Did Kobo ever release the 2 postal cars that go with this P42 Genesis: I saw a photo from the NMRA 2012 show showing them, but have never seen one available anywhere.
Kato did display some postal cars at the NMRA show: http://www.model160.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/NMRA2012-Kato-Kobo-Art-Train.jpg But, it seems like they took orders only for the loco: http://web.archive.org/web/20120920010203/http://katousa.com/Kobo/index.html
I asked Kato about the issue. This is the response. We do not have the necessary cars in our inventory that can be repainted, and to make the proper full train it requires several cars we do not produce, so we have only made the signature lead locomotive. Regards, Michael Conway Very disappointing to me. Maybe they would offer the decals??? Joe Cox Austin, TX
Not the right cars? It's an Amfleet car and ... not sure what to call the other one. I guess the decals would be okay. I just feel bad having the loco sit there by itself. I've been having a difficult time finding any pictures of those 2 cars as well.
Get me some good pics of the cars and I may be able to produce some decals. I did several of the P42's prior to KATO coming out with them so I could add the pass cars.
JDG I would very interested in decals. http://www.trainweb.com/ctcexpress/ has some car shots, as well as close ups of the stamps. (Site is very slow, sorry) The only roof shots are from from the Kato/ Kobo samples seen at http://www.model160.com/wp-content/u...-Art-Train.jpg I bet there is enough info to do a very close set. Thanks very much if you can help. Send me a PM! I would love to give my P42 a Postal Train to pull. I would add a RPO heavyweight and be good enough for me. Joe Cox Austin, TX
Here's the best I could find that show enough detail to go by: JDG: You may have to take some "artistic license" for areas not covered or not clear. I KNOW I want a set for the Amfleet car and a set for the RPO car. Also, JDG, if you can make decals... *evil grin* Oh and Dave, as far as I can tell from all of the pictures I ran across, the only consist I could find is the one with the two old green cars on the end. I don't know if tickets were sold to ride it or not. Amtrak #100 has long since been repainted and is still in service. Can anyone positively identify the "RPO" car? It really looks like a baggage car to me. What about the two "old timey" green cars at the end of the train? (I will be patient and see if I can pull the images that are useful from the TrainWeb website. There really are some great pictures of the stamps. I have to go to bed, but will download and host them tomorrow.)
The baggage car looks close to one of the UP smooth side cars they did awhile back. Jim Hebners site, http://www.hebners.net/amtrak/amtBAG.html shows it being a ATSF car built in 1955 by ACF. Looks close enough for me...
The baggage (not an RPO) car was Amtrak 1252, former ATSF 3679 and similar to the 3678 shown here: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/atsf/atsf-b3678rsa.jpg In a pre-Y2K paint scheme: http://www.hebners.net/amtrak/amtBAG/amt1252a.jpg Finally, a more recent photo: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3075096 The "old timey green" (real) RPO was Southern Rwy. 36: http://abpr.railfan.net/january02/01-23-02/SOU-RPO800700_20000507_TempleTX_bf167.jpg Carrying the markers was MKT 403: http://rr-fallenflags.org/steamtown/mkt-bc403gga.jpg
Don't wanna' derail the thread because it sounds like you guys are gonna' make this thing. It's definitely different, and I LOVE that. Too new for my stuff, though. Just asking for someone to explain what I'm looking at, that's all. BTW, I love that car with the "Stock Car Stamp" !!! I've been known to bend a few fenders in my time. Too bad they were usually MINE !!! Ha,ha,ha !!!
How long ago did you ask? The Amfleets have only been recently released, so that may have been one issue. Second is how many would they really sell?
I don't know how Kobo operates, but my guess is that, based on the price they charge, it's all strictly an in-house operation. They announced the trainset in 2012 and I'm pretty sure the Amfleets were out by then. Finding the right donor car for the baggage might be a little bit of a challenge, but considering I'll be kitbashing the green RPO car and the green observation car, I'm sure I can find a victim to put "under the knife" as it were. On a side note, I'd be willing to pay $75 each for the yellow cars, but I get a little crazy like that when it comes to certain N Scale things. I may have "the N-sickness."
Matt, Feb 14, 2013 Kato was nice enough to respond so we now know we need to make this happen outside of Kato. Joe Cox
I'm kinda thinking here the KATO smoothside baggage will be a good fill in and of course an Amfleet car. The Amfleet baggage is corrugated. Any other thoughts?
I'm thinking, with a little shaving of the corrugation, the Kato Super Chief baggage car: It has the right number of roof vents, and has the double window doors. The trucks look correct but need to be black, so that's either a new set of trucks in black, or paint them. Looks like I'll have to fill in some of the windows too. Oh now I see the smoothside baggage car from Kato. Hmmm. So add/relocate windows to it (or swap in the right door), add roof vents (easy), and it's already nice and smooth. The doors look a little close but I don't have a good eye for that. Neither model has the footholds so that's good. Artistic license again For the "old timey" cars (I just say that) I'm thinking of bashing up some microtrains heavyweights. They will need custom decals too I think: The MKT will need a lot of body work, cutting and filling windows, shaving off extra vents, etc. The RPO will need 2-axle trucks with a new pilot hole drilled. Acrtually, looking at the realworld one, it looks like the offset might be correct for a 2-axle truck right where the center of the 3-axle one is. Other than that, and a good repaint, the size and shape look correct. Oh, I guess relocating the windows on the RPO needs to happen as well. All 6 are at one end instead of spread out.
