GGD El Capitan

Raining? Oh my! On the heels of the Chief, no less. This will indeed prove to be a painful year.

well so much for a new refrigerator! I'll probably get a set just for the dang transition car!

I'm not clear from the ad.  Are these aluminum models or plastic models of an aluminum prototype car?

Bob

Oooooh thats not fair!! And in Amtrak also, I didn't finish my amtrak Atlas yet !! To think I was thinking of the VIA rail also.

 

Clem

Well....I will order both the ATSF and AMTRAK...  Frankly I never thought we would see Hi-level cars produced since it seemed when the topic came up, not many folks were interested...but perhaps that has changed.  I am very excited about this announcement and now wonder when we can expect delivery...?

 

Alan

This should be very popular.  I didn't think this would happen anytime soon.

 

Art

Bob

 

The prototype cars were built by Budd with stainless steel bodies that provided long service lives. GGD streamlined passenger cars have very nicely done extruded aluminum      bodies.  Their window treatment is the best in O scale.  Each run seems to be better than the last.

 

Ed Rappe

This will be without a doubt one of GGD's best offerings to date. The popularity of the K-Line 21" cars and what they are bringing on the secondary market is testimony to their popularity.

 

I also think that the recent threads about these cars on the OGR Forum was part of the reason Scott decided to move ahead with this project. If you notice the brochure has a picture of the real world version of this passenger train rather than what they typically show in an introduction as a prototype of the model. This leads my to believe that the "strike when the iron is hot" theory is a play here. Good move, Scott. 

I'd put this at the top of my want list! 

I had hesitated on the K-Line El Capitan set because I was getting their Super Chief and Amtrak Hi-level sets around the same time.  No hesitation this time!!

 

Approval for purchase has been sent to my Director of Operations, who is to send it to the Infrastructure Procurement Manager, who then sends it to the Railroad Operations Lead Buyer's group for processing.

 

Approval is for the full 10 car El Capitan set, and two Amtrak add-on coaches to add to our K-Line set with an option to acquire the full Amtrak set. 

FINALLY!!! Someone is producing a true "O" scale AT&SF Budd built HI-Level El Capitan train. This one is a must have for me! Thanks GGD.

 

Joe

OK this question is for Scott directly about the 8 car set. The brochure shows the rear car as a step down chair with drumhead, and a 2nd step down chair available for separate purchase. The train needs a step down coach behind the dormitory (transition) car. I'm curious why you decided to make the RPO part of the set instead of the 2nd step down chair car?

 

    

Curious to know what version of AMTRAK livery these will be done in?

Many consider GGD's Super Chief a "Home Run".

 

I would like to go on record as saying the El Capitan cars will be a "Grand Slam".

 

I have not purchased any new 3RS engines or rolling stock in several years.  However, I just might break the bank and order the complete 12-car set. 

 

Anybody know a good loan shark? 

I agree. Sounds like a subtle way to force people to buy an extra car. I hope they reconsider this and change the make-up of the base 8 car set.

Oh the possible consists one can create with these cars....the Chicagoan. The San Fransisco Chief. The Texas Chief. El Capitan. Grand Canyon Limited.El Capitan/Super Chief

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO THIS!  The rest of us IHMD folk can then live vicariously through you.  Then we can get Pauly to bring his Super Chief, and it will be just like a mid-60s Museum and Santa Fe throwback   For me, it will be like a 3rd grade field trip.   The only thing missing will be two SD45s on a string of Santa Fe reefers.  You got the reefers covered though, and I prefer the SF freight Fs. 

 

When I saw this announcement, I had to really fight the impulse not to order this train.  It truly is my favorite passenger train of all time.  But alas, Rocky and the monad wouldn't be happy with an interloper.  Besides, I'm a freight train kinda guy.  One run of my NP Alaskan once every 2-3 years pretty much satiates the urge.

 

Word to the wise, don't share a main with me when you get this train. 

 

Regards,

Jerry

 

Guys...here is a thread that ran earlier with a lot of neat pictures and a few videos that you may like to review....

 

O Scale El Capitan...

 

Alan

Here is a great video that Woodshire Bill posted of his O-scale K-Line version...

 

Alan

Just goes to show you, I emailed Scott about this being a project back during that thread and his reply was "Might be an interesting project" and here it is. I just reserved 2 11 car sets

I've been contemplating a Santa Fe Passenger train for some time now and this may well be a good place to start.  In addition, I've been looking at getting a set of EMD slant nose engines and am leaning toward the Santa Fe E6's.  I spent some time searching to see if Santa Fe ever used E6 locomotives to pull the El Capitan, but I have not be able to confirm either way.  If you know, would you comment?

 

To the best of my knowledge the Santa Fe did NOT use E6 model units on the El Capitan.

I grew up living just 1/2 block north of the Santa Fe main line in s small suburb west of Chicago.  I have seen hundreds of El Capitans in-bound and out-bound.  All were power by F-units on the point with only one exception.  Believe it or not, ALCO PA's. 

Once and only once.  Those loud smoky &$#?@'s are burned into my memory because up until that time, I thought that American Flyer were the only trains that had ALCO's.

Phase 1 Amtrak high levels also ran on the TEXAS CHIEF/LONE STAR and SUNSET LTD.

 

Also, the first two high level coaches, which were transition, has a different window arrangement than the rest.

So Matt...YOU are the reason for my future bankruptcy!!!

 

Alan

And I don't think Amtrak owned any RPO's.

That's an easy way to rationalize your purchase.    Just dollar-cost-average the expense over the years you haven't purchased anything, and it'll lessen the pain.

 

Seriously though, I'm somewhat intrigued by the number of folks lining up to "reserve" the high-priced gems from importers across the board.  Can't recall seeing this phenomenon in the past -- at least not to this degree.  Between folks ordering multiple VL Big Boys and now reading about guys ordering both of these complete sets, that'll set you back a cool $10K+ if you happen to fall into both camps!     And it was just a couple of years ago that we thought the guys and gals purchasing a complete set of Norfolk Southern heritage diesels were the big spenders.  

 

Whoever thought we'd see the importers fiercely competing for high-roller spending like this.  this was never a hobby for the poor.  But taking time out for a quick reality check, this does put things into an entirely different "spend-category"  for this hobby.  WOW!!!

 

David

Hotwater and SantaFeJim,

 

Thanks for your quick replies. 

After the ATSF bought the E1, E3, and E6 models, they bought F units, unit some E's were trade in fodder for "E8Au's".  You see early lightweight train pictures with these early E's. then you don't see pics of them after the F's came.  What trains did these early E's migrate to?

Alan, I cant say for sure if I am the reason but I did bring it up. Funny thing is somebody did offer to sell me the entire K-line set and had the family business not needed all available cash flow I would have gotten that one, I had no idea the K-line set was 21 cars so I wasn't expecting a $2700 expense I was thinking it was more like 12 and only had about $1400 available so I had to pass. As for the E units, I have a bunch of pictures of the El Capitan that my dad took, I will look to see if there were any being pulled by E-6's. From my understanding towards the end they didn't much care what they were pulled with. I did confirm they were pulled by Alco PA's I may have seen them behind E-6's but who cares what they did, its your 1/48 scale empire and you can pull them with whatever you want.

Were the real cars named or numbered?

NUMBERED.

 

I think Santa Fe only named sleeper, lounge and observation cars.  Since the El Cap was an all coach train, I think it is safe to say that none of the cars had names. I think that the Diner or Sky-Dome had internal names for those 12 cars but no name placerds on the outside of these cars.

 

I will post the range numbers for each series of cars later.

The RPO's and Baggage Cars listed here were a pool shared by all ATSF passenger trains.

 

Budd 63' Railway Post Office #89-98

Budd 73' Baggage Car #3500-3554

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Here are the number ranges for the entire El Capitan fleet.

 

P-S 85' Baggage-Dormitory Transition Car #3477-3482

Budd 85' Hi-Level 68-Seat Step Down Coach #528-537

Budd 85' Hi-Level 72-Seat Coach #700-724

Budd 85' Hi-Level "Sky Lounge" #575-580

Budd 85' Hi-Level Diner #650-655

 

The Santa Fe made no distinction between the Step-Down Coaches used at the front of rear of the train.  The tail sign and red light were not fixed items and so they could be used on any of the 10 Step-Downs.

 

As you can see there are enough cars for 5 complete 12-car El Cap trains.  That is because at any given time there were 2 westbound from Chicago to L.A. and 2 eastbound L.A. to Chicago. The fifth set was being serviced in one or the other terminus locations. 

Thanks Jim

 

So is it reasonable to assume that GGD will make 12 uniquely numbered cars for those that order a full 12 car set?

So, for those of you who have the Kline cars and want the GGD cars, I would be more than happy to take the Kline cars off of your hands.  

YES.

Lot of excitement at today's train show with people talking about these cars.  I'm expecting a fair amount of orders based on the comments I heard.

 

Art

Yes it is reasonable,  only because GDD has an excellent reputation.  However, I personally will hold off on ordering the complete 12-car set until Scott Mann responds to this thread.

 

I think that he reviews the forum regularly, so we shouldn't have to wait too long.

Hi,

Could someone please advise me on a way to get just the Golden Gate Depot Hi-Level Diner & Lounge cars? I just reserved a pair of 2-rail Amtrak versions of the 72-seat chair car & 1 68-seat step down chair car. I had contacted Scott last weekend to see if he would sell individual diner & lounge cars. He replied that he had no plans to offer these cars separately at that time. If someone on this forum is aware of any dealers who would break up a set to offer these cars separately, could you please send me their contact information or could you please send them my information?

 

Or if you hear any rumors of any individuals buying a Golden Gate Depot set to complete their existing K-Line collection & would consider selling some of the other Golden Gate Depot cars, could you please pass on my information to them?

 

I would have reserved the full set but currently, I do not have room for a complete 8-car set & I didn’t want the RPO / baggage car since I wasn’t sure if RPO cars are / were used on regular Amtrak trains. I prefer 2-rail Amtrak versions but at this time, I have no choice & am open to advice on getting either Amtrak or ATSF versions of the diner & lounge.

 

Naveen Rajan

Peoria, IL