RIO GRANDE 2010 PA's

Jack,

Are you looking for traditional sized cars, or scale?

Mike

The 3-pack is 6-49936 from the 2010 catalog. It includes a coach, vista dome and observation car. The baggage car is 6-49945.

Just for info American Models makes a complete set and they are in stock.

There was a set of three cars - 6-49936 (observation, dome, and combine) and at least two separate add-on cars:  6-49945 (baggage) and 6-49943 (dome).

I run Hi Rail only.......The only coaches I found with American Models were Heavyweights......I do love the AM Budd coaches.

Correct. I do not recall that AM ever made D&RGW Budd coaches.

@William Jack posted:

I run Hi Rail only.......The only coaches I found with American Models were Heavyweights......I do love the AM Budd coaches.

If possible, get the full set of streamlined Lionel-AF cars. That way all of the colors will match perfectly throughout. The Lionel-AF D&RGW PA set is arguably the prettiest ALCo set ever done in the traditional Flyer format. Not Legacy, but the twin-motored PA runs very nicely.

Enjoy!

Bob

I had that full set back in the day, there was some drama with a lot of places being shorted on the 3 pack passenger car set by Lionel. They were showing up on eBay at the time for twice MSRP.  I had called Lionel and they said they had missed the forecast on the cars and a lot of people got shorted.  I was pretty angry, I had the engines and the two add on cars, but took quite a while to find the 3 car set.  

Ben

The AF Western Pacific passenger cars go well behind these, and it is prototypical too! The CZ was sometimes led with RG PAs.

Good idea for now........got a WP set so that might work  until I find the Rio Grandes

I have a set of Weaver Gold Crown 20 in. aluminum passenger cars, D&RGW,  that I will sell you very reasonably.  No box, window silhouettes, incandescent lighting.  5 car set $150 includes shipping.  E-mail in my profile if interested.

Sorry, O gauge.

@Former Member posted:

The AF Western Pacific passenger cars go well behind these, and it is prototypical too! The CZ was sometimes led with RG PAs.

Just make sure the couplers on the CZ passenger cars are insulated or the wheels are reversed on every other car.  Lionel used metal couplers on the CZ set and once the coating wears off a little, there are intermittent shorts.

Rusty

Ah, I knew this was true of the NP set, didn't know it also applied to the CZ set. Another "Lionel first" flop! They should have recalled all of them, but they never even mention that little error. Three rail-thinking on a two rail system.

Not to hijack this thread, but I ran across the coupler issue a while ago when I bought some CZ cars on blowout and repainted them in MR colors to match a Flyonel EP-5.  It ran great for a while until the paint wore off the couplers.  Since then, I reversed the wheel sets and marked each car with tape underneath so as to avoid shorts.

I still may have some CZ shells and complete cars somewhere in boxes.  We just moved and there are a LOT of them!  If I run cross them I'll let you guys know.  They'll be offered for sale for a good price.

Do not understand ?????   My  s gauge knuckle couplers are plastic    Paint wears off..........I;m lost hear..................

Jackie

@William Jack posted:

Do not understand ?????   My  s gauge knuckle couplers are plastic    Paint wears off..........I;m lost hear..................

Jackie

The problem is with METAL couplers.

Since the cars are lighted, each truck is electrically connected to either one rail or the other. If two cars with METAL couplers are coupled such that one truck is hot with one rail and the other truck is hot with the other rail, the metal couplers cause a short.

With plastic couplers, this is no problem.

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

Jack,

Are you looking for traditional sized cars, or scale?

Mike

This is American Flyer. They never had "traditional" sized trains, until the very end. Almost all American Flyer stuff is scale.

Lionel had a big idea to make the couplers die cast instead of plastic, the theory being they would be stronger and better quality. What the engineers did not consider is that the trucks are "Live" on powered cars/locomotives, and coupling the two together creates a short circuit. This did not show up at first because the paint coating acts like an insulator, until it chips or rubs through. I thought they only did this for one year, but apparently they did it for at least two years. So, yes, ACG and most Flyonel couplers are plastic, but there are some die-cast ones too, and these cause all the problems, and the whole batch should have been recalled for replacement (although non-powered cars were no problem). The lack of acknowledging this goof has always bothered me, and is one reason I call the modern stuff "Flyonel." Oh, and RadioRoy, yes most ACG AF is scale, although the passenger cars and the heavyweights are a bit foreshortened to work well on 20" radius track. (60' length instead of 90')

I should add, that reversing the wheels on the locomotives is a bit more complicated, but they too, will cause short circuits.  Changing them out with good ACG plastic couplers, which operate correctly, unlike many of the Flyonel ones (which, until current production, did not open far enough to reliably couple). 'Another example of the L engineers who did not understand the operating criteria!

Hi William Jack,

A 'quicky fix' for the CZ metal couplers is to line the inside of the knuckles with black electrical tape.

However, rather than fool around , just seek out (with a bit of patience) and snag a set of the correct Lionel-AF D&RGW  steamlined cars for your PA-PA set. The couplers are plastic and the cars will look and operate fantastico.

Have fun and happy hunting.

Bob

I did not know this about the metal couplers.     I have a pair of lamanated coupler protypes from the 1950's.     All other knuckles are plastic.

Thanks to all who responded.

wow, you have some of the prototypes? I've only seen a factory illustration, never knew any made it out of the experimental shops. I suspect they figured out early on the problems with the metal construction, so other than the mock ups to check out the idea, nothing until some molds were made and run through the injectors. Hope you photo these and share them--hmm, perhaps an article in one of the mags?? (hint hint)

Got my Rio Grande AA's today BEAUTIFUL  i think these engines are NOS,   Now all I need is the 6-49945 set..........anyone got one for sale?

There is a 6-44943 D&RGW full vista dome for sale on Ebay. Could be a start for a consist.

Rich

Oops! make that 6-49943

I purchased  the extra baggage car this morning   65.00................thanks everyone......... keep me in mind when comes to rio Grande coaches