These what yer lookin for?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=140251544952
Dave
Just be glad you don't have to press "2" for English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_ALEdDUB8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hqFS1GZL4s
http://s73.photobucket.com/user/steemtrayn/media/MovingcoalontheDCM.mp4.html?sort=3&o=27
I have several sets of these 60' Heavyweight coaches and once you have replaced the coupler with a kadee you have a great set of coaches.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/635-600229
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/931-50
If you search around the coaches are available in a number of roadnames. There is also a lighting kit available for the 60' coaches. The same 60' coaches were also available in the Walthers Trainline Passenger set a Walthers diesel PA and three different coaches.
http://cgi.ebay.com/HO-Walthers-Trainline-ATSF-diesel-passenger-train-set_W0QQitemZ300244485477QQihZ020QQcategoryZ19141QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
These coaches have also been re-released by Hornby/Rivarossi and are currently being sold in sets of three coaches and there is a baggage available as well, roadnames are limited to only a couple.
Dave,
You are quite corect about the Walthers full length heavyweight and lightweight passenger cars. They will track around a 24" radius curve, but not with any reliability. Some of the baggage cars and mail cars are shorter(60-70'). Walthers also has marketed the Rivarossi 60' heavyweight cars(these are C&NW prototypes).
The Con-Cor 72' cars are shortened versions of C&NW '400' cars for the most part. I have some and they run very well on 22" radius curves. I had to weight them, add interiors, add diaphrams, and body mount Kadee couplers. Their trucks are very good and have metal wheels. My next 'upgrade' for them is add Rapido 'Easy Peasy' lighting kits. The paint jobs(I have C&NW) are very good. They are a good 'project' that most modelers can do....
Jim Bernier
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
dadret wrote:Thanks for all the good advise. My real favorite is still the Con-Cor Santa Fe Scout cars so I will probably go that way and upgrade them. I can't find any specific interiors or lighting sets for the Con-Cor cars so what do you recommend for this application?
Palace Car Company makes several interior sets designed for Con-Cor 72' cars (and the 85' ones too)....
Palace Car Co.
BTW the "problem" with Walthers cars is the body-mounted couplers won't allow them to be used on tight curves, in my experience even their 60' cars won't work on 22" radius curves. Rivarossi 80' cars with truck mounted couplers will work with no trouble however (even if they don't look great doing it!).
I have 22" curves, Walthers, Rivarossi and Soho full length cars, all with Walthers trucks. They do just fine with longer couplers, and a little more weight on the Walthers cars. I add the weight on the trucks themselves using sheet lead. They even make it around my 4% down grade. I also have the Walthers trucks pretty loose, and I lightened the springs on the Sohos.
DC
http://uphonation.com
Autobus Prime wrote:Folks:Herkimer is still making their extruded-aluminum streamliners, which are still available in shorty form:Anybody here know anything about these cars? They're out of my era, so I don't really have a use for any.
I have a few 1960s vintage Herkimer / OK Streamilner shorty coaches. They are extruded aluminum, very basic with no interiors, frosted acetate windows. They were set up to add lighting with A GOW bulb. I have not seen the new ones, and a lot has chenged since the ones I have were manufactured.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
dadret wrote: I'm fairly sure that a 64 seat coach is longer than a 46 seat coach but my knowledge of old time passenger cars is VERY limited.
Generally it was more a difference in leg room than car length. Heavyweight coaches usually held 80 people in stiff straight-backed chairs with no leg rests. As streamliners came in, it became more common to have reclining seats and leg rests, but since these seats took up more space it reduced the number of seats you could fit in the coach...in fact, a streamlined 46 seat coach was probably 80' long was were most streamlined cars; some 80 seat heavyweight coaches were only 70' long.
BTW if you're looking for Budd type shorties, don't overlook the Athearn cars. They can be a little hard to find sometimes but they look pretty good, are easy to assemble, and run well. Palace Car Co. makes interiors for them too.
wjstix wrote: dadret wrote:Thanks for all the good advise. My real favorite is still the Con-Cor Santa Fe Scout cars so I will probably go that way and upgrade them. I can't find any specific interiors or lighting sets for the Con-Cor cars so what do you recommend for this application? Palace Car Company makes several interior sets designed for Con-Cor 72' cars (and the 85' ones too)....Palace Car Co.BTW the "problem" with Walthers cars is the body-mounted couplers won't allow them to be used on tight curves, in my experience even their 60' cars won't work on 22" radius curves. Rivarossi 80' cars with truck mounted couplers will work with no trouble however (even if they don't look great doing it!).
Note that Walthers was packaging the 60' Rivarossi cars with their train set which included 22" radius track. I have one line that has 18" curves on it and the cars track fine, but the 22" looks better.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/931-47
Raised on the Erie Lackawanna Mainline- Supt. of the Black River Transfer & Terminal R.R.
Then there are these Life Likes available now:
http://www.wholesaletrains.com/Detail.asp?Scale=HO&Item=lpisgr&ID=200450676
and/or:
http://www.wholesaletrains.com/Detail.asp?Scale=HO&Item=lpisgr&ID=200450692
they seem to be about 63.5 scale feet long. They come with horn hook couplers.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
-Morgan
Autobus Prime wrote:Folks:Just to be weird, not because I have any experience with them, I want to point out that Herkimer is still making their extruded-aluminum streamliners, which are still available in shorty form:http://www.okengines.com/catalogrequest.shtmlhttp://www.okengines.com/pdf/catalog1.pdfhttp://www.okengines.com/pdf/catalog2.pdfAnybody here know anything about these cars? They're out of my era, so I don't really have a use for any.
OMG, they look like the old Mantua extruded aluminium cars. If they have the same talgo trucks, they'll run on 18 inch radius.
There have been a few 60' cars scaled down to represent longer versions, from time to time. The culprit is a straight car bi-secting (cutting across) a circle.
The best compromises are 72' cars with Talgo couplers.
ConCor did make a generic 72' set (smooth sides) as did Athearn (with corregated sides). Since most engines use body mounted couplers, I would likewise use body moUnts for the lead car.
I take it you found a source for the Concor. The 'Valley Flyer' paint scheme never existed in real life. The Athearn cars are much closer to those used by the Santa Fe.
EVERYTHING works better than the IHC cars.
Tom: Those 60' shorties 'Galaxy' posted were from the old 'Penn line'. I still have two. The Mantua extruded aliminums were 72 footers, later were reproduced in (ugh!) plastic.
galaxy wrote: Then there are these Life Likes available now:http://www.wholesaletrains.com/Detail.asp?Scale=HO&Item=lpisgr&ID=200450676and/or:http://www.wholesaletrains.com/Detail.asp?Scale=HO&Item=lpisgr&ID=200450692they seem to be about 63.5 scale feet long. They come with horn hook couplers.
I hope you are not seriously recommending that anyone obtain those cars? Have you ever seen these cars in person?
Walther's non-heavyweight passenger cars (pullman standard, budd) work just fine on 22" radius. In trains. With locomotives. Yes, they're fine. The heavyweights don't work on 22"s, but the others do.
Mark.
There are so many trade-offs in this hobby. That's why it is best to know what kind of equipment one plans to run and the level of unrealism one is willing to accept BEFORE one designs his layout. If I could do it over, I'd have visited every club and home layout possible before doing my own. Personally, HO-scale-60-footers don't even begin to look right until the radius inches toward 30, and "full-length-foot-long" passenger cars should have 36" or more. It is an individual-decision-kind-of-thing, assuming the equipment will operate reliably under the chosen circumstances.
Mark
Here is a suggested "rule of thumb" for minimum radii:
http://macrodyn.com/ldsig/wiki/index.php?title=Curve_radius_rule-of-thumb
Depart to your own desire (and risk.)
dadret wrote:I finally found some old Athearn 72' cars at a LHS in Quebec - the web site was in French and English but the ordering page was in French only so I'm a little hesitant to order them since I wouldn't be real sure what I was paying for.
Uh, you should be able to find Athearns's a lot closer than that. Unless yuo're lookin fgor a certain road I missed. Did you try Horizon Hobbies
Mark:
Before your time (and mine) modelers built 36" radii curves. The hobby primarily existed in Mid-West basements. Forced air and relocation reduced the size needed for basements. Lumber yards now stock 4X8' sheets instead of 5X9'.
O GAUGE gave way to HO. What's next? 'N'gauge? (better for passenger ops).
What curveture is best, has given way to 'whatever'.
I tested my 85' cars on various radii to see what it took to eliminate the 'octaganal' look on my curves. (those looking at photographs will know what I mean). I came up with 48"r, or 4X. Today's newbie criteria seems to be 'whatever stays upright on the track'.
Ah progress!
Being the pragmatist that I am, since lumber is sold on 'so much a foot', a 48''r track runs off a 4' wide table - so a 46" radius replaces a 22"., and a dual track mainline curve is 46" & 44". and without sideswiping! Those 90o curves take up only 4' of each corner's wall.
A 4'X 4' sheet makes 2 semi-triangular corners. It's amazing what corners can do. To those with "no usable corners", I say there is always N gauge, and to avoid the rush.
Don Gibson wrote: I tested my 85' cars on various radii to see what it took to eliminate the 'octaganal look' on my 36"curve. (those looking at photographs will know what I mean). I came up with 48"r, or 4X. Today's newbie criteria seems to be 'what stays upright on the track'.Ah progress!
I tested my 85' cars on various radii to see what it took to eliminate the 'octaganal look' on my 36"curve. (those looking at photographs will know what I mean). I came up with 48"r, or 4X. Today's newbie criteria seems to be 'what stays upright on the track'.
Don, we are of similar mind. Still, we all got to do what we are able.
The new Hornby/Rivarossi 60' coaches will run on 18" radius curves.
Their tech staff advises me that the coaches are supplied with two sets of couplers a short shank and a long shank. The longer coupler being recommended for the 18" curves.
Jason
Modeling the Fort Worth & Denver of the early 1970's in N scale
jguess733 wrote:how badly does the longer coupler throw the car spacing off by? will the diaphragms still touch?
I did not ask that question about their new 60' coaches.
I have some sets of the pre-Hornby 60' series and they have only the couplers provided and the coaches will run fine on 18" curves with the couplers supplied and yes the diaphragms touch. Kadee recommends using the #5 as replacements for these coaches.
Athearn makes about the best short passenger cars on the market. Lightweight or heavyweight, you just add weight, Kadee couplers, brass wheelsets, (36"), and American Limited diaphrams and they look good and pull great, even on 18" curves. And they're cheap.
Dick
Texas Chief