Thanks to American Models

Mine are in the mail per Ron.

@AmFlyer posted:

Mine are in the mail per Ron.

Then I guess the NYC are next.  I emailed Ron about using the heavyweights for the Reading.  No reply yet.  Reading coaches were 72', seems like a perfect match to me.

Tom Stoltz

on Maine

Some quick pictures. The first three pictures are of the 6 car set. The last three pictures are the 80’ sleepers and Cafe car.

Here is the Meadow Lark 80’ Cafe car with interior LED lighting and silhouettes added to match the 6 car set. The fading in the silhouettes is not visible on the layout from several feet away, only on closeup photos.

@AmFlyer posted:

Some quick pictures. The first three pictures are of the 6 car set. The last three pictures are the 80’ sleepers and Cafe car.

Awesome, Tom.  I haven't heard a word about the NYC set.  I also sent an email asking about Reading Company sets.  Their coaches were the same length as the CNJ.  Seems like it would e an easy set.  But I  haven't had a reply yet.

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

You should give Ron a call again and ask. I have decided I would rather have the Budd NYC cars in silver which he has in stock. I may have a faulty memory but I thought the Reading prototype cars had a unique roof and the dedicated Reading modelers were not happy with incorrect roofs on their passenger cars.

Here is a picture of the cars behind a NH Trainmaster. The PRR set on the upper track shows the AM heavyweights after my coupler arm modifications. The mods bring the cars together just short of the diaphragms touching, the set looks way better close coupled. Plus the couplers are then hidden under the car ends so the oversized couplers disappear from sight.

@AmFlyer posted:

You should give Ron a call again and ask. I have decided I would rather have the Budd NYC cars in silver which he has in stock. I may have a faulty memory but I thought the Reading prototype cars had a unique roof and the dedicated Reading modelers were not happy with incorrect roofs on their passenger cars.

Tom,

Jerry P is selling 7 scale NYC Budd cars and a green 4-6-4 DC, scale this very week. He posted them on the S-group.io.

You are quite right about the Reading roofs on their later coaches, however they did have heavyweights like the AM ones.  I have seen pictures of them behind an Reading Atlantic on the Bethlehem Branch.  I should have adding that Pre-Size makes the correct roof for the AM heavies.

Tom Stoltz

in Maine, but my youth was spent along the Reading

Thanks Tom. Good to know I still remember some things correctly. If Pre-size still makes the roofs then all modelers can be satisfied.

Tom,

The quickest to Ron is by phone not email. I suspect he did all the green cars he had in New Haven I ordered extra coaches and he only had two.

Gunny

@AmFlyer posted:

Thanks Tom. Good to know I still remember some things correctly. If Pre-size still makes the roofs then all modelers can be satisfied.

I am sure still they still have the roofs and very accurate Garland vents, too... A real must for Reading roofs.

Tom, this is Jerry's post -- my mistake.  it's PRR rather than NYC.  No wonder the price is so good.

@gunny posted:

Tom,

The quickest to Ron is by phone not email. I suspect he did all the green cars he had in New Haven I ordered extra coaches and he only had two.

Gunny

I guess I'll give him a call again... I guess he'll have to paint the NYCs, wonder if he'll get to it.  I was surprised by the initial email stating he would run more NYC.  I would love to see Reading, however it would be a great surprise.  You never know.

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

@Tom Stoltz posted:

I am sure still they still have the roofs and very accurate Garland vents, too... A real must for Reading roofs.

Tom, this is Jerry's post -- my mistake.  it's PRR rather than NYC.  No wonder the price is so good.

American Models PRR passenger set for sale From: Jerry Poniatowski Date: Sun, 07 Mar 2021 07:17:33 PST For Sale: American Models DC scale, PRR Streamlined Pacific.  Brunswick Green w/ seven differently numbered, silver painted Budd passenger cars equipped with AM snaplock, talgo mounted dummy couplers.  Very few hours on set.   Passenger cars have wires disconnected from trucks, but easily connected back.  $500 OBO.  Photos and more complete description on request Jerry Poniatowski Wayne, Michigan

Good price?  Maybe too good.  It's a nice set, and runs great.  Maybe I'll raise the price to what it would cost if it were available now?  The loco isn't even available any more and the coaches are $95 apiece.  Oh well..

@AmFlyer posted:

Some quick pictures. <snip>

Nice layout!

Andre

Thanks Andre.

Another big thanks to American Models... my NYC heavyweights are in the mail!

Well, you never know.  I mentioned Reading Company heavyweights and they seem interested.  The Reading cars were 72' like the CNJ, which AM and SHS modeled the heavyweight set after.  I also mentioned I have pictures of Reading P7 Atlantics pulling heavyweight consists.  The Am Flyer Atlantic is modeled after the Reading P7 so that combination would be prototypical.

Give AM a call if you are interested

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

My 7 car set of NYC AM heavyweights has arrived. It is a beautiful set, so another BIG thank you to Ron and AM. Did anybody else purchase the NYC set?

I sent an email to Ron about how a Reading set would complement the ACG Atlantic. This was a follow up to a phone call in which I was told it would be pretty easy to do. If there is any interest in the Reading Company out there, please let Ron know. Who knows, we might set a Reading set yet.

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

I am going to pass on a Reading set. I already have 8 AM passenger sets, more than fit on the layout at the same time.

Below are some additional pictures of the NH sets. I took these outside in direct sun this morning. The Observation car is from the new rerun of the 5 car NH set. The 80’ sleeper is from the original run of the 3 car 80’ sets. The difference in paint color is obvious out in the sunlight. The original run paint on the John Winthrop sleeper is a good match with the NH Trainmaster green. The new paint on the rerun of the 5 car set is much darker.

The Observation has been modified with three axle trucks. All the cars have coupler arms that were each shortened 1/4”. The set looks much better close coupled like this.

@AmFlyer posted:

I am going to pass on a Reading set. I already have 8 AM passenger sets, more than fit on the layout at the same time.

Below are some additional pictures of the NH sets. I took these outside in direct sun this morning. The Observation car is from the new rerun of the 5 car NH set. The 80’ sleeper is from the original run of the 3 car 80’ sets. The difference in paint color is obvious out in the sunlight. The original run paint on the John Winthrop sleeper is a good match with the NH Trainmaster green. The new paint on the rerun of the 5 car set is much darker.

The Observation has been modified with three axle trucks. All the cars have coupler arms that were each shortened 1/4”. The set looks much better close coupled like this.

Love the purple sage.  Shortening couplers; what couplers are you using?

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

Purple sage? That is a dark brown bath towel I covered the white granite with to make getting the right exposure easier. I am using the AM high rail couplers mounted to the trucks.

@AmFlyer posted:

Purple sage? That is a dark brown bath towel I covered the white granite with to make getting the right exposure easier. I am using the AM high rail couplers mounted to the trucks.

The AM fixed talgo mount that comes on the 80' streamliners?

@AmFlyer posted:

Some quick pictures. The first three pictures are of the 6 car set. The last three pictures are the 80’ sleepers and Cafe car.

This is a beautiful layout!  Needs to be in the magazine.  Contact me and lets talk!

Tom, the  three axle trucks and couplers on the 80' cars are identical to the ones on the 70' cars. They are completely interchangeable. I guess we could call them talgo mounts.

Would this be a first for an S gauge layout in the OGR magazine?

I will leave that for Alan to answer.

@AmFlyer posted:

Tom, the  three axle trucks and couplers on the 80' cars are identical to the ones on the 70' cars. They are completely interchangeable. I guess we could call them talgo mounts.

Right.  I installed the six wheel trucks on a couple of coaches I picked up.  There are mounting holes for both styles underneath:

Changing the trucks is easy-peasy.  One of these days I'll get around to repainting them...

Rusty

For those following this thread here are two pictures of the car undersides. In each picture the 80’ car is at the top and the 70’ car is at the bottom. In order to change the trucks the one piece roof and window plastic must first be removed. On the 70’ cars it is held in place by 6 plastic tabs. Carefully prying up in the roof will free the piece for removal.

On the 80 ‘ cars in addition to the 6 tabs there is a screw at each end that holds on the roof assembly. The second picture has the trucks rotated to expose the black screw head. The Kadee mounting pads are are also visible in that picture. The position of the couplers against the body underside is visible, these have the coupler mounting arms shortened by 1/4” for closer coupling.

The center wheels on the 80’ car are scale, all the others are high rail.

@AmFlyer posted:

Tom, the  three axle trucks and couplers on the 80' cars are identical to the ones on the 70' cars. They are completely interchangeable. I guess we could call them talgo mounts.

@AmFlyer posted:

All the cars have coupler arms that were each shortened 1/4”. The set looks much better close coupled like this.

No those aren't the fixed couplers, but rather the regular AM AF knuckle.

How doe the shortening effect the minimum radius?  1/4" is a lot -- that's 1/2" between cars!!!

@Rusty Traque posted:

Right.  I installed the six wheel trucks on a couple of coaches I picked up.  There are mounting holes for both styles underneath:Changing the trucks is easy-peasy.  One of these days I'll get around to repainting them...

Taking the roofs off is not easy-peasy from what I hear.  Am I missing something?

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

I agree, Tom, your layout should be published.  It's beautiful.

I had no problem popping the roof assemblies off. Tom, I misunderstood your question about the fixed couplers. I tried those and they will not work on 30"R track. Not enough slop in the coupler the way they are molded, the cars derail in the curves. Also the scale sized fixed couplers have a height mismatch greater than their thickness between the two axle and three axle trucks. I replaced all the fixed couplers with the high rail couplers and all is well.

With a 1/2" removed from the gap all the heavyweights run fine on 30"R track, not even close to any interference. I tested the 70' cars on 25"R track and they work fine. I have not tried them on 20"R track as of yet.

@Tom Stoltz posted:

Taking the roofs off is not easy-peasy from what I hear.  Am I missing something?

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

I'll admit, the roofs are a challenge.  Part of the reason is the mold knock-out pins create a distortion in a corner of the 4 end slots where the roof/window latches on.  Plus, at least to me, the slots seem a tad narrow.  I square up the distorted area with a #11 blade and I once eventually get the roof off, widen the slots a bit.

The heavyweights are a piece of cake compared to the Superliners...

Rusty

@AmFlyer posted:

I had no problem popping the roof assemblies off. Tom, I misunderstood your question about the fixed couplers. I tried those and they will not work on 30"R track. Not enough slop in the coupler the way they are molded, the cars derail in the curves. Also the scale sized fixed couplers have a height mismatch greater than their thickness between the two axle and three axle trucks. I replaced all the fixed couplers with the high rail couplers and all is well.

With a 1/2" removed from the gap all the heavyweights run fine on 30"R track, not even close to any interference. I tested the 70' cars on 25"R track and they work fine. I have not tried them on 20"R track as of yet.

Wow, I’m impressed.  My 80’ streamlines are hard pressed on a 33” radius with body mount Kadee #5s.  With the stock fixed talgo coupler they are fine on the 33”R.  I was running the 72’ heavyweights on MTH 29”R and body mount #5s on my Xmas layout.

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

If Ron (American Models) runs the Reading Passenger cars with round roofs, I'm in.

I've been kit bashing a set from all Flyer and you never can find all you need at reasonable prices for kit-bashing.  I did get 2 cars to scale length (shells), but it's the bottoms (metal) and trucks (expensive) that have slowed me down.  Retirement gives you time, but no money

The talgo style truck mounts combined with the high rail couplers offer a lot of free play when the cars are coupled. My guess on the minimum radius needed for body mount Kadees on the 80' cars was 36" to be safe. One of the things I observed was there was a substantial amount of offset between car ends as the cars transitioned from straight to curves. My layout has easements but they are too short. The easements should be at least the length of the car (16") to work well. Mine are only about 6" long.

@Francine posted:

If Ron (American Models) runs the Reading Passenger cars with round roofs, I'm in.

Frankly, If Ron were to run the passenger cars just lettered Reading, consider yourself lucky.  I don't think he'd tool up a new roof for them.  There's always Pre-Size for roofs.

@AmFlyer posted:

The talgo style truck mounts combined with the high rail couplers offer a lot of free play when the cars are coupled. My guess on the minimum radius needed for body mount Kadees on the 80' cars was 36" to be safe. One of the things I observed was there was a substantial amount of offset between car ends as the cars transitioned from straight to curves. My layout has easements but they are too short. The easements should be at least the length of the car (16") to work well. Mine are only about 6" long.

I managed to get AM 80 footers around 33" radius with body mounted 802's.  I tapered the sides of the coupler box openings to allow for a tad more swing for the couplers.  Also made sure the little casting nub on the shank was removed.

Any easements I had were purely unintentional...

Rusty

@Rusty Traque posted:

Frankly, If Ron were to run the passenger cars just lettered Reading, consider yourself lucky.  I don't think he'd tool up a new roof for them.  There's always Pre-Size for roofs.

I managed to get AM 80 footers around 33" radius with body mounted 802's.  I tapered the sides of the coupler box openings to allow for a tad more swing for the couplers.  Also made sure the little casting nub on the shank was removed.

Any easements I had were purely unintentional...

Rusty

The heavyweights with the clerestory roofs are prototypically correct.  The 72’ length is also correct for Reading coaches.  I have some pictures of them with G1 Pacifics and P7 Atlantics.  The P7 is the prototype for the AC Gilbert Atlantics.  It would be a good match.  And as Rusty pointed out, Pre-Size has the round roofs and Garland vents.

My easements are out of John Armstrong’s book, which is why the 80’-ers make it around on the 33”R.

Tom Stoltz

in Maine

Thought I would share, from the Reading Modeler site: