N scale coach match for Private car "Tolani"?

[ryan_wilkerson]

I would like to model a few private passenger cars to add to the back of my...baretable intermodal well cars...I mean Amtrak trains.
This one looks easy enough...PPCX 800721 is the former Santa Fe El Capitan coach #2822. Did Kato ever produce a car that matches this prototype?

http://movie-trains.com/tolani.html
Mark Hinsdale:
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Chris Fussell:
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[wcfn100]

Couldn't be a car from either of the Santa Fe 'Name Trains' Kato produced (El Capitan and Super Chief).

Did Kato do any other ATSF prototype cars?

Jason

[Ron McF]

Con-Cor makes what you're looking for - the Budd Twin Window coach, item #429101/#041476.

Scroll down the page at:
http://www.con-cor.com/NBuddpage1.html

They also offer an observation car (#430101/#041501) and dome car (#450101/#041526) that are based on ATSF prototypes.

Regards,
Ron

[ryan_wilkerson]

Couldn't be a car from either of the Santa Fe 'Name Trains' Kato produced (El Capitan and Super Chief).

Did Kato do any other ATSF prototype cars?

Jason

Jason, those sets are where I looked first but, like you said, those are very different cars. I think Kato released some ATSF single level cars in the past but am not sure what they produced that might be close to what I'm looking for.
-Ryan

[ryan_wilkerson]

Great info Ron, looks like a good match! I'm guessing these won't couple up to Kato couplers without a conversion?

Con-Cor makes what you're looking for - the Budd Twin Window coach, item #429101/#041476.

Scroll down the page at:
http://www.con-cor.com/NBuddpage1.html

They also offer an observation car (#430101/#041501) and dome car (#450101/#041526) that are based on ATSF prototypes.

Regards,
Ron

[nickelplate759]

Great info Ron, looks like a good match! I'm guessing these won't couple up to Kato couplers without a conversion?

The couplers on the original release wouldn't even couple to each other, much less a Kato coupler.

Fortunately, Concor now sells them with either Microtrains or a workable dummy coupler.

[cjm413]

Jason, those sets are where I looked first but, like you said, those are very different cars. I think Kato released some ATSF single level cars in the past but am not sure what they produced that might be close to what I'm looking for.
-Ryan

Kato initially offered corrugated cars based on CB&Q prototypes before they did the "name" trains, a few were relatively close to ATSF cars.

[jagged ben]

  Man, this is the car I've been looking for to be the legrest chair cars on my San Francisco Chief.  Too bad they only seem to be available if you send your first born to Con-Cor.   Also I will have to consider removing the skirts if I want to be true to 1960's appearance (same for the Tolani), but it's a good start.   

Anybody know if they have more than one road number available?

[jagged ben]

Kato initially offered corrugated cars based on CB&Q prototypes before they did the "name" trains, a few were relatively close to ATSF cars.

The 'Pine' series sleepers from those sets are pretty accurate.   There's a coach numbered 3082 (I believe) in one of those sets, but I'm not sure if it's prototypical.   The other cars in those sets are not accurate for AT&SF prototypes, although the diner might do as a stand in.   Both Kato and Con-Cor have produced foob Santa Fe diners with the road number 1481, which would be the right number series for the San Francisco Chief.   Kato's is a little closer to the real one.

[cjm413]

The 'Pine' series sleepers from those sets are pretty accurate.   There's a coach numbered 3082 (I believe) in one of those sets, but I'm not sure if it's prototypical.   The other cars in those sets are not accurate for AT&SF prototypes, although the diner might do as a stand in.   Both Kato and Con-Cor have produced foob Santa Fe diners with the road number 1481, which would be the right number series for the San Francisco Chief.   Kato's is a little closer to the real one.

FYI - More info on the Kato corrugated cars is here:
http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/protopass3.htm

[Ron McF]

The couplers on the original release wouldn't even couple to each other, much less a Kato coupler.

As crazy as that sounds, it is totally true.  Even standing still, my cars would not stay connected, so I installed MTL trucks on them.

Anybody know if they have more than one road number available?

Con-Cor has offered several road numbers for the three models of ATSF cars that I mentioned in my previous post. They seem to change the road number each time they do a production run.

Did Kato do any other ATSF prototype cars?

AFAIK, the only Kato models based on ATSF cars are those in the Super Chief and El Capitan sets, and the earlier 'Pine' series sleeper. I'm unsure about the coach #3082 that Jagged Ben mentioned. Their other corrugated side models are, at best, stand-ins for SF cars.

I don't think that Fred Klein has updated his web-site for a long time but it has some good information about various models of passenger cars:
http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/ (Edit: cjm413 has included a link to Fred's page on Kato cars.)

Perhaps Jerry Laboda can provide more information.

Regards,
Ron

[ryan_wilkerson]

That's funny but sad at the same time. How is Con-Cor doing these days? I don't think I've purchased anything form them in years. At the prices listed on their website, I would think there would be some source that sells at a decent discount?

The couplers on the original release wouldn't even couple to each other, much less a Kato coupler.

Fortunately, Concor now sells them with either Microtrains or a workable dummy coupler.

[ryan_wilkerson]

Thanks for the additional info Ron!
-Ryan

As crazy as that sounds, it is totally true.  Even standing still, my cars would not stay connected, so I installed MTL trucks on them.

Con-Cor has offered several road numbers for the three models of ATSF cars that I mentioned in my previous post. They seem to change the road number each time they do a production run.

AFAIK, the only Kato models based on ATSF cars are those in the Super Chief and El Capitan sets, and the earlier 'Pine' series sleeper. I'm unsure about the coach #3082 that Jagged Ben mentioned. Their other corrugated side models are, at best, stand-ins for SF cars.

I don't think that Fred Klein has updated his web-site for a long time but it has some good information about various models of passenger cars:
http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/ (Edit: cjm413 has included a link to Fred's page on Kato cars.)

Perhaps Jerry Laboda can provide more information.

Regards,
Ron

[cjm413]

As crazy as that sounds, it is totally true.  Even standing still, my cars would not stay connected, so I installed MTL trucks on them

For the Tolani, the Con-Cor truck would be a better match than the Microtrains truck:

Con-Cor:
http://www.spookshow.net/trucks/gsc41cudo11.html

Microtrains:
http://www.spookshow.net/trucks/cw4pass.html

[Ron McF]

For the Tolani, the Con-Cor truck would be a better match than the Microtrains truck

Yes.  And now that I think about it, I initially replaced the Con-Cor couplers with Unimates but found that they didn't couple to the Kato knuckle couplers on my Kato "Super Chief" cars. Then I ordered and tried several other knuckle couplers in the C-C trucks, before finally giving up and installing the MTL trucks (which I had on older Con-Cor coaches that I was no longer using.) 

IIRC, apart from the useless coupler, the truck and wheels were nicely done.  I've never tried the knuckle coupler that Con-Cor is now using.  Does anyone know whether it will mate with a Kato knuckle coupler?

Regards,
Ron