Walthers HO scale Super Dome passenger carPrototype. In 1952 Pullman-Standard built 10 Super Dome cars for the Milwaukee Road at a cost of $320,000 apiece. The cars were numbered 50 to 59. (Car no. 50 was wrecked during a test run in 1953 and had to be rebuilt.)
Each car weighed 224,000 pounds and rode on specially designed six-wheel trucks. At that time, the trucks were the largest ever applied to passenger equipment. Using 635 square feet of glass, the Super Dome roof used 35 percent more glass than any other dome car.
Unfortunately the Super Dome cars didn’t prove as successful as other dome cars. The cars rode rough and the high bulkheads at each end of the car restricted the view forward. After the Milwaukee Road discontinued the Olympian Hiawatha, the railroad sold six of the 10 Super Dome cars to Canadian National. Some of the cars still serve on tourist railroads.
The Walthers HO model matches dimensions of the prototype in the Simmons-Boardman 1953 Car Builder’s Cyclopedia.
Lettering placement on the model matches prototype photos. A decal sheet is included so the car can be numbered for any of the 10 Super Domes.
The Walthers model is built primarily of plastic. The appliqué car sides fit onto a core body. All grab irons have to be installed by the modeler, but starter holes are included on the model and grab iron placement is shown on the instruction sheet.
The instruction sheet also shows how to remove the dome roof. I used a hobby knife to carefully release the locking tabs that hold the dome roof to the car body. Then I lifted out the upper level interior to reveal the lower level. The seating arrangement of each level matches prototype floor plans.
Both interior levels are molded in light tan plastic. The upper level seats are painted brown. No additional painting was done to the lower level.
Aside from a couple of cylindrical tanks to the rear of the lounge compartment, the car doesn’t have much underbody detail. The Super Dome rides on die-cast metal trucks and metal wheels. The crisply molded details on the truck sideframes match prototype photos. There are also two wipers above each truck for an interior lighting kit (sold separately).
The HO scale Super Dome is an accurate model of this historic car and looks great as part of the complete Walthers 1955 Twin Cities Hiawatha consist.
Price: $64.98
Manufacturer
Wm. K. Walthers Inc.
P.O. Box 3039
Milwaukee, WI 53201
www.walthers.com
Paint schemes: Milwaukee Road orange/maroon and Milwaukee Road yellow/gray (post-1955). Undecorated version also available.
Features
Detailed interior
Metal Proto-Max magnetic knuckle couplers at correct height
Minimum radius: 24″
RP-25 contour 36″ metal wheelsets in gauge
Weight: 8 ounces (11/8 ounces too heavy per National Model Railroad Association RP-20.1)
