I have been cobbling together a few small passenger consists using MR's Pike Size Passenger Trains as a guide. I am out of town right now so I can't put up any photos. I have a Santa Fe West Texas Express /Eastern Express. An IC train similar to the Hawkeye. A short RI Rocket. I'm working on a MoPac consist. And I have a no name heavyweight consist using undecorated MTL's and WoT baggage cars. I'm going to keep getting one of each. I just think they are cool. I also have the beginnings of a troop train. I have put all of these together using store bought ready to run cars, so they aren't anything special like some of you have done. But I think they are fun.
These are some of my Pike Size Passenger Consists. They were inspired by Model Railroader's Pike Size Passenger Trains articles. I only recently got into passenger trains at all. I know that none of these are strictly prototypical. They are all straight out of the box. They are meant to be representative of smaller passenger trains that I think are cool, so I am fine with them not being strictly prototypical. I think they are fun. A Rock Island Rocket: An Illinois Central consist similar to the Hawkeye: Santa Fe West Texas Express (93) / The Eastern Express (94):
Thanks for your comments Puddington and y0chang. Three of those photos were taken out under the natural sky. The last one, the Texas Chief, was taken indoors. In the consist of the Texas Chief you can see my version of the Jim Crow coach that Kenneth mentioned. It is just an Atlas/Rivarossi corrugated side coach where I bashed a second vestibule onto the other end. I use a few of the Kato Super Chief cars for sleepers and renumbered a dorm/lounge and diner for cars that ran on the Texas Chief. I sometimes run the late 60s consist with a Bachmann Big Dome and a few El Capitan coaches like the prototype did.
Well way back when the Kato Cal Zephyr cars started coming out I was in college and not really buying much in trains (on account of being poor), but I still have the 5 Con-Cor California Zephyr cars I bought way back then...not sure if I want to just buy the remaining 6 cars or just go with Kato's set (since they're still thankfully producing it). I do however have a 4-car set of Kato smoothsides in the SP Lark scene that they discontinued a long time ago...I might try to fill em in with InterMountain and Centralia cars to finish the train. The other thing I've been looking into is assembling a "400" for the C&NW, which nobody makes a full set of...would have to be a mix of Con-Cor, InterMountain, Centralia, Rapido & Walthers cars I think...plus something to pull it, not many CNW E or F units out there besides InterMountain or Broadway Limited...neither of which may be in production now.
I have also cobbled together the COSF using cars from various Kato sets, a Con Cor Budd semi corrugated 10/6 sleeper, a Con Cor MILW 8/6/4 Duplex sleeper and an old Atlas/Riverossi blunt end observtion car.
I have about 30 NP Loewy cars (not counting my Con Cor boxed F3 NCL set)..... but I'm the opposite of a rivet-counter; I don't have a "full" consist. I just like to watch that thing streak by..... I am about to order more Rapido cars, they're dark as heck on the upper green half but they sure look fantastic. A train wholly comprised of said cars is in the works (likely a local or a Mainstreeter).
Wow, Some really classic trains going on here......I'm currently working on a 50's/60's National Limited......skipgear did that incredible B&O observation, made me go find my stash of Rowa cars...Whew, almost sold them on Ebay....Anyway I have Kato, Con-cor, IM and Rapido in my consist...E8 ABA....Probably will have to do the Capital as well......
I have mostly assembled a consist for Santa Fe's #5/6 mail, express and all-stops accommodation at Galveston, Texas, all heavyweight. This was formerly bthe Ranger but lost its name when I model it. E8m Atlas E8A and shells on hand to build an E8B Alternate power: DL-109 Concor with E8B REA Express Reefer I have some Fine N kits on hand, but they represent 50’ wood side reefers. All of Santa Fe’s were plated by the period I model. I will have to use the wood express reefer as a foreign interchange car. Baggage-Express HEAVYWEIGHT Concor/Rivarossi full baggage 2 coaches HEAVYWEIGHT No models available for Santa Fe’s distinctive coach except a rare brass model. I hope to scratchbuild one or twe someday. Alternate coach- Atlas heavyweight sleeper used in coach service Heavyweight sleeper- Atlas
In the mean time the Rivarossi paired window coach can be modified to resemble a Santa Fe chair car by removing the center window post from each window set. Vestibule steps and an AC roof adds to the illusion. It still has the side sill below the windows and lacks the channel sill at the bottom of the side that was definitive of ATSF cars.
I'm a bit of a sucker for passenger stuff, that's why I decided to get back into N scale after 35yrs. Here's my Amtrak consist, Kato P42, Concor sleeper, Bachman coaches and cafe. While I intend to concentrate primarily on present day railroading I couldn't resist a set of Concor smooth sided NYC cars. Dave
To make things even more interesting I have a penchant for European stuff, in particular British passenger trains. I was able to trade some old S scale stuff for some old Graham Farish stuff. Unfortunately all the locos suffer from the old GF split gear syndrome but I'm in the process of fitting some new mechanisms to them which are close enough matches. Here's a Royal Mail train and an HST 125 Intercity train, both refitted with Atlas mechanisms (DCC'ed). I'm still working on two Class 101 DMU 2 car sets, waiting for a Tomix mechanism to arrive from Japan, to see how well it fits under the 101 shell. Dave
This isn't a great show for seeing the entire consist, but here is my Amtrak Empire Builder (including the Portland cut). It's made up of two of the Kato Superliner sets, one baggage car from a two car set, the step up coach from the two car set, one Kato coach I snagged seperated from a set, and three of Deluxe Innovations Road Railers. Motive power is usually this lashup of a Kato P42, and the Atlas B32W. Sometimes I'll add a second P42.
Russell! Thanks for the inspiration. Now I have some hope. I started on this, attempting to cut away the parts of the car that didn't fit what I wanted to end with. It got all warped up. Did you remove the sides, etc, before modifying them?
No, I left the sides in place. I just clipped out the center window posts and then smoothed out the nubs left above and below on the window sills with a blade I made from an old Exacto point. It is kind of a small rounded chisel point that I can shave off small bumps with. I had to cut a little of the sides away below the doors before I mounted the Gold Metal Models step boxes.
I think my all time favorite cobbled up train is my Sunset Limited. It started out with Con Cor PAs and mostly Rowa cars that I painted and decaled while replacing the roofs with Budd roofs off their Slumbercoach. I kit bashed a few Atlas/Rivarossi cars for the RPO/Baggage, Baggage/Dorm, Diner and Lounge cars. Then Con Cor came out with their Budd 10-6 sleeper which was a lot closer to the prototype than the Rowa sleepers. I just had to remove the skirts and fill a few windows. The CC Budd coaches were not so close so I have been replacing their sides with etched brass ones from M&R. The locomotives are now Kato PAs. An Atlas/Rivarossi smooth side RPO/Baggage with corrugations added to the side. It is followed by an Atlas/RR Baggage/Dorm. Lounge and Diner. A Con Cor coach with M&R sides. This was a Jim Crow car with a partition behind the wide section of window spacing. A Con Cor 10-6 with a Rowa blunt end bashed onto it.
