Ref the ConCor N 85' Budd Car page ===== http://all-railroads.com/instock/nbuddcar.htm ===== The code on the In-Stock page is not displaying the Parlor and RPO photos when you open the page -- just the little box with the red "X" shows up. The end view is there but very distorted. Here are the correct links for the new N Budd Parlor Car and RPO, plus the end view. ===== http://all-railroads.com/instock/images/BuddPrlr.jpg http://all-railroads.com/instock/images/Budd-RPO.jpg http://all-railroads.com/instock/images/BuddDiap.jpg ===== eNjoy
Anybody have ideas on the protoytpes? I thought the RPO was supposed to be the CB&Q Silver Pouch....as postwar copy of the Silver Sheen and Silver Mail prewar cars (the ones that Kato did)..... but the mail appartment spacing is way different. The lounge might be a PRR Congressional Ltd car.... Speaking of finding prototypes; Fred woo woo woo has updated his website http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/protopass5.htm and solved a long-time mystery for me! Ever since Atlas released their smoothside cars from Rivarossi the RPO-Baggage has puzzled me- the car is just too wierd to have been made up! Tom Galbraith and Larry Shankles identified these cars as a heavyweight Army surplus hospital car rebuilt by the Monon for their Hoosier streamliner in 1947. It should be on 6-wheel trucks. Thanks guys for pointing this out...I had dismissed the Monon car, not having seen a good picture of it, but it is clearly the prototype. Wouldn't it be interesting to know the history of how, of all the cars in North America, a photo or drawings of this one-of-a-kind oddball rebuild managed to find its way to Como, Italy in the late 60's???? Charlie
The only "as built" Budd parlor cars were owned by CB&Q, NYC (30 seats and one Drawing Room) and PRR (29 seats and one Drawing Room). The model photo does not look like the PRR car at all. The CB&Q and NYC cars were nearly identical. The model photo looks exactly like the elevation drawing of the CB&Q car printed in The Passenger Car Library Vol 1. Unfortunately, that drawing is screwed up. It should have a large window between the two small windows for the Drawing Room and a small bathroom window between the last small window shown and the end of the car. The NYC car did not have the bathroom window. Thus if this is the prototype, it is a bust. It may be that this is a car that was remodeled into a Parlor car (like the Concor "coach" which was converted from a 16 section sleeper), then we will have to wait and see. The only Budd full RPO cars were built for ATSF and CRIP. They were nearly identical if not absolutely so. I have no plans or photos for either so I can't compare. But if the car model is based on a real car, it has to be one of these.
I finally bought one of the new Concor "Parlor" cars. The model confirms my earlier speculation that the "prototype" is the CB&Q 30 seat Parlor-one Drawing Room car. Both sides match the elevation drawings in David Randall's "The Passenger Car Library Vol. 1-CB&Q" page 84. Unfortunately, that drawing is screwed up. Looking toward the vestibule end from the blind end, the left side should have a large window between the two small windows for the Drawing Room and a small bathroom window between the last small window shown and the end of the car. The right side matches exactly and is correct. The roof vents are all wrong, they obviously used the same tooling from the sleeper and they used the same floor as with the sleeper and coach (this I could tolerate). But the problems with this car are even worse. Unlike the previous Concor Budd cars, which have excellent interiors, they did not even make a new interior. They used the coach interior and actually installed it backwards, ie the vestibule end of the interior piece is placed in the blind end of the car shell. Otherwise the bathroom walls would show in the windows! And of course instead of 30 fancy parlor seats, it has 48 coach seats. The name that Concor applied to the car for CB&Q is 'Silver Top' which was a pre-war coach (the correct names would have been Silver Parlor and Silver Chair) and for the PRR is 'George Washington' (PRR named their 16 Parlor cars for heroes of the Revolution, but not George Washington) The 'George Washington' was a blunt end observation, parlor, lounge car. Of course this isn't surprising, considering that Concor lettered the ATSF sleepers with 'Blue' series names which were the ACF built 10-6 names, instead of the correct Budd built 10-6 names which were the 'Pine' series. As for the RPO, the only Budd full RPO cars were built for ATSF (24 cars) and CRIP (7 cars). They were nearly identical if not absolutely so. The US Post Office required all RPO sections to be in 15', 30', and 60' lengths. The only lightweight full RPO's were 60' long. (The 72' Bag-RPO that KATO did, has a 30' mail section and a 42' baggage section) The model is 72' long (apparently so the cheapskates could use the baggage car floor). Since there is no baggage section, this is totally incorrect. Whether it can be cut down to the proper length, I can't say. The old Arnold Rapido RPO is almost dead on, if you are modeling ATSF. One can only hope that the delay with the Diner is because they aren't taking such deplorable shortcuts with it.
