Looking for a review of the centralia car shops passenger cars. They look ok in the really small pics I have seen. Anyone have better pics of one in action? Idealy I would like to get the NYC ones. Thanks Craig
The only thing I don't like about them is they're way to light. I can't find a way to get inside them to add weight. I run them toward the back of the train with no problems. I'd be afraid to back them through a switch.
I have some light cars... ...they're cylindrical hoppers. Extremely light. I plan on drilling a hole thru the bottom and adding weight. The weight will be ball bearings- plenty of old parts from tear downs in the shop. Heck, even a dowel pin thru the hole will work. Getting the weight centered may be a problem but I figured I'd rattle the humpers into place. I had planned (and still do) adding a drop or ten of white glue to the mix so everything has a place to settle. Mark
I have them and am pretty happy with them. I have no way to post pictures, but send me a PM and I will take some pictures and email them to you. As others have reported, the cars are glued together making disassembly risky. I would like to add weight and at least a barrier down the center so you can't see through the cars from one side to the other. The window shades are all at "half-mast" and it would be nice to vary those, too. The diaphragms cause some interference and derailing on the 11" radius curves of my test track. That won't be a problem on the layout. The paint colors don't match my actual NYC paint chips, but the overall effect looks good to the eye. I think they made a good choice. If anything, the light gray band is a tad light, but again, it looks pretty good.
Mike, Sent you a PM. I have no idea why a manufacturer would glue the thing shut. Hmm, with the weight issue, I am not soo sure that I want to get them now. I would really like a set of HW passenger cars for my NYC operations. I dont like CC/RR two tone grey though. NYC ran Pullman green as far as I know. Hopefully Kato will do a NYC Hudson and HW passenger cars for the next set like they did with the SP Daylight. Thanks Craig
The Con-Cor HWs aren't bad. I would prefer the Pullman green scheme, too. NYC actually applied the two-tone gray scheme to some HWs as they were air-conditioned in the mid- or late-1950s (don't remember exactly when). Micro-Trains says they are committed to offering us some HWs - but when and what remains to be seen. I'm sure they will be nice.
The heavyweights expected from Con-Cor include undecorated which may mean painted Pullman green, although that is not certain. But stripping and repainting Pullman green is relatively easy. You would have to make your own decals. Ben
While the painting was very crisp on the UP versions I had, the packaging leaves a lot to be desired. Both of my cars had significant damage when they arrived from the states and I had to send them back to the shop. The owner was very nice about returning them and he told me that more then a few ended up looking like this because of the problems during shipment. There is no room for error since the cars are essentially glued shut. Both end caps blew off and you can see the damage suffered. I couldn't even repair those, although that is one way to get the extra weight into them. Best advice, buy them from a local store (I can't being overseas) and inspect it before you buy. Otherwise I did like the looks of them. Brian
Brian, Wow! that damage is a real shame. My 8 NYC cars arrived in Slovakia with no damage at all. Maybe Centralia has improved the packaging. Mine were in a plastic conformal nest. Another clear plastic nest is fitted tightly over the top of the car. All this is inside a rigid clear plastic jewel case. Were the UP cars packaged that way?
Thanks guys for the pix. I appreciate it. So how many cars in NYC have they produce so far? Hard to find info on these. At least for someone like me just getting back into N scale as of late. THanks Craig
I've got a problem with the passenger cars. Mine are PRR smoothsides. The trucks were bad--warped. I guess I'll replace them with MTs. I've probably had them for four years now, way down on my project list, so it would be fair to take them back to the dealer. Took me a long time to figure out why they were always derailing--the axles just fell out! One of the cars was also warped, twisted along its length. I'll have to go looking for them, as I get passenger service going again. I've been pretty much a freight operation the past few years.
Thanks. 4 years you had them? How long has the NYC ones been out? Was it a qc problem? Has it been ironed out since then? Seeing as how I am modeling the NYC, I need a BIG roster of Passenger trains. Not that I mind.
There were problems with the early runs (like the PRR cars). First, these are built up from American Limited core kits - lots of bits and pieces to get assembled correctly. If you have seen the kits, you know what I mean. The nature of the kit means everything is glued together so you can't open them up - these are not one-piece molded shells like on the Kato or Con-Cor cars. There were QC problems with assembly early on. Originally Centralia used their own trucks, which were also made up of several parts. The trucks would distort and not run true. You could fix that by gluing the parts together while holding them in proper alignment over a flat surface. The couplers would also come loose from the truck mounting due to a poor design. Because of all the complaints, Centralia now installs Micro-Trains 4-wheel trucks. They may not be as prototypically correct, but they are dependable. You can still buy the original trucks from Centralia if you prefer. Anyway, construction, paint, lettering, trucks, couplers, and packaging problems seem to have been resolved. The NYC cars (13 DBR and 18 rmt) were released just a few months ago. Mine all arrived in perfect condition. The only remaining detractions have been mentioned already: - Inability to open car - Light weight - No provisions for lighting - No interior - see-through from one side to the other
I have got one of the newer passenger cars by Centralia (A Delaware & Hudson 52 seat coach (one of the exDRGW Prospector coaches)). These ones are a lot better than the older style cars that were built up kits. My passenger car looks like it is made in the same way as a Kato or or Con-Cor one. One thing I like about these newer ones is that they can be opened up (the body just clips on) and they have interiors (at least the C&O, DRGW, D&H ones do). The cars are not flush glazed and that may put some people off, my one is not so bad because the livery has a dark blue window band which means the unavoidably thick bodysides don't look too obvious. I think the blue is a bit too dark but as my model railroad is slightly freelanced I can just say that the D&H used a darker shade! I did have a few small problems with mine though I have sorted them out. The wheelsets were not set into the trucks properly but that was dealt with by pushing the wheelsets into their correct alignment. The lights didn't work but I found that was caused by the battery not being pushed fully home. One of the diaphrams keeps falling off but as they are not the same as the ones that were on the real cars I will most likely find something more sutiable to fit instead.
Welcome to Trainboard Acourtrail... This is an old thread... and a lot of changes have occured with the Centralia Car Shops (CCS) models over the past 3 years. The early releases between 2006 and 2008 were essentially built-up car sides and cores without interior details and no way to easily get 'into' the interior of the car. They looked good though... but many modelers complained that they wanted to be able to put interiors and lighting. CCS redesigned the cars to have roof access and added interiors and lighting to the cas starting with some production runs in 2009. Some cars were still produced in 2009 without the interiors and lighting... the SP Shasta Triple-Diner comes to mind. By 2010... I beleve all production is with the improved design that has removable roof, interiors and lighting. Though I have a couple of pre-2009 models... most of what I own are the are the 2009 and later models with the improvements... and I really like them. Here are some other related threads about the CCS passenger cars: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=122518&highlight=Centralia http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=115409&highlight=Centralia http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=114972&highlight=Centralia
Speaking of the CCS/IM NYC sleepers, the dark gray seems much too dark from what I remember seeing as a kid. This query also applies to the Walthers smooth-side coach (especially since their 10-6 sleeper dark gray is somewhat lighter and more towards the color I remember). Could any of the NYC experts on the forum comment. Now, back to the CCS/IM commentary...
Craig, I don't have any pics of the cars "in action" but have a couple for comparison. This first image is of two Centralia cars coupled to show the working diaphrams.. The second image is a Centralia car ( left ) and a new Rapido car ( right )..... The first one looks good on the rails where as the second shows the lack of a working diaphram on the Rapido car. They are both very nice cars with the Rapido having a slight edge IMHO regarding color and detail. By the way thes are SP Sunset Limited cars. I had to paint the trucks silver on both cars. The concern about the shades all being at 1/2 staff is easy to overcome. I took the window glass out and placed masking tape over the window area in different positions to indicate different openness of the shade. Also, for weight control, I purchased a bottle of BB's and glued them on the bottom of the cars between all the detail parts. I used canopy glue. The BB's do not show from the side after being painted silver to match the undercarriage and details.I have run this train on NTRAK module layout in Tucson with no derail problems. I'll try to get a pic or two of the cars with the shades fixed. BTW, I have added working diaphrams to the Rapido cars. Work well and look good. Carl
Here is pic showing the work on the shades...... A train in action ................................. You can tell the interior lights were on in second pic. I'm not to fond of the green light. Carl
Just my 2 cents about the lighting of the CCS cars. Generally speaking... I'm not a fan of lighting passenger cars with battery operated LEDs. It would be my preference to have them lighted from the track as are the Kato passenger cars. All of the current manufacturers of passenger cars, other than Kato, have chosen battery power over rail power. Not too good for changing any of their minds. As for the 'greenish' tinge of the LEDs... they look a bit strange too; however, I do recall in the 1960's that busses seemed to have window glass that resembled Coca-Cola bottles of that period... sort of green. When the busses ran at night the lighting appeared to be a similar shade of green. It seems that this 'safety glass' was naturally greenish and may have also been commonly used on railroad passenger cars... though I cannot confirm that. So... I'm not quite as offended by the lighting color because I think it may have been close to prototypical for busses and trains.
I did have one of the older style Centralia cars (A Union Pacific 6-6-4) but sold in on when I discovered at the time it could not be opened up to fit an interior. I was worried that my D&H car would have the same problem but of course all is OK there!
