The book Union Pacific Streamliners, by Harold Ranks and William Kratville, includes UP diagrams and data on these cars. The new coach matches UP prototypes built by American Car & foundry in 1953 (nos. 5450 to 5487) and is quite similar to an earlier batch of cars (5401-5440) built by Pullman-Standard in 1950.
The dome-observation matches prototype cars 9000-9014 built by ACF in 1954. These cars were delivered with end windows, a lighted neon train sign, and a Mars signal light for use as the last car in a train. In 1956 the cars were rebuilt into mid-train dome-lounges by removing the fancy train signs and rear lights, plating over the end windows, and adding diaphragms. Rivarossi is making both versions of the dome-observation cars. Walthers and Rivarossi have combined to produce these cars, which include a mixed bag of new features and older parts. The new cars have the familiar plastic body shells, but they now include interior details, flush-fitting windows, working diaphragms, new trucks, body-mounted magnetic knuckle couplers, and wire grab irons.
The underbody details are a bit spartan by current standards, and the trucks are mounted on scale 60-foot centers instead of the correct 59′-6″. The lower sides on both carbodies are shortened by about a scale 6″ to provide truck clearance on tight model curves, yet the overall carbody height is correct.
The car roofs are covered with fine rivet detail, so I was surprised to find the rivet detail was omitted from the coach ends. Also missing are the open vestibule-end doorways. A wiring conduit runs along the roof center lines; it’s the proper scale 17″ wide on the coach but about 6″ oversize on the dome car.
Steel weights are sandwiched between the interior and the floor on both models. With an overall weight of 6 ounces each, these cars are about an ounce under the National Model Railroad Association’s Recommended Practice of 1 ounce plus ½-ounce per inch of carbody length.
Our sample cars ride on the same General Steel Foundries type 41-NDO four-wheel trucks used on the Walthers Budd cars. They have an 8′-6″ wheelbase instead of the 9′-0″ wheelbase of UP’s similar type 41-CUDO trucks.
The rigid plastic truck frames are molded in one piece. They have RP-25 contour metal wheels on stub axles pressed into acetal plastic tubes. All of the wheelsets match the National Model Railroad Association standards gauge, and their needle-point axles make the cars very free rolling. Bachmann E-Z Mate magnetic knuckle couplers are mounted in swinging boxes, which allow additional side movement on tight curves. A pair of small Phillips screws secure the couplers at the correct height. The slack in the couplers leaves about 6 scale inches between the diaphragm striker plates, but they touch on pushing moves. The minimum recommended operating radius is 24″.
Walthers offers three different UP paint schemes on these cars including the two-tone gray that was discontinued in 1952 before they were built. The paint is smooth and evenly applied, but the gray is considerably darker than UP’s Harbor Mist Gray. The lettering is clear and our samples were all named or numbered correctly. I made several test runs with an eight-car train on my Ohio Southern layout. It operated smoothly on my 32″-radius curves and no. 6 turnouts and did not derail when pulled or pushed through a no. 5 crossover. A single SD40-2 easily pulled the free-rolling train up a curving 2 ¼ -percent grade.
I’m happy to see these new cars join the Rivarossi line as they fit right in with the upgraded older cars.
Price: $139.98 in four-car sets,
single cars, $ 39.98 each
Manufacturer:
Rivarossi
Distributed exclusively by:
Wm. K. Walthers Inc.
P.O. Box 3039
Milwaukee, WI 53201-3039
www.walthers.com
Description:
Ready-to-run plastic cars
Road names:
(All Union Pacific)
Standard yellow scheme
Two-tone gray scheme
Modern excursion scheme
Features
Detailed interior
Bachmann E-Z Mate magnetic
knuckle couplers
Flush-mounted windows
Lighting kit available separately
Metal RP-25 wheels (in gauge)
Minimum radius: 24″
Weight: 6 ounces each
