Kato 20CL car kits available for pre-order

[bbussey]

As with the Broadway Limited RPO, Kato is taking pre-orders on kits of five 20th Century Limited cars.

• RPO
• 4-4-2 George Washington Bridge
• 12-BR Port of Buffalo
• 10-6 Chicago River
• 5-BL obs Hickory Creek

Pre-order at:
http://search.cartserver.com/search/search.cgi?cartid=s-1078&keywords=XNYC20&maxhits=25&go=Search&bool=AND

[Sokramiketes]

Any thoughts on what cars are good for other railroads?  Is the 10-6 the only standard plan car?

[EspeeGoldenState]

Any thoughts on what cars are good for other railroads?  Is the 10-6 the only standard plan car?

Well, the tailcar still exists, as well as Wick Moorman's Sandy Creek painted up for Norfolk Southern. Thats all I can help with.

Chris

[GhengisKong]

The 12 bedroom looks close to the Rock Island's 12 bedroom used on the Golden State, sans fluting. Still need to look into that more.

[nickelplate759]

The 12 bedroom looks close to the Rock Island's 12 bedroom used on the Golden State, sans fluting. Still need to look into that more.

Or the smooth side SP 12 bedroom for the same train (same plan as the RI car I believe). 

They're a different plan number from the NYC car, but the window arrangement at least is the same.

[thomasjmdavis]

Canada Southern has this useful list for NYC lightweight cars that shows many of the 10-6 and 4-4-2 cars being sold off to other roads in the 1960s.  Many went to CN.  The 12 BR cars went mostly to Ringling Brothers, along with some other NYC cars- could there be a Kato circus train in our future?
http://canadasouthern.com/caso/NYC-MODELS-PASS-LIGHT.htm

[thomasjmdavis]

Checked Sleeping Cars of the Santa Fe (and I bet Kato did too).

And I wish I was getting a commission for this.....but....

Chicago River (the 10-6 among these kits) was one of the cars that served in NY-LA service with NYC and Santa Fe.  It ran via the TCL and Chief 1950-54 (as did most of the Bridge and River and Imperial sleepers).  Starting in 1954, all cars in transcontinental service were provided by ATSF and moved to the Super Chief (ATSF did not want foreign road cars on the SC), Chicago River stayed on ATSF property as compensation for the time that the ATSF cars spent on NYC rails, until sometime in the late 1950s.  (per the Santa Fe sleeping car book)
Further reading shows me that while Chicago River stayed in use on ATSF for some time, it was later replaced by other "River" sleepers- probably late 1954 or early 1955.  However, at any given time between 1954 and 1958, there were usually two 4-4-2 and two 10-6 NYC cars somewhere on the ATSF.

And virtually any of the sleeping cars could plausibly appear in a Grand Canyon tour special.

A NYC 4-4-2, Imperial Manor, also stayed on ATSF property 1954-58 (or thereabouts).  The "Bridge" series was rebuilt from one of the Imperial series (4069B), and I admit to not knowing the "spotting differences" between 4069, 4069B, 4069C, etc.  Or whether the 1949 rebuild of Imperials to Bridge sleepers resulted in any exterior changes, but my guess would be that the 4-4-2 would be closer to Imperial Manor than anything else available out of the box.

[GhengisKong]

Last day to pre-order these is today! Just bought two myself.

[reinhardtjh]

These are shipping now. I just got a receipt from Kato. I had to update my CC as it had expired in July.  The lady I talked to said my order would ship tomorrow (11/12/2020).

[thomasjmdavis]

These are shipping now. I just got a receipt from Kato. I had to update my CC as it had expired in July.  The lady I talked to said my order would ship tomorrow (11/12/2020).

Nothing in my email inbox yet, but hoping for good news in the next day or two

[Cajonpassfan]

Checked Sleeping Cars of the Santa Fe (and I bet Kato did too).

And I wish I was getting a commission for this.....but....

Chicago River (the 10-6 among these kits) was one of the cars that served in NY-LA service with NYC and Santa Fe.  It ran via the TCL and Chief 1950-54 (as did most of the Bridge and River and Imperial sleepers).  Starting in 1954, all cars in transcontinental service were provided by ATSF and moved to the Super Chief (ATSF did not want foreign road cars on the SC), Chicago River stayed on ATSF property as compensation for the time that the ATSF cars spent on NYC rails, until sometime in the late 1950s.  (per the Santa Fe sleeping car book)
Further reading shows me that while Chicago River stayed in use on ATSF for some time, it was later replaced by other "River" sleepers- probably late 1954 or early 1955.  However, at any given time between 1954 and 1958, there were usually two 4-4-2 and two 10-6 NYC cars somewhere on the ATSF.

And virtually any of the sleeping cars could plausibly appear in a Grand Canyon tour special.
...

Thanks for posting, Tom. Tempting, but I already own two Central cars for my ‘49 Chief: a Centralia 10-5 Cascade and a 4-4-2 Bridge. Pretty nice cars, see below. I am sure they are very well done, but at forty bucks a pop, I’m not sure I want to buy the Kato cars, even though it would be “nice” to mix up the consist occasionally....
Otto K.

[thomasjmdavis]

Thanks for posting, Tom. Tempting, but I already own two Central cars for my ‘49 Chief: a Centralia 10-5 Cascade and a 4-4-2 Bridge. Pretty nice cars, see below. I am sure they are very well done, but at forty bucks a pop, I’m not sure I want to buy the Kato cars, even though it would be “nice” to mix up the consist occasionally....
Otto K.

Otto, I think in my own case, it was mostly a matter of "train envy" on my part in that Kato has been bringing out all manner of trains (Hiawatha, Broadway, now 20th C) that don't fit my layout plans.  The release of the kits gave me an excuse to pick up a single. For whatever reason (maybe they sold out faster?) I did not pick up a Walthers 10-6 NYC for this purpose 10 years ago, although I bought a bunch of those cars in various body styles and roads.  And I have a half done 4-4-2 from car sides, so old that it was "short" sides made to fit a Con-Cor smoothside coach, that has been redone about 3 times (first on a Con-cor, then rebuilt on an ALM core with those little extension bits included in the kit, damaged in 2 moves, and I think in a box after being stripped and primed after the last move, never done to the point of having glass).

On price, regrettably, we are at the point where Railsmith is asking $40 for the ex-Walthers cars, and Atlas is asking almost that much for their shorties that are stand ins for everything other than C&NW, so I am trying to adapt to the new environment, and quite glad that I picked up most of my fleet at $10-15 each, and most of the kitbash fodder under $5, a decade or more ago.  My personal "sticker shock" level was $20, and we hit that quite a while back.

[reinhardtjh]

Mine arrived today. I forgot it would be a kit.
One bag with the shell
one bag with the floor/interior
Two small bags with the trucks.

The shells look sharp.  I wasn't going to get a whole TCL but the train would look very nice.

The name on the car is "Hickory Creek" which works out.  I was going to paint the Sandy Creek for the NS OCS train and leave Hickory Creek since it's been restored to TCL colors.  Now I don't have to letter it.

[bnsfdash8]

I got my kit in today as well. I'm looking forward to my full sets. It'll make a great donor for my Sandy Creek.

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[muktown128]

Yes, they look very nice.

Must....resist....urge....to....buy....TCL....set