Blue Bird from Con-Cor???

[thomasjmdavis]

Anyone know anything about this?
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/223-8528

The Walthers blurb says coming in late July, and says it is listed on p.60 of the 2015 N&Z book.  Is this a REAL model of the Wabash Blue Bird, or just some CC Budd cars with a paint job?  At $339, I would hope for the former, but from CC have learned to expect the latter.

[eric220]

And right next to it, the PRR South Wind

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/223-8529

And American Orient Express. Of the three, I can only find info on the AOE on Con-Cor's site. Did Walthers leak their March 17 announcement?

[pjm20]

I have the AOE when it was produced by Rivarossi, so I think this is just a reboot of old stuff, nothing new.

[OldEastRR]

Hard to believe ConCor suddenly whipped up a complete train of prototype Wabash cars. I'd guess this is the old RR heavyweights or CC smoothsides in new paint. The locos may be correct, tho.

[jmlaboda]

Hard to believe ConCor suddenly whipped up a complete train of prototype Wabash cars. I'd guess this is the old RR heavyweights or CC smoothsides in new paint. The locos may be correct, tho.

Actually this is probably just Concor doing their Budd cars in Wabash colors and little more.  Accuracy will be sacrificed so that a set of some sort can be offered.

[Nato]

          Listen Up Everyone. That's what it is. Con Cor taking existing Budd cars and their Santa Fe PS Pleasure Dome car to represent the smooth side PS Blue Bird dome parlor car. If you look at the listings for the South Wind they list a dome car. PRR dome cars, I don't think so. Con Cor going back almost to the beginning of the company knows all kinds of prototype information like no dome cars on NYC or PRR yet they have always been offered as open stock items, and the Southern Crescent heavyweight car scheme on light weight cars. At least they explained themselves when they started offering the Collector Sets and they said "We will use cars that are as close to the ones found on the trains as we can  using our existing passenger cars." Their 5 car PRR Lowey schemed smooth side cars were wonderfully painted, the colors were better then IM Centrallia , but of course one car was (is if still available) their GN prototype dome coach. Remember Kato's foob Wabash train 3 cars using Kato Budd's.                                                      Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[Puddington]

The fact of the matter is:

1. Passenger foobies sell..... 99.9% of model railroaders don't know a Budd coach from a Pullman Standard coach... and don't care.
2. You can slap "x" passenger livery on a pig and sell 1000 models.....
3. No one can afford to make detailed passenger car models without selling foobies to support their sales... so you'll continue to see PRR domes and CPR observation cars.....

It "is what it is"......... and if it supports more prototypes coming out that can be decorated correctly, I'm all for it.

[OldEastRR]

          Listen Up Everyone. That's what it is. Con Cor taking existing Budd cars and their Santa Fe PS Pleasure Dome car to represent the smooth side PS Blue Bird dome parlor car. If you look at the listings for the South Wind they list a dome car. PRR dome cars, I don't think so.

Actually I believe there were PRR dome cars on the South Wind during the summer season... at least, painted PRR. The cars were actually owned by the NP and leased out to the PRR seasonally, then sent back to the NP. Hard to believe they'd paint then repaint cars just for a summer's use, but that's the story I heard.

[Lemosteam]

Pics or it didn't happen  just kidding.

Where's Jerry when you need him?

[Sokramiketes]

The fact of the matter is:

1. Passenger foobies sell..... 99.9% of model railroaders don't know a Budd coach from a Pullman Standard coach... and don't care.
2. You can slap "x" passenger livery on a pig and sell 1000 models.....
3. No one can afford to make detailed passenger car models without selling foobies to support their sales... so you'll continue to see PRR domes and CPR observation cars.....

It "is what it is"......... and if it supports more prototypes coming out that can be decorated correctly, I'm all for it.

1. Yup
2. The quote is usually referring to Santa Fe Warbonnet on a brick/turd/pig. 
3. How many foobies has FVM issued on their Milwaukee Road passenger cars?  I think they are pretty well detailed...

[Puddington]

3. How many foobies has FVM issued on their Milwaukee Road passenger cars?  I think they are pretty well detailed...

True Mike, hadn't thought of the FVM Hiawatha cars and their nifty baggage car.... proof positive that there is an exception to every rule...... that notwithstanding, the vast majority of suppliers need to bump the numbers, support the revenues and help pay off the tooling by issuing "foobs".....

[thomasjmdavis]

May also be worth noting that while pre-Super Chief, Kato never met a foobie it didn't like, from the Super Chief on, the ATSF, PRR, new UP,and Zephyr cars have all been pretty darn accurate, and indeed they have done some in Amtrak and such, but as near as I can tell, all those have been accurate paint schemes.  Haven't seen a Super Chief dome painted into ACL or PRR or Wabash from Kato.  And no Broadway obs in IC, NYC or D&RGW.  Of course, they do still do runs of their original smoothside line (UP cars?), and seem more than willing to paint those into any scheme they have paint for.

I really don't care one way or the other whether companies market their product in "alternative" paint schemes- although I admit to being bugged when they don't rerun the accurate paint for the car for a decade.  What I do care about, in this pre-order day and age, is that they are very clear in their marketing about WHAT the prototype is.  Rapido and Microtrains seem to make a living from foobies, but have been pretty good about providing information on the prototype for their models, and if I know that, I can make the call on whether it is close enough for me. 

[Bobster]

Hello all,

Seems kind of crazy to me that Kato never did a Blue Bird.  Maybe they feel there is no interest?  They have the E-8 and 3 domes.  They need the baggage / lounge 650, Diner 51, and 1601 (which Skytop says he will do).  ConCor... I too expect will be existing molds painted Wabash.  Bummer.  The seven main windows of Diner 51 make me wonder if it will ever be done by anyone as I can't think of any others quite like it.   650 looks easy enough.  Maybe I'll try to kit bash it.  Seeing how long it has taken me to kit bash my Cannon Ball & City of Wabash parlor it could be awhile before I try that.   At least that project should finish this year.   Now about a Rock Island AB6......I'm trying that too but am stuck on something good looking for the headlights.

All for now, I have a bad cold and the drugs are starting to kick in,
Bob L.

[mmagliaro]

Actually I believe there were PRR dome cars on the South Wind during the summer season... at least, painted PRR. The cars were actually owned by the NP and leased out to the PRR seasonally, then sent back to the NP. Hard to believe they'd paint then repaint cars just for a summer's use, but that's the story I heard.

The NP dome car was added to the South Wind consist, so it was technically in a PRR train, but it was left
painted in NP green.

The rest of this is scraped from multiple citings I could find on the web.  I tend to believe it, but I have no
independent evidence:
The NP dome was put into the consist in the winter, not the summer.  The NP had less demand for a domed coach
in the colder winter months and was happy to lease the car to the PRR to use for runs from Chicago to Florida.

[jmlaboda]

The NP dome car was added to the South Wind consist, so it was technically in a PRR train, but it was left
painted in NP green.

Only the domes leased to IC were painted to match but that was as much because if IC's requirements about having a matched set for its named trains.  Cars from a number of roads, CNW, NYC, UP, etc., all saw IC paint while being operated on the IC trains... some never returned to their owners' paint after this assignment, which typically meant that they were retired once they were returned.