Williams Madison PRR 72 foot Railway Express Agency full baggage car

Correct Rattler21 however the picture depics a more recent prodcution in the 1990's. The givaway is the crispir paint and the use of metal and die cast parts.

Early production had plastic trucks and solid couplers and lack of separate parts such as grab rails

What kind of box did it come in?

Was it in a cardboard box or a box with heavy paper with blue or green lettering and a styrofoam insert that has two pieces?

I have two sets of Crown Edition passenger cars and they came in a paper box with styrofoam inserts inside a master carton and had six passenger cars inside the main box. Each paper box also had a plastic bag over it as I bought these in brand new condition.

FYI; about the Crown Edition passenger cars, there must be two different runs as one set I have has fixed couplers and another set has opening couplers, both are for the same railroad. The only difference is the color on the box.

I have seen both posts about the Williams PRR passenger cars(on here today) and they could be from a set of five passenger cars, as these were also produced during the Williams Crown Edition time or right after the Crown Edition.

Williams by Bachmann made either three or four car sets with an additional two car add-on set sold separately. 

Lee Fritz

To the best of my knowledge there is no guide for Williams trains like Greenberg's guide for Lionel. If there is a guide to Williams I have not seen one.

There are catalogs from each year that Williams trains were made and that might be the only way to find out if any car came in a set.

Other possible way to find information is to go to the Bachmann website and type in the part number and see if any information comes up for it.

Lee Fritz

I am certain it was from a set.  What color is the box and the "Williams" print on the box?  Is there a slanted red strip printed with "The Crown Edition Line" in the lower right corner?

Williams produced these sets in six-car, five-car, and four-car versions (with two-car add-on sets).

Some of the six-car 72 ft. Madison sets were quite nice.  They included an RPO car, a baggage car, two coaches, a diner, and an observation car.  The diner car and RPO  cars are no longer made.

THIS IS THE WILLIAMS BOX CONTAINING THE MADISON PASSENGER CARS

Yes, that box is like the boxes in the six-car set version that I was referring to.  I have the Southern Pacific Daylight version of that set.  It is a very nice looking set.  The six-car Crown sets do come up on Ebay, and sometimes the cars appear separately.

ETA:  The trucks on my cars do not have "zinc rot," but I believe that did occur with certain 72' Madison sets.

Gordon Z,

I have not had any problems with the truck assemblies other then the older Crown Edition(set of 6 passenger cars) with fixed couplers the cars won't stay on the track even on a long straight track run. The Crown Edition(set of 6 passenger cars) with opening couplers does just fine.

As for Williams passenger cars or engines I have not heard of any zinc pest problems. Are you sure you don't mean K-Line Heavyweight passenger cars? K-Line had a very bad zinc pest problem years ago with the Heavyweight passenger cars.

Lee Fritz

I have only had a small problem with some Williams GP-9 engines, the couplers kept coming open so I put tie wraps on them and the couplers are now staying closed.

I tried to adjust the spring tension, even tried to put the spring in differently, and nothing worked so I went to tie wraps.

I bought an SD-45 off ebay and the seller took one of the weights out of it, so I put a couple of magnets on the bottom of the frame and that worked.

Lee Fritz

I just looked at my Williams passenger cars, the ones I bought have; Madison style passenger cars 14 inch long(M106) is the set number, however the boxes have a light blue ring instead of a black ring on the box.

The other set of Crown Edition passenger cars have the black ring on the box, and mention non-operating couplers but have opening couplers even though the boxes were sealed in what looked like factory plastic. These have what looks like K-Line truck assemblies on them, I bought these individually and not in a boxed set.

The Santa Fe Crown Edition passenger cars, El Capiton, have Luxury Style passenger cars, 15 inch long.

Lee Fritz

  I have the same baggage car, mine is part of a 4 car set. The set number is # 725. The problem with trucks was not zinc rot. They were poorly made, they would fall apart just removing them from the box. I also have the NYC set, its number is 723. These are 72' cars. On the NYC set I replaced the trucks with Lionel heavy weight trucks as seen below.

Bill

There's a 4-car set of the PRR 72' Madison cars on the auction site.  Search for this title:  "Willams O gauge 4 -72' Madison passinger cars NEW" (Errors are in the title.)