-cor boiler and then fitting a thin styrene jcket over top. I would have to say this would probably be the easiest way for and HO model as well. As for the Cab I think Athabasca scale models makes a canadian vestibule (enclosed) cab that would be a good starting point.
The rest (running boards, pilot, est) would either have to be scratchbuilt or found in the parts department somewhere.

[orsonroy]

Your best bet is to kitbash. I'd start with the Mantua 4-6-4 chassis and shrouded pilot, scratchbuild a boiler out of 1" PVC pipe, and add a Precision Scale all-weather cab. You're on your own for a tender, but you can probably come close by starting with the Mantua 6-axle tender. The Mantua chassis has the wrong valve gear hanger (check the Bowser catalog for the right one) but at least has the proper multi-bearing crossheads that none of the others on the market have.

[wjstix]

Ya there isn't really all that good a place to start, the CPR Hudsons were "semi-streamlined" with a flat front, not really like any other hudsons around. I would love to see someone like BLI do one, I suspect they'd sell enough in Canada alone to justify producing it, since basically no "Canadian specific" steam engines are available except in brass.