been buying some MT santa fe passenger cars and so far have 5 of them. their getting hard to find. I have a baggage car, parlor, diner, 2 coaches, moose lake and red oak. I don't have the mail car. I see a runner pack of 3 that say Pullman only, no name or road number. did the santa fe or anyone else run Pullman cars like this that just had "Pullman"on them with no road number or name? I would think no, but not sure. thanks....
Cars were always run with some sort of identity, be it a car name or, in the case of tourist sleepers and troop sleepers, number. Without it they would not have been able to track where a given car was or where it was going.
Here's what I understand to be the case: When Santa Fe leased its passenger cars from Pullman, they carried the "Pullman" name. As a result of an anti-trust law case in the early '40s the Santa Fe bought the cars it was leasing, and changed the lettering to say "Santa Fe". In both cases (as Jerry points out) the cars would have also carried a car name or car number. If a model doesn't have a car number or name then I'd suspect it to be a foobie. For photos of passenger cars, there is probably no better source than Jerry's fabulous website: http://passcarphotos.info/ Regards, Ron
Actually, all of the MT cars, save for the observation, lettered for the ATSF, are 'foobies'... all of them, save for the new horse car, are based on actual prototypes, but none of them are Santa Fe prototypes, again, except for the heavyweight observation. (and , of course, the Pullmans...if one is modeling that era) The 70' baggage and the combine are fairly close to looking like the ATSF versions of these cars...all of the others, not so much... Bruce
@fluff If you're looking for the RPO, we may be able to work something out. PM me if you're interested. Ben
In MT defense, they produced the "unnamed" and unnumbered cars for those of us who would want to decal their own for specific cars on specific roads. They did also produce the coach in "Pullman" lettering, but it is close to the window pattern of some parlor cars, and in point of fact, Pullman did rebuild some cars as coaches and leased them as such (although whether they carried Pullman name or were lettered for the lessee, I don't know). My only complaint was that they did not provide a decal sheet with these cars (as Walthers did with their streamline cars that likewise had no names/numbers). The MT coach lettered for ATSF #2205 is something of a joke. At the time the car came out, there was a photo of a twin window coach, Santa Fe on the letterboard, #2205 that was circulating on the web. My own "best guess" is that it was a car painted for use in a film, since no such car was rostered. But they did have a photo to go by- and a sense of humor. Specific prototypes aside, the MT cars are all "generic" heavyweights that look good in a coach yard or mixed with lightweights on a secondary train. They also make good "core kits" if you want to do more accurate models using car sides.
Although I really like the old Rivarossi cars, being mostly Santa Fe prototypes and all, I really appreciate the new MT cars to be able to model others roads.
The "ATSF #2205" was repainted for film use and is/was nominally the Rancho Sespe from the Fillmore & Western: As shown, below, the car's heritage is originally as the FW&D #205: Somewhere in between, the car passed through ownership as the "Leon River" by the Trinity Valley RR group: http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr1196.htm
I rode in that car! the goober special I was 8 years old. now I run trains out of Dublin on the ft. worth and western. thank you for that picture...... I will add that the train ran from Dublin to Gorman and back. still does today. back then growing peanuts was the cash crop around here until a thug named dick armey got the peanut program abolished. not sure what happened to the 3 alco switch engines that powered the trains went to. I believe they were built in the late 40's?
Several of the Rivarossi cars are actually Santa Fe. Bruce probably knows this one step above me, but I know the café-observation is Santa Fe, as well as the combine (which is a converted buffet-smoker to a rider coach accurate for the Fast Mail) and the apparently the diner. 'Maybe' even the full baggage.
Especially the full baggage...an actual 'one off' car that Santa Fe converted from a buffet-library (San Vincente)...there was only one of these cars on the entire system, yet Rivarossi used it as their 'generic' baggage car...a rare 80+' foot length heavyweight baggage (most heavyweight baggage cars were in the 60' or, more commonly, the 70' range. Bruce
ok more help needed I would like to know how you would arrange a passenger train with an RPO, baggage car, express boxcar, diner, lounge, and two coaches. that's what I have so far. it may not even be a real train, im just not sure. that santa fe boxcar is green like the passenger cars..thanks probably the diner and baggage cars don't really go on the same train?
The "head end" or first would be your express box cars, baggage cars and RPO. Next would come the chair cars or coaches. Then the lounge and diner. Finally the sleepers so the first class passengers were farthest away from the smoky noisy locomotive. Then maybe a lounge/observation car at the very end.
Under Pullman the cars were never leased per se, they were assigned to various roads and trains with the railroads receiving a percentage of each and every car revenue. When Pullman's monopoly was broken up most cars were leased to Pullman, who operated them until the route or routes they were one were not profitable enough to continue. In most cases the cars were purchased by the roads that they had been assigned too prior to Pullman's break-up, though additional cars were acquired by some roads for rebuilding fodder or parts that likely were "cherry picked" from nearby (to one of the railroads') nearly Pullman storage yard.
Looks like you got the answers you were looking for. There isn't much in the way of authentic stuff out there for Santa Fe and you may have to do like Bruce did and create your own. Bruce has put out some fine work and I have some of his baggage cars operating on my layout. Amazing!
This is what I turned my Rivarossi coaches into to come closer to what the Santa Fe had. http://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?media/chair-car-3018.123205/full&d=1436201423 http://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?media/chair-car-3018.123204/full&d=1436201420
