Did Lionel, MTH or Weaver ever release a standalone Amtrak Phase III baggage car

Check this out, might be able to order 1

http://www.goldengatedepot.com/reservation.html

MTH had a heritage baggage in their 4-car sets…

EDIT; Check this out: http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/amtk1185.jpg

Thanks!

- Mario

Thanks guys.  @tom21pa : Those golden gate cars are beautiful, but a bit out of my league!  MTH Premier stuff is the priciest I've got, and it's all standards couplers.

@CentralFan1976 : Have you ever come across someone selling just the baggage car from the set?  I could make that work, but don't need the entire set.

The photo you linked would fit the bill, surprised MTH or Lionel haven't offered something like that in a semi-scale version.

J

Check around for a 2-car ribbed or smooth side set. MTH did a 2-car set half the cost of a 4/5 car set and it was a baggage with another car.

Ought to check out ebay on occasion.  Some people like to break up passenger sets.

Bringing this back up because I've been banging my head against the wall trying to finish my complete Amtrak California zephyr consist.

It's hard enough finding a scale or premier baggage car by itself, all of the available Amtrak baggage cars look too toy like with the rail King and Lionel offerings being 13-in cars with those stupid half height doors. There's just no way it'll look right with all my Premier superliners and my Premier Genesis or FP40.

Some of the suggestions previously mentioned in this thread look great, especially that Atlas one, but seem to have vaporized, I don't see them anywhere for sale in the used market or the new market.

Were the half height doors ever actually prototype on any baggage cars? They just look so ridiculous to me and immediately make it look like a toy versus a model.

The 1937 Santa Fe Superchief had shorter doors, but they didn't last up into Amtrak.  I assume they likely got rebuilt with taller doors.  You will note that the doors do sit lower than the traditional O gauge ones.  I suspect it has to do with the height of the frame of the car.  These shorter doors weren't repeated on future Budd car orders.

Brass Trains has a nice image of an HO one.

1937 Superchief Baggage Car

Outside of the GGD separate sale Viewliner baggage which replaced all Budd baggage cars by 2019 and is the current car behind Phase VI painted Superliners.  Otherwise, you are looking at finding a set break up as others have suggested.  Since Viewliner II cars are all painted in a Phase III variation, the MTH cars either smooth side or fluted would work well and the colors would match.  MTH's Amtrak colors are a bit dark.  Lionel made a very nice Phase III Budd baggage about 3 years ago, but it was part of the four-car set.  However, the colors are much lighter than MTHs.

I'm not sure about your interest in projects, but Amtrak also converted several Heritage fleet coaches to baggage cars.  They retained the vestibule, had the windows plated over and a large coiling door was placed in the middle.  It would be work, but certainly an interesting and accurate car to go with your Superliners.   

Amtrak Coach to Baggage Conversion

Not sure this helps, but I hope it does!

Thanks.  It's maddening how for some reason O-gauge suppliers all adopted the fake "half door" look for their baggage cars.  I imagine there was a reason that Lionel did it first, but then everyone else just followed suit and said "I guess that's how baggage cars look"?

There's so many offerings in HO of all sorts of accurate baggage cars, so clearly somewhere there exists a model railroad car designer who knows how to model them.  Just insane it was never done for a mass-produced O-scale model (at least in any quantity).

I'll keep an eye out, but honestly it might just end up being a project like you mention.  I'm fairly capable with stuff like that, but I only have so much time to tinker with trains and a conversion like that would be a pretty good time sink.

Jeff,

I feel your pain on this one. I too couldn’t justify the cost to get one of the GGD ones so I opted for the MTH two pack 20-69151 that includes one passenger and one baggage car. They are about a half inch longer than the MTH Superliner cars so size is good. The doors are not the half size ones like on Lionel cars so that’s good. At the end of the day it is good enough for my needs.

A few pics for reference.

@bigtruckpete that's exactly what I'm planning to do I guess, but that set doesn't exist anywhere on the used boards or auction sites either. It looks pretty good with your Superliners!

Good plan. I’ll keep my eyes open for one.

Thanks for compliment. I use mine with both MTH phase III and Lionel phase II Superliners. I’m a big phase III fan so those get the most use. Plus the Lionel ones are super heavy and really need two powered locos to haul them, especially if you have any kind of grade on the track to cover.