MTH Monon Full Vista Dome

Any Monon fans out there that might have some insights?   Joe

I do. But as a Monon fan, I am not sharing

Brendan

@rattler21 posted:

Didn't Mike Wolff say he would not make any fantasy model passenger cars?  Where would the Monon get money to buy a full-length dome car? John

MW said that he'd do lots of things...

If the Monon had cars like those, the dome would have provided the empty seats with a panoramic view of the Indiana cornfields.

To the OP's question, I think that MTH grossly underestimated the demand for Monon cars.  Took me forever to find the 5-car set - finally got one at York in October.  Not actively looking for the add-ons, but would buy if I see them.   The F3s in that paint scheme bring crazy money - there have been a couple of sets go through Stouts in the past year or so.

@rattler21 posted:

Didn't Mike Wolff say he would not make any fantasy model passenger cars?  Where would the Monon get money to buy a full-length dome car? John

If he did (and I don't remember him saying that), it was honored in the breach rather than observance. Loads of MTH passenger cars are "fantasy" in the sense of having paint jobs in the liveries of railroads that never had any cars of the kind (ACF and heavyweight) MTH produced (see an example below), including innumerable sub-scale domes and either smooth sided or ribbed.

The OP probably knows this but the car pictured appears to be, or be one iteration of, the 20-67101 Monon dome produced in 2006; see here https://mthtrains.com/20-67101 The name that they gave it probably only means anything to a Hoosier.

I don't know whether MTH produced a set of other Monon cars but these domes were often cataloged as single cars to go with such sets. I only have one example which is a Santa Fe dome that really does not go with anything else I have. However, I vaguely remember that around 2006 Chicagoland Toy and Hobby had Monon cars in the blue livery - but I passed in favor of something else. (P.S. There was a set: https://mthtrains.com/20-65101. Plus a two car add-on pack. Doesn't explain why they are hard to find but maybe not many were made, as in maybe there was only ever one production run.)

Anyway, sticking with Indiana railroads, and as an example of MTH "fantasy" passenger cars, I have a full set of Chicago South Shore and South Bend Madison heavyweight cars, which go very nicely with the South Shore Little Joes MTH made - die cast electrics. I'm no purist so I run it with the cars despite the fact that the railroad never had anything of this kind and the Little Joes were freight engines! The cars themselves are very nice if totally un-authentic. This is a corner of my display dedicated to them:

Thank you Mallard and Hancock. The name "French Lick" is from a town in beautiful Southern Indiana.  Larry Bird of the Celtics hails from there! I'd like to find that version for my collection also.

Brendan....spoken like a true Monon fan!

Rattler, I have a beautiful set of blue MTH Santa Fe Blue Goose cars which I'm told never ran behind the Blue Goose.  That info from an old timer who said he "fired" the Blue Goose in his railroad career.

So, why not a Monon Vista Dome since model trains are in essence a fantastic fantasy hobby anyway? That's why I'm in the hobby.

Thanks,   Joe

Most of my Monon stuff is fantasy - porthole caboose, pullman passenger cars, etc.  Wouldn't have much if I stuck to prototypical only.  HO scale is far more true to prototype for Monon and all roads, in general.  Still, my Monon passenger cars pulled by ABA F units looks fantastic even if not the correct cars.

Brendan

I agree with Brendan. I like the fantasy stuff. That's what makes it fun for me.

Hoping Berwyn's Trains will follow up on my request to have a special run of Elgin Joliet & Eastern Bobber cabooses made in Green/Yellow colors and Orange Colors.   Joe

I was going to comment that Monon had no vistadome cars but most of us stretch our hobby items as comparted to the actual rolling stock a railroad had or has regardless of period dates. For instance I typically model the late 1940's through 1960, the steam to diesel transition, I have five 30,000 gallon Atlas O tank cars that were built  in the late 1960's and later. As a engineer we applied repairs to these cars and I found them an interesting design. We referred to them as dual diameter cars some people say they are whale belly cars.