COLA arrived today

[skytop35]

Now arriving on track 1 - The City of Los Angeles.

[Bob Bufkin]

Nice.  One of my favorite trains only becaue I rode it from Chicago to LA.  I would be in the coach before the first dome.  To be realistic it needs about 15 more cars and 5 E units pulling.  That's the way it was when I rode it in the mid 60's.

[Roger Holmes]

I used to walk to the station in Roselle, IL  (not Rochelle)  on the Milwaukee Road to meet my Dad's commuter train from the Loop and watched the City of something ( I was too young to care in 1959) roar through at speed.  A sight I'll never forget.  I've been undecided on the COLA set since the FVM Hiawatha just arrived but seeing that dome/obs will likely push me over the edge.

Bill, great job on the engines as  always.

[Nato]

          Skytop,You are pulling the 1955 train with more modern late 1960's 1970 locomotives,but thats ok. Hopefully my set will be here sometime next week.Then I can add extra cars to bring it up to proper leingth.                                                                                                                                            Yes as several listees have commented more cars are needed.Maybe Kato will address this with add on car sets,also manufacture the Ocean Series sleeper that contained compartments and drawing rooms ,or a post war National Series 6-4-4 car.                                                                                                                                             Kato did too many lounge cars, not enough sleepers and we could have used atleast one more coach.The train appears to be nicely done, and the edge lighted rear tail sign is outstanding.Anyone with Kato's previous UP sets can atleast add more sleepers and flatop coaches. The diner could represent the Cafe Lounge car that ran in 1955 and the club lounge car be eliminated, these were replaced by dome obs car.                                                                                                                                Nate Goodman (Nato).Salt Lake, Utah.

[CBQ Fan]

You can add some Rapido cars to the mix.  I have a couple of MR cars in UP colors waiting the arrival of my set.  Would you have seen a lot of express cars on the head end?

[skytop35]

          Skytop,You are pulling the 1955 train with more modern late 1960's 1970 locomotives,but thats ok.   Nate Goodman (Nato).Salt Lake, Utah.

Ooops, you got me there. I was wondering if someone would catch that. Yeah, that's it  : Even my E9 is technically wrong as in that year the units were numbered in the 200 series.

I'm disappointed in the yellow Kato used. Too orange in my opinion and it doesn't match their first run of cars which has a more appropriate yellow shade.

[up1950s]

Ooops, you got me there. I was wondering if someone would catch that. Yeah, that's it  : Even my E9 is technically wrong as in that year the units were numbered in the 200 series.

I'm disappointed in the yellow Kato used. Too orange in my opinion and it doesn't match their first run of cars which has a more appropriate yellow shade.

As long as the yellow isn't as orange as what Con-Cor used years ago , but why would they change when nobody complained before ? Somebody saw a shot at sunset and swore by its color . You would think Chicago would know better !

[Puddington]

Armor Yellow is nasty colour.... I've tried painting it and decided to take up knitting shortly thereafter......

[Nato]

       Years ago the too orange UP paint on Atlas Rivarossi cars was easy to match with a mIx of Testors red and orange. The early Con Cor manufactued in Japan cars and PA diesels were also that way. Then Con Cor briefly switched to a light canary yellow colpr that was very off looking. After a year they announced they were switching to Scale Coat paints for their Union Pacific colors, and their current cars look spot on to me. Also the last run of Life Like UP E-8/9 diesels, which finally have the correct shade of gray,not an almost black color,but omit the nice silver side grills done on early runs.Yes in all the Kato web shots of the COLA the color does look slightly oranger.                                                              Nate Goodman (Nato).

[hnipper]

The consist Kato used ran between September 23,1956 and December 7, 1956. Verified and documented by a passenger authority on UP from railroad records. E-units were in the 900 series at that time, and the Kato markings are correct. However, the current set is not (yet) complete for that COLA.

After you throw in a coach, easily obtained, there are four cars missing from the KATO COLA set:

1)   the 4800 series diner
2)   the UP  "Ocean" series sleeper
3)   the UP  "National" series sleeper
4)   the PRR 10-6 "Stoney Rapids" trans-con sleeper

The hardest to do is the Armour yellow and gray PRR 10-6 "Stoney Rapids". I have not been able to find the correct PRR red decals to convert a Walthers 10-6 to "Stoney Rapids"....

With the 'missing' cars, the consist would be:
3 E units (they show 4) (ABB)
mail
baggage-dorm
2 coach cars
dome coach
coach (they left this one out)
lounge
diner (they left this one out)
10-6 trans con sleeper (they left this one out) (This one is the "Stoney Rapids" PRR car)
dome diner
bedroom lounge
11 bedroom
10-6 sleeper (they left this one out)
6-4-6 sleeper (they left this one out)
dome lounge observation

There is still a chance that Kato will do an add-on set. Hope that purchases are strong and reviews are good, so they will be encouraged to do the PRR car at least!

Henry

PS Living here in Omaha, I can confirm that there are all sorts of shades of Armour Yellow and Gray out there. Run 'em if you got 'em!

[bbussey]

The Kato model exists for the PRR "Rapids" series 10-6 sleeper, as it was tooled for the Broadway Limited.  If someone lets Kato know and supplies them with photos and data, they might be inclined to release "Stoney Rapids" as a stand-alone complement to this set - similar to what they did with the ATSF sleeper and the Broadway Limited.

[skytop35]

Even my E9 is technically wrong as in that year the units were numbered in the 200 series.

Just to clarify, I was referring to Milwaukee Road E-units.

[lashedup]

Henry it looks like Wathers makes the 10-6, it would just need to be re-lettered?

Also, it appears American Model Builders sides are available for the other cars you mentioned. I've never used the AMB sides. Decent kit?

-jamie

[hnipper]

@ Brian: Kato knows and an add-on set that includes some or all of the other cars may still be possible. The US side of Kato has heard clearly about the trans-con sleeper.

@ lashedup: Have no experience with carsides. (Wish I were that skilled as a modeler.) Agree that the Walthers 10-6 in UP Armour Yellow & Gray would be perfect. Now all we need are the red PRR decals!

As a bit of a foobie from the past, Kato did issue a PRR Rapids sleeper in UP varnish. It just wasn't a 10-6! That's what I will run with my COLA until I can get a bit closer to the 10-6 Stoney Rapids.
The other possibility is to run a Walthers 10-6 in PRR livery with a "Tippecanoe Rapids" decal, as if the Stoney Rapids was bad-ordered. Tippecanoe Rapids in tuscan did in fact run as a trans-con sleeper during that era.

Regards,
Henry

[Sokramiketes]

The consist Kato used ran between September 23,1956 and December 7, 1956. Verified and documented by a passenger authority on UP from railroad records. E-units were in the 900 series at that time, and the Kato markings are correct. However, the current set is not (yet) complete for that COLA.

After you throw in a coach, easily obtained, there are four cars missing from the KATO COLA set:

1)   the 4800 series diner
2)   the UP  "Ocean" series sleeper
3)   the UP  "National" series sleeper
4)   the PRR 10-6 "Stoney Rapids" trans-con sleeper

Kato previously released the 4800 series diner, but I thought those weren't run with the dome diners?

The hardest to do is the Armour yellow and gray PRR 10-6 "Stoney Rapids". I have not been able to find the correct PRR red decals to convert a Walthers 10-6 to "Stoney Rapids"....

With the 'missing' cars, the consist would be:
3 E units (they show 4) (ABB)
mail
baggage-dorm
2 coach cars
dome coach
coach (they left this one out)
lounge
diner (they left this one out)
10-6 trans con sleeper (they left this one out) (This one is the "Stoney Rapids" PRR car)
dome diner
bedroom lounge
11 bedroom
10-6 sleeper (they left this one out)
6-4-6 sleeper (they left this one out)
dome lounge observation

Ok, the National Series cars are the 6-4-6's... but above you said an Ocean Series 5-2-2 was needed.  But it's not in this consist anywhere?  Also, you're saying Kato left out a 10-6, but that's where the Pacific Series Budd car that Kato included goes. 

Without tearing into the books, what is the start/stop on your dates for the Kato release? Delivery of the Budd sleepers (start) and Dome-Lounge still run at the rear end (stop)?

There is still a chance that Kato will do an add-on set. Hope that purchases are strong and reviews are good, so they will be encouraged to do the PRR car at least!

Henry

PS Living here in Omaha, I can confirm that there are all sorts of shades of Armour Yellow and Gray out there. Run 'em if you got 'em!

It's difficult to ignore differences if 95% of a consist is one color and adding in an extra coach from a previous release is a different color though.  I agree 4-5 light color variations in a train is neat.  But not so that one or two cars stick out like a sore thumb.  I wonder what caused the change as they've done several releases of the smoothside cars in the same colors over 15 years.