Seeking Metro-North M2s

[Anonymous]

Dear Editor,
I'm thirteen years old and although I live in Atlanta, Ga. I have a lot of family in New York and I have long been intrigued and fascinated by the great web of passenger rail travel that they have there. Recently I decided to begin my first real layout and my line of choice was the Hudson line from NYC up to Poughkeepsie. Already having an AMD-103 P-40 and some Amtrak cars I decided that even though my station in NYC would be Penn I wanted some Metro-North M2's to use up the line past Spuyten Duyvil. Unluckily though, after an extensive search I was unable to find any manufacturer making the cars and was perplexed by the fact that they had started making Metro-North P-40's and horizon commuter cars while the M2's had been running for over 20 years!
I was hoping you might be able to direct me to a dealer or manufacturer of these cars or at least send me blueprints or put in an article on how to scratchbuild these models. Thanks!

Nick

[Anonymous]

Hello Nick, I just came across your post when I searched Metro-North. I have a layout, N scale, but I was looking for HO scale Metro-North equipment, I live in NY and commute on Metro-North each day to school. I am sorry to give you the bad news but even after I went thru an exhaustive search, I could not find the CDOT Budd M2s. M2s do not run on the Hudson line, they run on the New Haven, due to Connecticut state law about no 3rd rail, they are electrics with both 3rd rail shoes and pantographs. They run up the Harlem line until the Woodlawn interlocking then go into New Haven territory from there on. Any electric only runs as far as Croton-Harmon, the end of 3rd rail territory. I know this well considering my uncle is an engineer/trainmaster. I found unpowered models of the LIRR M1s (you may be interested in those) but they stopped making them and cost over $300/pair. I am sorry to give you the bad news but its better having someone let you know than not gettin a response. Bye good luck

Tim

[Anonymous]

Hey Nick...I'm a young railroader up here in NY and I model MN operations as well.

I understand your frustration with the lack of manufactured models of MN equipment and commuter stuff in general.

There are manufacturers out there, they just usually aren't too into promoting their products (Isn't that ironic? ...if they actually did some research and marketing, they'd see the buyers up and down the east coast, as you prove). They almost never have web sites...until recently.

I know of a couple of manufacturers of M1/M3 cars (The ones used on Harlem and Hudson lines, blue stripe), but they're all brass...in other words, expensive. But they're out there. Try http://ihphobby.tripod.com/

Walthers also makes the comet/shoreliner coaches and cabs for MN, CDOT, and NJT. Go to http://www.walthers.com or look in the big book for them...they're about $15 or so.

I also have plans for various MN stuff...if you're really stuck I could probably dig them up.

Anyway...hit me back and let me know if I can help.

Also, I'm a web developer and I've actually been thinking about starting a commuter model railroading web portal (Sort of like trains.com, I guess)...if you're interested, I'd like to get some modelers like us together.