The 73'6" Smooth Side Baggage-Express Car MSRP: $59.95 Almost every train needs a baggage car, from the hot-shot streamliner to the two-car branchline local. This National Steel Car smooth side baggage-express car has been in use throughout North America for almost 60 years. These baggage cars, along with similar cars from other builders, carried baggage and express traffic on primary, secondary and mixed trains. Many carried sealed mail for the post office. These cars are still used today on Amtrak, VIA Rail, Ontario Northland, Algoma Central and several tourist lines. The smooth-side baggage car has been the most requested passenger car since we introduced the Super Continental Line in 2006. Our model will feature:
We will be releasing the baggage car in several different paint schemes, and for each paint scheme we will produce up to 12 different car numbers. The first group of paint schemes, arriving in spring 2008, includes:
DON'T PANIC if your paint scheme isn't listed. More paint schemes will be announced next year--including some we've never done before. We just have too many to do all at once. Where's CN's 1961 "Wet Noodle" paint scheme? It seems that the 1960s and 1970s are the "lost era" of Canadian passenger train modelling. If you are a closet CN "noodle era" modeller, support your local hobby shop and pick up some of the current CN 1961 scheme passenger cars. We'll then consider releasing the baggage car in the 1961 scheme later next year if there is sufficient demand.
More good news for Canadian modellers... HO Scale "Dayniter" 52-Seat Leg Rest Coach MSRP is $64.95 each. For comfortable long distance travel on a budget, the Canadian Dayniter leg rest coach was the smart choice in the later decades of the 20th century. It was also used in First Class "Club 52" service on shorter routes. The Rapido Trains Inc. model features:
A Note About VIA Rail Canada Yellow Stripes Our latest VIA Rail Canada passenger cars have the correct color striping, taken from a real VIA stripe. I am a VIA modeller, and I think that even though our new stripe is correct, it looks too dark on a model. Our first release of VIA Duplex Sleepers and Coaches had striping that was too pale due to a breakdown in communication with our factory at the time. When we redid the Duplex Sleepers and Coaches in the spring, the striping was a lot closer to what I had in mind, but it was still too light. So for our baggage car and all future passenger cars, we will use striping that is slightly lighter than the "correct" yellow, but darker than the first two "pale" yellows. We will provide decals to our VIA customers -- at cost -- with new stripes that are the same shade so you can upgrade your older VIA cars that have the pale striping, if you so desire. Scroll down for a frank and in-depth discussion about colors on our models.
Brief TurboTrain update Our most recent TurboTrain Power Dome Car samples still had trouble pulling a full consist of seven Intermediate Cars. They had no trouble pulling three ICs, which would satisfy most TurboTrain customers, but as I mentioned in previous editions of the Telegraph, I am only releasing the train when it is perfect. To correct this, we've done the following:
The Turbo book is progressing nicely. We expect to ship these by the end of the year. The book contains over 200 photos, most of them in color and most of them never published before. I'll let you know when the books are on their way. More information about this book is available on our web site.
A Discussion About Paint Color We occasionally receive comments from our customers about the colors we use for our passenger cars. Some people think our colors for a given paint scheme are correct, and some people think they are wrong. The photo above is of two passenger cars from the same railroad, painted the same color. This is a perfect illustration of why color is a tricky issue. Here's the inside story of color selection on our models. I do all of the painting diagrams for our products. I will generally contact the relevant historical society or prominent modellers and ask opinions as to what is the best color. I also surf SIG discussion groups to see if the topic has been covered. In all cases, I have to be very careful because if you put a "full-size" paint color on a model it will always look too dark. We view real trains through a few hundred feet of atmosphere, which lightens the colors. We view model trains from a few feet away, which is like being a few hundred feet from a real train. That's one reason a model's colors should be lighter than the prototype. And as interior light is never as bright as sunlight, that's another reason for lightening the colors on a model. In some cases, I have chosen to go against the grain. For example, the NP cars out there were so vastly different from the color chips sent to me by the NPRHA that I decided to go with the chips instead. There will sometimes come a time when you say "match what's out there and a lot of people will be happy or go with what the experts say is right, even though it may not match what people already have." ILLINOIS CENTRAL ORANGE I messed up with IC -- the orange was too dark, as I had a color formula for full-size paint rather than "model-size" paint. We have fixed that on our new IC cafe-bar-lounge and 10-5 sleeper cars, arriving next month. If IC modellers are happy with the new colors, we will look at producing more Lightweight Coaches with the new colors. GREAT NORTHERN ORANGE I think that our GN colors match the chips sent by the GNRHS fairly closely, but they are different from the Walthers cars so we get complaints about that. Walthers has the same chips, so it is a matter of interpretation even when you have the same starting point! MISSOURI PACIFIC "EAGLE" SCHEME For those of you who have ordered our MOPAC "Eagle" cars, I did extensive research on these colors. The existing ready-to-run plastic models have been matched to full-size color chips printed in two popular reference books. Consequently, the gray is much too dark, just like our original IC orange. For our Eagle cars (arriving this winter), we've gone with a lighter "model-size" gray rather than a darker "full-size" gray. A final caveat about painting: it is very hard to match paint colors precisely unless you are using the same brand of paint in the same factory at the same time. Humidity affects color, the level of gloss or matte affects the way we see color, and the type of paint affects color. We have our own small factory, and we do our best to get the colors right. Usually we're OK, but sometimes we mess up. In those cases, like the IC orange, the best we can do is acknowledge there's a problem and then fix it for the next run. |