Bachmann Smoothside Passenger Cars arriving now

[Nato]

                        I received a holiday new arrivals E news letter from Bachmann and the new smooth side streamlined smooth side cars are now arriving and also available for purchase direct fro Bachmann. Wozzers! What a surprise the first car shown is the observation car in the N&W Powhatan Arrow color scheme to go along with their J 4-8-4. Bachmann has really done their homework on these cars compared to their fluted side Budd? cars. The observation car is a model of Pennsylvania Pre War cars , but having just finished the soft cover book "Great Trains East" with a Powhatan Arrow article the Bachmann car looks enough like the two tavern observations the N&W purchased in 1948-49 that it makes a very good stand in. Other roads offered are Union Pacific, Pennsylvania, New York Central, and B&O. In looking at the photographs of the models in the various roads correct car numbers for their types have been used even though they are not exact matches. A correct 5400 series coach number is on the UP car the obs car has a number that was applied to one of their two pre war round observation cars when car names were removed. The Pennsylvania cars are in the post war scheme, I realize Pennsylvania never had baggage cars like this and their smooth side coaches looked different but numbers are correct. Even the pre war NYC observation car decorated in the 1948 two tone gray scheme with the lightning stripe like the 1948 Century cars looks very nice. The B&O colors look just a bit off to me , but I only got to view this scheme on some heavyweights in Washington D C in 1958 on a family vacation trip. So far the usual suspects Klines, BLW, FRT etc. have not yet posted them on their sites, but I think they will be listed very soon. Nate Goodman (Nato).   

[peteski]

I thought that someone earlier mentioned that the shells of all those Bachmann cars were foobies.

[jmlaboda - RIP]

Bachmann has really done their homework on these cars compared to their fluted side Budd? cars.

No they didn't...
 

The observation car is a model of Pennsylvania Pre War cars

Hmm, apparently you didn't either.  No such car, at least not as smooth sided, so much wrong you might as well give up on them now...

[Chris333]

No that I know a thing about them, but MR had a review of them and listed prototypes for each.

[Ron McF]

MR had a review of them and listed prototypes for each.

I haven't seen the MR review of the smooth side cars, but in the MR Jan 2017 issue they say that the Bachmann model of the 85' fluted-side coach "measures within inches" of drawings for the Budd coaches bought by Santa-Fe in 1953. And those cars were actually 80' cars! So I'm somewhat sceptical of MR reviews at present.

(Edited in light of  later discussion below.)

Regards,
Ron

[Point353]

N&W prototype: https://imagebase.lib.vt.edu/imagebase/norfolksouthern/full/ns2027.jpeg

Bachmann model: http://shop.bachmanntrains.com/images/N_Scale/14352.jpg

[Point353]

PRR prototype: http://rr-fallenflags.org/prr/prr-sky-view.jpg

Bachmann model: http://shop.bachmanntrains.com/images/N_Scale/14351.jpg

[Missaberoad]

I haven't seen the MR review of the smooth side cars, but in the MR Jan 2017 issue they say that the Bachmann model of the 85' fluted-side coach "measures within inches" of drawings for the Budd coaches bought by Santa-Fe in 1953. And those cars were actually 80' cars! So I'm somewhat sceptical of MR reviews at present.

Regards,
Ron

"Within inches" could refer to many inches 

[Mark5]

These cars look like 1970s tooling. Plus big $$$. I will definitely pass.

The observation is a PRR prototype - don't know about the other cars.

On the observation, Bachmann has lettered the car for a PRR class POC70R observation:

http://www.billspennsyphotos.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=60486126

But the car actually seems closer to the PRR  POS21a (Pullman plan 4080A):

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/prr8115.jpg

http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?diag=pos21a_rm.gif&sel=obsl&sz=sm&fr=

[Nato]

        Another N&W  color link http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nw/nw-o581abn.jpg  I have to agree that these cars are way over priced for what they are worth. The unlighted baggage car even at a lower price is still way out of line. Nate Goodman (Nato). 

[Mark5]

If the color rendering on this official Bachmann photo is correct, then the color is not even close:

http://shop.bachmanntrains.com/images/N_Scale/14352.jpg

The paint should match the paint on the Bachmann J class tender stripe (which Bachmann did a good job of matching).

Mark

[wcfn100]

Bachmann.


Jason

[Nato]

                    There have been different variations in the color used on the Bachmann J 4-8-4  early versions white box have a somewhat red colored stripe, a Collectors Edition special run when the locomotive was restored to operate the first time, box with illustration of train on it has a darker red stripe. I do not own any current version so I can not comment on the color currently used. I know the red stripe on the axillary water tender , the version I have is a fairly bright red. Con Cor's  regular stock smooth side cars and some Rivarossi heavyweights sold by Con Cor do not have the correct color shade, and their old Limited Edition Powhatan Arrow train set with a bullet nose 4-6-4 does not have accurate colors either. I got to ride behind the locomotive at a NRHS convention during it's first restoration and to me the color on the Lowell Smith N&W business car or his NS Office cars he has been releasing match the real deal as I viewed it. The very old color photo in my link (see above) post is washed out so the color is a bit redder than it should be, but kinda  I do say kind of looks like the Bachmann color. Nuf said. Nate Goodman (Nato). 

[Mark5]

The old 1980s J and Aux tender were off in terms of color (and other things! ).

The 21st century Bachmann versions were/are pretty close.

N&W red in the 1950s is somewhat different than N&W in the 1980s and beyond. Much talk about this among N&W'ers over the years. 

Tidbits of that were posted here:

https://www.nwhs.org/modeling/TuscanRed.html

Mark

[thomasjmdavis]

Well, I don't see ever owning any of these myself.  Too expensive to use as stand ins or bashing.  And anyway, why a wrong Bachmann UP 5401 coach in place of a reasonably accurate Kato UP 5401 coach for 1/2 the price?

I still think the baggage car looks more like an ATSF 70' car (late 50s-early 60s ) than anything else.  But out of my timeframe by a couple years. On the Budd coaches, already have a bunch of the Con Cor, and don't see any reason to trade those in on newer models.
My old eyes are having problems trying to pick out details on the trucks (black on black) - does anyone know what they are or are supposed to be?

I think my real issue is simply that, IIRC, I paid $59, not that many years ago, for the original Kato 4 car Super Chief sets.  The only car I own that I paid more than $50 for is a PRB brass ATSF heavyweight 3050.  Maybe I will pick up a Bachmann NYC coach or 2 if the price drops to $15.