BLI California Zephyr passenger cars

[don7]

I just received the ad from BLI on the release of the next set of California Zepher cars.

Given the popularity of these cars I will opt for the full set. I saw these cars when they were first released a few years ago and being on vacation at the time decided I would order a set later as I did not want to carry the cars around with me for a week. I waited and a couple of weeks later they were out of most of the cars. So I decided I would wait until they ran another set. The cars I saw looked great and I never heard any negative comments about them.

I am curious why the 11 car set which consists of specific cars picked by BLI?

What about mixing a set from all of the cars offered?

OR is this due to the preordering in advance?

I wonder how the California Zephyr cars will compare to the Canadian cars I ordered from Rapido?

[riogrande5761]

I have 15 of the cars from the original runs.

I can't speak to BLI's sets but the California Zephyr was originally delivered in 6 11-car sets from Budd and apportioned ownership to the three carriers based on route mileage (CB&Q, D&RGW and WP).

-Baggage
-Dome-coach (mother/children car)
-Dome-coach with conductors compartment/window)
-Dome-coach
-Dome-lounge-buffet
-Diner
-2 sleepers 10-6
-16 section sleeper
-1 transcon sleeper 10-6
-Dome-obs

The original order of cars had the diner back among the sleeper

From memory (around 1951) a set of 6-5 sleepers was added to the trains sets.  From the CZ Virtual Museam website:

Original 1949 consist -
        (1)Baggage car-(3)Dome Chair Coaches-(1)Dome-Buffet-Lounge-(2)10/6 
        Sleepers-(1)Diner-(1)16Section Sleeper-(1)10/6 Sleeper-(1)Dome 
        Observation-Lounge.

1950 consist-
       (1)Baggage car-(3)Dome Chair Coaches-(1)Dome-Buffet-Lounge-(1)Diner 
       (2)10/6 Sleepers-(1)16Section Sleeper-(1)10/6 Sleeper-(1)Dome 
        Observation-Lounge.

1951/52 consist-
       (1)Baggage car-(3)Dome Chair Coaches-(1)Dome-Buffet-Lounge-(1)Diner 
       (1)6/5 Sleeper-(2)10/6 Sleepers-(1)16Section Sleeper-(1)10/6 Sleeper-(1)
       Dome Observation-Lounge.

1963/64 consist-
      (1)Baggage car-(1) converted Chair Coach-(3)Dome Chair Coaches 
      (1)Dome-Buffet-Lounge-(1)Diner-(1)6/5 Sleeper-(3)10/6 Sleepers 
      (1)Dome Observation-Lounge.

1968 consist-
      (1)Baggage car-(1) converted Chair Coach-(3)Dome Chair Coaches 
      (1)Dome-Buffet-Lounge-(1)Diner-(1)6/5 Sleeper-(2)10/6 Sleepers 
      (1)Dome Observation-Lounge.

I don't know what BLI has done, but the above should give you an idea what was historically true.  I model around 1965-1990 so the last consist is what I would model - although I note they only show 2 10/6 sleepers, if you look at photo's there were usually at least 3 of them.  In the 1967-1970 time frame, the CZ varied seasonally with winter consists usually shorter by a dome and a sleeper being around 9 or 10 cars long and the summer consists were around 12 to 14 cars long, adjusted for ridership.

Interestingly, there were often foreign cars, usually sleepers from UP, NP, NYC, PRR, etc ahead of the Dome-obs during the summers in the last few years (see Colorful Colorado book & Rio Grande Color books), and D&RGW placed P-S Chair cars, Dome-chairs, and lounges of gold/silver paint ahead of the baggage too, for specials.  All variations which would be fun to model.

As for me, I need to pick up the last two RGZ cars I am missing, Silver Colt and Silver Pine, and if I can spare it, I may pick up a few more to build a second consist, since I'm part way there already.

[Heartland Division CB&Q]

You have a good memory, Riogrande5761....

In 1952, Budd delivered extra CZ cars (7 sleepers and 1 dome-observation if my memory is correct). This allowed CB&Q to rotate CZ sleepers and an observation with the Aksarben Zephyr. The 1952 dome-obervation, Silver Lookout, had a slightly different floor plan than the other  dome-observations, but was otherwise the same. 

Don7 .... I would think you could mix cars from different BLI production runs.

[riogrande5761]

That sounds right.  I've read that the CB&Q ordered extra Budd built cars, some of which were rotated into the CZ, but were CB&Q owned cars and not part of the bog standard 6 CZ train sets that were augmented with the 6/5 sleepers around 1951.  A sharp eye will note there were occasional 10/6 sleepers which had fewer windows on the hallway side of the car - looks like three widely spaced windows rather than 3 paired.  I once had a brass budd Kumata/Oriental Ltd HO CZ car that followed this window pattern - and there is a photo of one at the back of the CZ in one of my D&RGW books.

[Texas Zepher]

don7

I am curious why the 11 car set which consists of specific cars picked by BLI?

I am assuming they choose the specifics for a standard 11 car set more or less at random.

What about mixing a set from all of the cars offered?

That is what I have done.  Choose the names that I liked. 

[qutoe]OR is this due to the preordering in advance?[/quote] I think it was just for people who wanted to order a standard set without doing their own research.   Notice that a standard set is NOT one of each kind of car like some other companies do.

I wonder how the California Zephyr cars will compare to the Canadian cars I ordered from Rapido?

I have California Zephyr cars from all the prior three runs.   Even when the first ones had wheel gauge problems, I have NOT been disapointed.  They are the best passenger cars I've ever purchased.