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Good evening all:

As most of us know, Atlas O has put out models of Comet I and II coaches over the years.  They are excellent models, with spot-on paint schemes, or so I thought.

One of their first runs saw a single set for MARC, (6213, as seen here and here) with the usual two-coaches and a cab-coach.  I have always had a soft spot for MARC, and I jumped on the set when I saw it cheap a while back.  However, I am often a stickler for prototypicality, and it became rapidly apparent that they are not models of the ribbed Sumitomo single-level coaches they current run.  After recovering from another wave of "rivet-counter's disappointment", subsequent extensive research has not yielded any evidence that MARC ever rostered any Comets.  However, that doesn't necessarily mean they didn't order them and even had them painted before dumping them elsewhere.  At the time, the MTA (MD Transit Authority) licensed them and the Atlas O AEM7s, which in itself doesn't mean much except that transit groups do not typically license scale models of trains that never existed in their respective paint schemes, (obviously any toy can be 'officially licensed').  Additionally, Atlas O was not into fantasy paint in the late 90s that I am aware of; I am not sure they ever were, (they did some fantasy HO in recent years, which were dismal failures as I understand).

Are there any MARC fans out there that can confirm / deny that they ever dabbled with Comet coaches?  Thanks.

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Not that I can remember. MARC had a lot of the ex-PRR coaches in the 90s after MDOT and B&O, etc commuter operations. The comet cars bear a reasonable resemblance to the single level cars currently used, I forgot who/where they were built but I believe they have Japanese origins, photo below. 

There are a lot of new and older bi-levels that I believe are Kawasaki running around now. 

I've been hoping for years MTH would paint up their GP40 or GP60 as a MARC engine, close enough but I'd buy one in a second. IMG_0307

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MARC did not roster Comet Cars.  While I realize Atlas is known for not doing fantasy schemes, I suspect they felt there was enough of a market to offer these as "close enough" cars since the MARC cars are unique to that agency.  I don't see any other way in the market that the correct single level MARC cars would be offered outside of a high end brass offering.  

I have a set I found very inexpensively as well.  I was going to repaint them into NJT, however I ended up acquiring enough NJT ones instead.  I figure one can never have enough lease fleet cars. 

Last edited by GG1 4877

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