Texas Special sleepers???

[squirrelhunter]

Shipsure, I have an idea who you were talking to...I'll send you a pm.

Peteski, I'll send you a pm as well.

[AlbertSpor]

With all of this Texas Special talk, I am finding myself wanting to model it. The next Railsmith announcement is supposed to contain both Texas Special and PRR cars, according to his website. Hopefully that means the 2 PRR plan 4140 10-6s that were in Texas Special paint. He already used the Walthers corrugated coach for the ex-SLSF/MKT coaches bought by SPS, so he will probably use them for the Texas coaches as well. They are more accurate than the 10-6s for 14-4s, but still not 100%.

Maybe Lowell has already done this, but I emailed Matthew Young at Wheels of Time, about doing a Texas Special shadow-lined version of his 70' baggage. Frisco 430-432 and 436-437 were assigned to this train.

Intermountain/Centralia has announced 2 10-5 sleepers in Texas paint.

I am curious about what Lowell has planned for the sleeper/lounge for his trains.

I am glad that I kept the DPH/M&R 14-4 that I got with some SP&S passenger car sides.

Albert

[Nato]

             All of these posts take me back to the Con Cor Texas Special Set I still have in my collection of Limited Edition sets. There was an extensive article in the old Passenger Train Journal not the current White River one on the Texas Special, and when I saw that the Observation car was close to the Rivarossi fluted side car Con Cor had as undecorated stock I sent the article on to them suggesting that they do the train. Lo and behold they did, but to my suprise  when I received my train set Con Cor had used their first generation California Zephyr Observation car body with the roof from the GN  Observation car to create their tail end car. Otherwise the Rivarossi fluted side coaches were pretty good stand ins , E 8 diesels were used although I suggested PA's would also work. The fancy gold label on the train set box end read KATY WABASH TEXAS SPECIAL, so I quickly wrote to Con Cor and urged them to print new labels with FRISCO replacing WABASH , and they said no they would not do this. Having an undecorated  Rivarossi Observation car I painted it to match the rest of the cars in the set, having no decals I used a copy machine to copy both sides of one of the train set cars in black and white, cut out this letter strip glued it to the car sides then carefully used a marker to lightly color the lettering in red. I looks ok, but not perfect. Always wanted one of the car side sets that Des Plains Hobbies had made for this train. Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.     

[pbender]

I know it has been a while since there were any posts to this thread, but I received my sleepers from Lowell.  They were very nicely done, even if they are not correct.

Speaking of the correct 14-4s, I wanted to reply to this point:

I agree with the above posters that the car is probably a 10-6 in the Texas Special scheme. I doubt we will ever see a 14-4 in N because there were only 7 or 8 owners in the entire country and I think only Southern, MKT/SLSF and New Haven had the fluted side cars. Smooth side cars were a B&O and MoPac thing. I don't think any of them went to Amtrak or had 2nd owners.

12 SLSF cars went on to Canadian National as their “Falls” series.  One of those cars was, SLSF “Cimarron River“ is run in excursion service, though it lost its fluting ( but is lettered for a Frisco ).  Another car, SLSF “Pierre Laclede”, was rebuilt in the 1980s into an open platform observation “Caritas”.

Another car ( “Eugene Field” ) was sold to Nord Co and still exists.

I have been trying to use the CN connection as a hook to get Rapido to release a plan 4153 14-4.

Paul

[thomasjmdavis]

Paul, I've been working on Rapido since they first released N scale passenger cars to release the CN 6-4-6 "Green" sleepers (almost identical but for 1 window to the L&N-C&EI-NC&StL Pine sleepers - many of which went to Canada after Amtrak came into being) which road in every GTW-CN train and many other CN trains. They do them in HO but not N- so they've already know where all the parts go. 

That said, you can add a 14-4 for me.

If you are up for the challenge, you might check Union Station Products car sides-

https://unionstationproducts.com/-4153-sl-sf-mkt-ps-fluted-side-14-roomette-4-double-bedroom-sleeper.html?category_id=49

And "back in the day" Des Plaines Hobbies made kits for several of the Texas Special cars with an ALM core kit and M&R sides.

[pbender]

If you are up for the challenge, you might check Union Station Products car sides-
And "back in the day" Des Plaines Hobbies made kits for several of the Texas Special cars with an ALM core kit and M&R sides.

I am not sure that Des Plaines Hobbies ever actually released those kits.  They showed off a set of them at the NTS in St Louis back in 2001.  They were really nicely done.  I ordered a full set of them shortly after they were announced, and that order was never delivered.  I had some discussion with them For a couple of years, but the cars were never delivered.  My understanding was they struggled with the core kit for the observation car.

M&R did actually sell the car sides.  I bought a set for a coach.  Perhaps one day Roberto’s day job will allow him to get back to his car side business.

Paul

[squirrelhunter]

I appreciate the efforts to get Rapido to do a Plan 4153 14-4 in N, but I think that ship has sailed with the Lowell Smith run. Rapido would be running cars that another company ran similar cars in the same scheme, and would only have 1 or 2 CN schemes to run in addition.

One of the guys in town got one of the Lowell Smith Texas Special 10-6's and they are nice enough that I think that most modelers will buy them and be happy.

The aftermarket thing that might work for those that are more prototypically inclined would be a pre decorated laser cut window band overlay only that would let a modeler replace the relevant part of the car without having to replace the whole car side.

I'm hopeful the rumours I've heard that they have BLI lined up to do the proper E7A's is true.

[Nato]

              :|My bad , I know the sleeper Lowell is using is the former Walthers 10-6 car and did not mention it in my review post.                Nate Goodman (Nato). 

[pbender]

I appreciate the efforts to get Rapido to do a Plan 4153 14-4 in N, but I think that ship has sailed with the Lowell Smith run. Rapido would be running cars that another company ran similar cars in the same scheme, and would only have 1 or 2 CN schemes to run in addition.

Rapido has been known to paint cars incorrectly to get a few extra car names.  They have even done this with cars that have been produced by someone else.  As an example of this, Rapido produced their 10-5 sleepers in several paint schemes that Intermountain/Centrailia Car Shops have also produced (B&O for example ).  ( The two cars are not the same Pullman Plan number.  It is my understanding that the Centrailia Car ( a Pre-WWII Plan 4072 car ) was much more prevalent than the Rapido car ( a post-WWII plan 4186 car ).

Even though I just bought all three of the RailSmith Texas Special Pullman’s, if someone comes out with the correct car, I will replace them ( because I know they are not correct... ) My goal is a better model of the train(s) I want to build, not a perfect one.

[thomasjmdavis]

I am not sure that Des Plaines Hobbies ever actually released those kits.  They showed off a set of them at the NTS in St Louis back in 2001.  They were really nicely done.  I ordered a full set of them shortly after they were announced, and that order was never delivered.  I had some discussion with them For a couple of years, but the cars were never delivered.  My understanding was they struggled with the core kit for the observation car.

M&R did actually sell the car sides.  I bought a set for a coach.  Perhaps one day Roberto’s day job will allow him to get back to his car side business.

Paul

Paul,
I know they offered kits for some of the cars in Des Plaines packaging, including coaches and the 14-4. I have the Des Plaines kits for plan 7542 coach-dorm and a plan 7537 coach, both labeled "Texas Special" in original Des Plaines packaging.  Bought them on eBay.  I missed out on a 14-4 kit, which IIRC, went for more than I paid for these 2 cars put together (and these were not dirt cheap, but I think I got them a few bucks below MSRP).  Now, on the observation car- I've never seen an observation kit for any railroad, even in the store (I drop in every few years when visiting my son nearby).  So I can believe that they never completed the whole train.  I remember seeing some ATSF cars fully assembled on display in the store maybe 20 years ago- which I can't say for sure, but I would bet were built by Mark Jirousek. (apologies if I spelled that wrong).

[OldEastRR]

Fluted side 14-4s? available ...

http://www.esmc.com/3110/Item3111.html

Plus some other pre-painted roodnames ...


And 6-4-6 sides were made once upon a time .... somebody out there may have a set or two they haven't used.

[thomasjmdavis]

Old East- the ESM sides are very nice, but a different plan number.  The ESM are plan 4159 (popular with several roads in the east) while the Texas Special (MKT SLSF and later sold to CN) cars are plan 4153.  The major "spotting feature" is that the plan 4159 cars have the vestibule at the roomette end of the car, while the 4153 cars have the vestibule on the bedroom end (the 14-4 being 14 roomettes and 4 bedrooms). 

The last I knew, M&R was long sold out of the plan 4153 (Texas Special) sides, but they are available in plastic from Union Station.

[pbender]

Fluted side 14-4s? available ...

http://www.esmc.com/3110/Item3111.html

Plus some other pre-painted roodnames ...

But, as stated previously in this thread, the eastern seaboard cars are Pullman Plan 4159, which is wrong for the Frisco and the Katy. ( and the MP, and the B&O... )

There are sides for the correct plan 4153 14-4 sleepers ( from Brass Car Sides, Union Station Products, the Marshall Shops, and M&R models all have produced them... ).  Union Station Products and M&R have even done them with fluting.

If nobody produces one RTR before I get around to it, I probably will build a proper Frisco 14-4 some day.

( I have a set of sides from Marshall Shops for a MoPac car.  That is for my PRR Penn-Texas.  Until I build that car, and the others I have stashed away, I don’t need to add another project. )

[AlbertSpor]

Hi all

Des Plaines Hobbies is having a 20% off sale which ends today.
But more importantly, they have the Texas Special passenger car sides listed, for sale.
They were not on the website a couple of days ago.

Albert Spor

[thomasjmdavis]

Hi all

Des Plaines Hobbies is having a 20% off sale which ends today.
But more importantly, they have the Texas Special passenger car sides listed, for sale.
They were not on the website a couple of days ago.

Albert Spor

I put in an order yesterday for a 14-4, so hopefully, the order gets filled.  I can only assume that someone found an old box of sides, unless Roberto found time in recent weeks to turn some out.  I have been trying to get hold of the 14-4 for a decade, and I know Roberto has been out of stock for a very long time.  For a brief period of time, a Texas Special 14-4 ran on the Wabash as a thru sleeper to Chicago, and I though this would be an interesting operation to model.
At the sale price, it is almost worth it just for the core kit.