COLA arrived today

[Sokramiketes]

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

AMB sides are great for baggage cars.  Other than that, they are just lasercut clear acrylic, so windows are simply masking tape so you can paint the sides and leave clear windows.  They're finicky.

[bbussey]

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.

While not a 10-6, the Centralia 18R "City of" Pennsy-in-UP-paint cars can stand in until the 10-6 is released:

http://www.intermountain-railway.com/distrib/ccs/html/ccs6885.htm

[Nato]

                If you consult the book "The Union Pacific Streamliners" by William Kratville and look at consists lists the diner mentioned in a previous post is a Cafe Lounge Car ,there were 7 numbered 5000 to 5006. These cars loooked similar to the Kato Smooth Side 4800 series diner. These cars seated 24 in the Cafe section,20 in the lounge section and 8 in a card section. On 1959 these cars were rebuilt into Lunch Counter Cafe Lounge cars to match newer cars that the railroad had taken delivery of. The club lounge car included in the Kato set was not used after the dome observation lounge cars were delivered and the lounge space in the 5 bedroom lounge cars and Cafe Lounge cars provided the addational lounge space. When the dome obs cars were rebuilt for mid train use the 5 bedroom lounge cars were operated ahead of the dome diner and the cafe lounge cars later lunch counter cars were usually placed in the middle of the coach consist . Wanting more revenue space the railroad later sent almost all of the 5 bedroom lounge cars to Pullman for rebuilding into 11 bedroom cars. 2 of the cars were rebuilt into business cars, one was retained by the railroad in original configuration,later sold to private owners.         I rode the train at various times 1958,1962 Salt Lake to Chicago and atleast 3 times Salt Lake to LA in the late 1960's. I also rode the City of St. Louis to LA when it was a seperate train from the COLA before trains were combined, and the Challenger once during the summer when the COLA was seperated into a seperate all coach Challenger and an all Pullman COLA. That train had a Milwaukee Superdome for it's lounge. One final consist note. Most of the time the dome coach was operated as the first coach behind the headend cars,and when the City Of St. Louis was combined with the COLA there were for awhile 2 dome coaches,one near the front and on in the middle of the coach section. Later this second dome was dropped. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[Nato]

         Just another quick post about details that I feel would improve Kato's COLA cars. The hand rails and grabs on UP passenger cars were stainless steel, not yellow on most cars. A very small paint brush and aluminum or silver paint might work,but it will be a tough job. The post war UP diners, club lounge ,and dome diners all had distinctive stainless or aluminum kick plates on their service doors,similar to the smaller ones on E unit steps.This can be simulated fairly easly with "Bare Metal Foil" rub on cut to size and applyed, or by masking off part of the car side and door leaving the plate area exposed so it could be brush or airbrushed silver. The Kato smooth side diners also need this detail upgrade.Also window tinting for dome windows is a must.               Nate Goodman (Nato).

[delamaize]

While not a 10-6, the Centralia 18R "City of" Pennsy-in-UP-paint cars can stand in until the 10-6 is released:

http://www.intermountain-railway.com/distrib/ccs/html/ccs6885.htm

Is that a foobie or did PRR actually have some stuff painted in Armor yellow for the trip to the west coast?

[Sokramiketes]

Is that a foobie or did PRR actually have some stuff painted in Armor yellow for the trip to the west coast?

Pennsy did have stuff painted in the UP colors, as UP was second only to IC maybe in terms of requiring a matching consist.  Other railroads that has cars in UP colors for the pool: C&NW, Wabash, Norfolk & Western, Southern Pacific, Milwaukee Road

[Nato]

          Smooth side Pennsylvania 10-6 cars like the old Rivarossi and new Walthers cars were the cars that were painted in UP colors,both Pullman and ACF built these cars for PRR and I'am not sure who the builder was on the car used.The Walthers UP car could be used with the Union Pacific removed from the letterboard. Yes I do not know of any source for the road name,which used the PRR Clarendon? type face but in Red. Micro scale makes UP Alphabet letters with black outline ,but usuing these for the car name would be incorrect as again I believe Pennsy type face was used,but in red.                                                                                                                                    Union Pacific wanted to have Slumber Coaches to compete with Burlington Chicago Denver service so they leased I believe four 22 roomette "INN " series from the PRR (car in Broadway set) and they ran on the City Of Denver painted in UP colors with the roomettes sold at coach rates. This expierement lasted only about a year.Nate Goodman (Nato).

[lashedup]

So to clear up whether the COLA set is a different shade of UP Armor Yellow, I just took a photo under daylight corrected lamps of the new Kato COLA dome and one of the original domes. The yellow has more of an orange tint, the interiors on the COLA units are brown as opposed to a light cream color and the trucks are a darker shade of grey. It also looks like the grey is a just a hair different, but I need to look at them one more time.

[up1950s]

Kato will never get a pre-order from me again , stick that in their pumpkin butts .

[sirenwerks]

Pennsy did have stuff painted in the UP colors, as UP was second only to IC maybe in terms of requiring a matching consist.  Other railroads that has cars in UP colors for the pool: C&NW, Wabash, Norfolk & Western, Southern Pacific, Milwaukee Road

Wheels of Time did a Wabash baggage car in Armour yellow. One in Wabash blue too.

Shame about that difference in yellows. That being said, I'm confident that when Matt does the 1957 Hiawatha the yellow will be spot on.  ;D

[Nato]

          The Gray Trucks on the latest run COLA are correct for 1955,the dome cars when delivered had gray trucks,I beloeve the journals were silver colored indicating  roller bearings. The original Kato cars with their silver gray trucks are suppose to represent the cars with aluminum (silver) trucks as repainted sometime around maybe 1956 .would have to dig out my data. Having viewed a grundle of UP cars over the years ,the Armor Yellow and the Harbour Mist Gray roofs weathered some. I have seen UP cars that were in long term storage with faided gray roofs that looked silver,the yellow lightened up some as well. Mixing the original Kato cars with their less orange color would look ok,the silver car trucks on these would represent the transition period when gray trucks were being repainted. I should recieve my set by weeks end than can more fully judge if the color is too orange,posted pictures are hard to tell from.         Nate Goodman (Nato).

[Nato]

           This is my last COLA reply post. Mine arrived today. On a 1-10 scale I would rate it an 8.9 or 9. The main point of detraction is the color as everyone else has pointed out. Having grown up viewing and riding these trains,yes the color has too much orange in it,not as bad though as early Rivarossi or ConCor from Japan.I will now retract what I said about mixing cars together,all the other Onioins Pathetic cars that I run together have different shades of paint that are more yellow,but look good together,even Kato's old cars,and give the realife effect of faided paint,but the COLA color is too far off to effectively mix any of my other cars ,I now say don't mix other Kato or other brand cars in your train. Hope that Kato will do add on sets in the matching COLA color.                                                                        There are several other things that make me take points off. I have been going through my referrence books,Kratville Streamliner Book and others,the silver gray window frames on some of the cars, especially the dorm car look to thick,photos of protype car look almost like there are no aluminum frames.               If Life Like on their current run of E-8/9 UP diesels can have the builders plates, extra red safety markings on cab side silver step kick plates and red fuel fill,you would think Kato could also do this.          One big flaw of Kato's paint is like on that  on first runs of Life Like E Units look at  the car body and fuel tank skirts and what ever color the body was moulded in is visible, that bottom edge is not painted.The Kato Passenger cars have the same flaw. It is most noteable on the Budd sleeper,turn it over and the bottom edge of the semi skirting is yellow, also yellow is present at the gray ends. A small brush and the right shade of gray would hide this problem. Now I realize it is hard to mask off those areas on a yellow body to apply the gray,but it kind of urks me. Lastly as usual inside the vestibules on the platform end of Kato cars there is no inside bulkhead and door, how hard is that to do, every other manufacture execpt Con Cor is modeling this, and there is no glass in car end windows,which Kato has never added. Well thats it, the train is mostly very nice and the lighted tailsign on rear car is way cool, but on the real car would also be lighted when backing up.                         Nate Goodman (Nato).

[lashedup]

More fuel for the fire...

I photographed one of Kato's new SD70ACE UP units with the new COLA units today. I used daylight corrected lights as these colors are hard to capture in photos well. It looks like the SD70ACE is yet another milder shade that isn't quite as orange as the COLA units but more orange that the older previous runs of passenger equipment.

[Nato]

              Ok A**hats. This really is my Last COLA Reply or post. A big ,big apology is due. My Dyslexic (spell check) brain when I looked at my cab locomotives,maybe it was the room lighting,thought there were no Silver Kick Plates on the steps. Wrong O. Kato did add this detail. I took one last long look at my UP Passenger Bible "The Union Pacific Streamliners" by William Kratville. The aluminum(stainless) kick plates on diner and lounge car service doors were added about 1959 or 60. Builders photos of 1949 flat top diners and later dome cars do not have this feature,but later photos show it added.                        Therefore if you are modeling 1955 as delivered the service doors are yellow. The word "BAGGAGE" should be located to the left or right side of the doors on the dorm car,lower car side pannel. There is a wonderful photo of the entire 1955 City Of Portland along the Columbia River ,consist : mail storage car,dorm car,dome coach,coach with vestibule to front so aadjacent cars are paired,two more coaches with loading doors paired,cafe lounge car,dome diner,city series sleeper vestibule to rear,Budd sleeper vestibule to rear,Placid Series sleeper vestibule to front,Budd sleeper vestibule to front,dome obs lounge car. Paired vestibules on coaches was so one attendent could load two cars.The rear Mars (red) and white backup lights on obs car worked as follows. Red Flashing light when in motion or stopped,white lower light on when backing up. Side markers always lighted, also tail sign backing or going forward.         When the dome cars were delivered to the road in 1955 the COP recieved three domes, COLA 2,diner and obs car,train usually had 2 or 3 coaches. Dome cosches and extra obs cars went on the Challenger. This was short lived as these obs cars were switched to the City Of St. Louis ,which got new dome coaches in 1958. Dome coaches were added to the COLA and removed from the Challenger around 1956 when obs cars were converted to mid train cars. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[Puddington]

I gotta tell you that I think you UP fanatics are complaining about nothing....at least with regard to Armour Yellow. Short of your cars coming directly out of the paint shop and being on their very first trip, all new, all from the same batch, you would see protptypical variation equal to, or greater then anything Kato has shown here. I'm all for consistancy but exactly what level of consistancy between cars made years a part are we expecting.... paint formulas and materal availablity, plastic car materials, application equipment and methodology.... the list of potential variation sources is huge.

But the overwelming issue is, the prototpyes didn't have the colour control you are looking for, at least not after a week or two in the sun, rain, snow, hail, wind, dirt, soot, grime.......