New Bachmann 2021

[peteski]

Ron Sebastian is turning over in his grave right now.  I was working for him when he started the series.  I have the original painted sample of FOM in my collection.  (Sample had black ends which we corrected) 
. . .
I hadn't been keeping up with the FOM releases between the first beautiful run of 16 sleepers... until I picked up the long awaited diner.  Gold lettering instead of dulux... silver window frames instead of outlined dulux... color shift.  Dang. 

I'm not an Pennsy expert. Heck, I don't really know much about Pennsy at all, but I have a beautiful T1 and S1 locos, and I wanted to have an equally beautiful train for them to pull when I run them on NTRAK layouts during train shows.  The FoM passenger cars sure fit the bill, so I  started buying those Centralia cars on eBay.  That is when I realized that there must have been multiple runs, and each one is different.

I believe the bottom car is from the early run.  The colors are nice and rich (no idea if they are accurate, but the look good), there is a good contrast between the window band color and the body color, and all the stripes are nice and bright dulux (non-metallic imitation gold yellow).  Windows are outlined in the same dulux color.  That car also has multi-piece trucks with metal wheels.



The top car has some add on grabs and battery powered lighting, but the colors are dull, the color of the window band is not really much different from the body color.  All the striping is done using metallic gold paint, and it blends into the background colors.  Blah! Not a very attractive car.  This car also has silver window surrounds, and MTL trucks. I didn't even know there was a font difference.

If the Bachmann cars look good, I might think of selling the Centralia cars.

[thomasjmdavis]

I guess I must be pickier about car types than a lot of folks, but as far as I know, Bachmann is just painting the FOM scheme on its existing reasonably accurate (for PRR) obs, its NYC coach and its baggage (that to me looks more like an ATSF 'semi-lightweight' baggage than anything else).  No sleepers, no accurate PRR coaches, no diner.  So, does this really solve the problem of a matched set of cars for a streamliner?  Or does Bachmann have plans to release more car types?

[Sokramiketes]

Yes, you're correct.  It may only add a reasonable tail car to the mix, not a full replacement for a CCS train.

[nscaler711]

My only problem with the one I have from CCS, is how pinkish the car looks compared to the HO Bachmann FoM cars, with Bmann being from PA I can only hope they are using colors closest to the PRR on these cars.
@peteski I'm with you on the bachmann cars though, I may have to sell the one car I've got if the Bmanns are too different, that type of color variation in a consist of the same paint will drive me insane.
Granted the Bmanns will be pretty generic compared to the CCS car. Even then it too is pretty basic outside of the operating diaphragms.
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[nickelplate759]

All this makes me wish someone would offer FoM decals in N scale

[Lemosteam]

All this makes me wish someone would offer FoM decals in N scale

Ohhhh, the pain.  Make it go away.

Its difficult enough trying to decal three stripes on a PRR P70, imagine trying to lay down a long, multi color band across the windows.  I think it would almost have to be a full color car side, and then cut the windows out.

I'd be satisfied with a full FOM BL set done by Kato on their correct name train cars, already tooled.

[peteski]

I'd be satisfied with a full FOM BL set done by Kato on their correct name train cars, already tooled.

Just satisfied?  More like overjoyed! Wouldn't that be awesome? 
Could the Kato's Broadway Ltd. cars be used, or are they are wrong for the FoM scheme?

And while the colors appear quite a bit off in that run of CCS cars @nscaler711 , they still look better than the other run with colors which seem closer, but are so dull, with almost invisible gold stripes.

[OldEastRR]

One thing about the MTL trucks on skirted CCS cars designed with their own multi-piece truck -- the MTL trucks don't quite clear the skirt cut-outs. Because obviously they weren't used in the car design. I found this out with a friend's collection of CCS NYC cars with skirts. The cars would randomly derail on curves or crossovers. Close examination showed the slightly longer MTL truck ends sometimes clipped the skirting. I suggested and tried out filing away some of the skirting for the MTL trucks to clear -- but his solution was to unload all the problem cars on eBay.