Rivarossi 60' HO Passenger Car Set Unboxing & Review 

Walthers also offered lighting kits for these cars, 933-1076 and 933-1075. I was going to comment the above, as I saw a few of both Rivarossi and Walthers Trainline models pass through the hobby shop that I worked at, and I remember seeing a Model Railroad article outlining how to update these cars to make them prototypical of the early 50s commuter train.

One other thing: Rivarossi offered a re-release of these cars for NYC, ATSF, ("Pullman" Green) and UP and SP (Two-tone grey) around 2014 They're the same molds, but the paint scheme is juuuust off. For example, the lettering on the Santa Fe cars are a brighter yellow and have a smaller space between letters.

always glad to hear my videos are helping someone out here! Yes, these are indeed some nice cars. Thanks for watching!

I make my own pickup wipers, but theyre not as effective since they induce additional rolling resistance. Whenever possible, I prefer to use walthers trucks instead which have built in pickups

Are you sure? Although I dont model the C&NW, I do believe these were based on C&NW prototypes. Baggage care preserved at IRM has the identical handbrake lever: www5.irm.org/cgi-bin/image.pl?conf=img800&img=/gallery/albums/CNW8728/aaa.sized.jpg Black and white photo of C&NW cars: 3.bp.blogspot.com/-c8sxzOQS5Fg/XGOWV20fdPI/AAAAAAABT-E/ngPCsmjOmMsdj5780D1gv337-Y9amQPWgCLcBGAs/s1600/51899424_2261219173902805_4042904156548104192_n.jpg

Yep! I believe Walthers somehow later bought out this model from Rivarossi, as they made the same exact car in their trainline series. They do look great! Im sure you can find some Harriman roofs and cut/trim/shorten them into place. Arch roofs could be purchased as parts from BCW, or even take a roof from a Roundhouse Harriman kit. Thanks for watching!

Yea these cars are a tad light. Being old rivarossi tooling, Rivarossi wasen't really known for making their freight cars heavy.

1. Not necessarily common per say, most major railroads already switched to lightweight cars from Budd and PS in the late 30s, but yes they did still exist. These cars in particular were based on a C&NW prototype, which used 60' cars on their commuter trains. The short nature of these cars allowed for tighter radisu curves found often in the Chicago commuter district at the time. 2. Yep they were a european design, which for some reason C&NW had on these cars which I found interesting. 3. I was using a Walther PRR B60b baggage not to compare underbody detail accuracy, but only to show how walthers tooling tends to go. Both have crude outlines of the majors parts present at the bottom of passenger cars. Each manufacturer makes underbody details differently. Walthers and Bachmann only have the major components, whereas Branchline has individual pipping all present, and rapido includes pipping, but is molded into the frame. My point wasent to use the PRR car as a point or reference to accuracy since obviously it would never be the same. But I do find it a reasonable example to show how similar the tooling behind the car is to other walther cars. 4. Good info thanks for sharing! 5. So after some research (see pinned comment), the baggage, RPO and coach were all individual C&NW prototypes. There are black and white photos present of the RPO and coaches, and there is actually a preserved C&NW 60' baggage car at IRC which upon closer inspection has the same underbody detail and european brake lever. So with the exception of the combine (which may or may not be fantasy), the other cars are actually faithful to a prototype, and not made up cars based off of the RPO. Thanks for the sub!

@@trainman440 that'd hardly be the case with No.1. The Steel that Budd used at the time was hring sent to Lima Locomotive Works for tank hulls (for the Shermans). Lend lease made the steel hard to get without military contracts. Even Baldwin had military contracts so they could keep producing Locomotives while they produced the Lee/Grant & M34 tanks. Most of the lightweights around would have to be home built, such as Northern Pacific's fleet (which does not have the "Budd-lines".

@@BattleshipOrionBoth Broadway Limiited and 20th Century Limited recieved lightweight equipment in 1938. Santa Fe's super chief recieved lightweight equipment in 1937. I know these were the railroad's top luxury trians, but heavyweights were being gradually phased out in early 40s.

@@trainman440 Wow...but what about the steel embargo? Surely that'd have an effect after Pearl Harbor.

@@BattleshipOrion if anything, 85' ft cars save steel compared to 60' cars. The shorter the car, the more cars you'll need and therefore the more wheelsets and couplers and brake systems you'll need. Also the US didnt enter the war until 1941, way after the first lightweight equipment appeared in 1936. Its rather that some roads couldnt afford the new lightweight stuff despite all the benefits to their longer design and light weight nature, allowing engines to pull longer trains. As a result, lightweights were far more commonplace than youd think. Pullman heavyweights still existed but Im not sure what source you got that said roads were still using 60' cars outside of small roads or commuter service, especially by 1940s. The 60' passenger car as a whole was gone by the early 30s.

thanks! The brake lever seems very odd for a model that's clearly modeled after a US prototype. Although I bought the set mostly for the Santa Fe RPO and NYC Baggage car, the unprototypical coach and combine have really grown on me. I might actually keep them... thanks for watching :D

Hello! For my standard length Rivarossi cars, I made basic upgrades, one of which was to add body mounted coupler boxes to all cars, and Id recommend you do the same. If youre interested, please see the Model Showcase video where I show off the Santa Fe Cafe Observation car! Good luck!