Rapido Baggage cars are finally available

[brokemoto]

west of the Appalachians, everyone's two favorite railroads were Santa Fe and some other one.

All Tramps Sent Free and Uncle Pete are the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots of the model railroading world:  they have their fans, but also have a large number of haters.  I expect that much of it is due to the manufacturers' issuing product in those road names and not in others; issuing them in those road names before it issues them in others and even issuing product in those road names even if neither one actually had it while they do not issue them in road names that actually had them.  The Atlas/RR FM five axle cab unit comes to mind.  Atlas sold them in ATSF, PRR. SP Daylight.  Only NYC, Long Island, NYNH&H actually had them, but Atlas never sold one in any of those.  ATSF had Eries, but not the five axle.  PRR had four axle FM cab units, but not the five.  SP never had any FM cab units.

All Tramps Sent Free and Uncle Pete sell, though.  We do have to understand that the manufacturers are going to issue what sells, as they must make a profit.

[thomasjmdavis]

All Tramps Sent Free and Uncle Pete are the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots of the model railroading world:  they have their fans, but also have a large number of haters.  I expect that much of it is due to the manufacturers' issuing product in those road names and not in others; issuing them in those road names before it issues them in others and even issuing product in those road names even if neither one actually had it while they do not issue them in road names that actually had them.  The Atlas/RR FM five axle cab unit comes to mind.  Atlas sold them in ATSF, PRR. SP Daylight.  Only NYC, Long Island, NYNH&H actually had them, but Atlas never sold one in any of those.  ATSF had Eries, but not the five axle.  PRR had four axle FM cab units, but not the five.  SP never had any FM cab units.

All Tramps Sent Free and Uncle Pete sell, though.  We do have to understand that the manufacturers are going to issue what sells, as they must make a profit.

All true.  One of the issues with modeling Santa Fe is that some manufacturers will paint everything they make in ATSF whether ATSF owned them, or not.  And they make up paint schemes.  Con Cor has marketed its smoothside cars in several foobie schemes.  And several manufacturers market green stock cars (as I have heard it, these are actually N scale models of a "Lionel prototype" of the 1940s, done in HO in the 1960s, and by the time N scale came around, everyone assumed the prototype must have had some for there to be so many models).  So Buyer Beware applies to ATSF.

[thomasjmdavis]

Given my own comment above, I want to compliment Rapido on NOT pretending their car was one of the ACF riveted (can't really call them smoothside) or PS economy baggage cars of the ATSF.  But that said, those CBQ shadow stripe cars look very nice, so if you someday create an appropriate car, keep ATSF in mind...

[Missaberoad]

The Atlas/RR FM five axle cab unit comes to mind... ...Only NYC, Long Island, NYNH&H actually had them...

Canadian National also owned 5 axle C liners including B units... I believe they were the largest owner...

[Ike the BN Freak]

All Tramps Sent Free and Uncle Pete sell, though.  We do have to understand that the manufacturers are going to issue what sells, as they must make a profit.

But makes one wonder, do those two roads sell because that is what the manufacturers make, or is that what the consumer wants?  I'm sure many folks walk into a store, and just buy a train set, regardless of the road because they want a train set.

[nkalanaga]

Part of the reason for the popularity of the ATSF was their Warbonnet Fs.  Lionel made those by the thousands, so they were in every store that sold trains, for many years, and it was an attractive scheme, both to modelers and to casual customers.

[Mark5]

Part of the reason for the popularity of the ATSF was their Warbonnet Fs.

Yes, these are iconic. Hell, I remember as a kid seeing ads in National Geographic of the Santa Fe name trains.