I just got my grubby little hands on a few of these : ) The local Hallmark shop had about 35 of each. Funny they put a weight in them after all they are ornaments. Wish the logos on the side were attached differently, but oh well. Maybe possible to sand down the rivets a bit... Was going to buy a PA-1 to test paint, but for $18.50 I will just test on an old shell instead. Now off to find all the Erie info I can on these. I will end up with a Passenger train in Z before I have one in N!
Yeah, there not perfect, almost like a scaled down O Scale Lionel car, but scaling down did not hurt the model any. It's those ugly Freedom Train mounting holes. On one side the holes are actually slots of the most messed up kind, so some putty work is needed. All in all, they are still well worth the money. How many truck inserts do you need? 4 per car.
All together I will have a 7 car train so 28 inserts, but I was gonna wait till I had to bother you for decals ; ) I bid on 3 of the cars on E-bay before checking online to find a Hallmark shop about 3 minutes away. I bought 4 cars today, if I lose the auction I will just go get 3 more down the street. These cars have separate "glass" and a inner door inside the vestibules.
As to availability, they are not listed as "gold crown exclusives". This could mean that they will appear at Kohl's, Walgreen's or other stores that carry Hallmark ornaments. I see no reason to pay a premium to get them.
A Totally Unfair Comparison I figured since no one else had done it yet... Her it is the AZL PA vs the Hallmark PA. Dan S.
Dan. Thank you for the pictures, as far as i can see it looks very accurate but slightly oversized, but for 18$ compared to 500$ !!!! My canadian friend did not find the PA but she found the Veranda turbine i found about 25 Hallmark stores in vancouver so i guess there still is a chance
Looks like the PA will be perfect parked next to MTL GP35's and GP9's. Maybe a wider track gauge is in order to compensate. We can call it M scale!
I can help you if your Canadian friend is unsuccessful. The significant other is a Hallmark store manager and she assures me that she can get all three pieces still.
There are two Hallmark stores in my neighborhood, and I just walked into one today and bought a stack of these. They had a good supply, so if anyone is having trouble getting them, I'm happy to act as a local buyer. They are surprisingly well-done, by the way. I was never big on passenger trains, but these have caught my interest. I see some nice possibilities here; I have a mind to upgrade the observation car with an etched brass railing, for starters...
If I must ; D http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/Models/photo#5089931666637614402 http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/Models/photo#5089931597918137650 http://picasaweb.google.com/ErieChris333/Models/photo#5089931537788595490 I'm not really going full bore at these now, but I had to test things out.
oh My.... Chris, excellent work Gimme... lol. I've seen these at my local Hallmark stores here, and I'm just waiting for a little extra money to get a loco and some coaches. Since I'm thinking of modeling local Canadian prototype in the 70's/early 80's, I'm not sure how I'll justify the PA (CN did test 2 prototypes in 56/57 though), but the heavyweights will look great as an excursion train or work cars. Robert, I may just need some of those truck inserts once I get my coaches. Also, has anyone looked at the possibility of putting an 8805 chassis under that B6 switcher? Cheers, Dan Mackellar
The Hallmark store here in Covington, WA is stocked with atleast 20 of each if someone is having a tough time finding them.
I converted an observation car yesterday, and while pulling 2 cars with my Marklin Mogul, I seen quite a bit of driver slipage. I took out the center wheels from the heavyweight trucks, and now the Mogul pulls the cars just fine, so two axles per truck performs much better than 3. I am going to try drilling the center axle points deeper so the center axle can swing side to side more and see what happens. Also, I did a lot of testing, and found the best total weight is about 15 grams. Without any weight the car weighs 9 grams, and is prone to derailments. With all the weight that came in the car, it weighs 38 grams, so I removed both weights, and added 6 grams for an ideal weight of 15 grams.
Couplers? Hi Guys - I'm new here, I've been in 'o' scale and 'n' scale now trying out 'z'. Read through this thread and got some great ideas. Has anybody figured out how to put decent couplers on the Hallmarks?
