Walthers, HO scale, 12-1 Pullman

Walthers’ 12-1 Pullman is likely to become a staple of HO model railroad layouts set any time from the late 1920s through the early 1960s, just as the prototype 12-1 (12 sections, 1 drawing room) heavyweight Pullman was a staple of American railroad travel. The car combines the modular construction of Walthers’ successful lightweight passenger car models with some new features, including multicolor interiors, McHenry semi-scale magnetic knuckle couplers, and factory-installed side handrails.

The Walthers car is a model of a Pullman plan 3410A car. This class, which was built between 1923 and 1926, included 341 cars, making it one of the more numerous types. Pullman also built 562 very similar plan 3410 cars. (The plan 2410D-2410H series of 12-1 sleepers included 1,381 cars, making it the largest single group. Pullman built nearly 4,000 12-1 cars in total.) Many of these 3410 and 3410A cars survived into the steam-diesel transition era; virtually all received air conditioning in the 1930s.

When the railroads purchased most of the Pullman fleet in 1948, 24 different lines purchased plan 3410A cars, with the Baltimore & Ohio, Louisville & Nashville, New York Central, Pennsylvania RR, and Southern Pacific purchasing the largest quantities. (The plan 3410 Pullman cars went to 34 railroads.)

Not all Pullmans looked the same, of course, and even the plan 3410/3410A cars differed. Four different types of trucks were fitted (2410A, 2411, 242, 242A), as were five different air-conditioning systems. Walthers model has 242A trucks and Pullman mechanical air conditioning. Because these cars came in so many variations, I’d recommend finding a prototype photo if you want to accurately model the details of a specific car.

Like the firm’s lightweight Budd and Pullman-Standard streamlined cars, the Walthers 12-1 sleeper (and the five other cars which have been announced) uses a styrene structural core with snap-on walls, ends, and roof. A swinging (but not telescoping) drawbar is on each end, and spring-steel plates in the floor stabilize the car and carry current from the trucks to the optional interior lights.

The underbody has a full complement of details, including an air-conditioning compressor and a generator. The plastic-and-metal trucks are not sprung but do include brake shoes set on the same plane as the wheels. Walthers recommends oiling the axles slightly with a plastic-compatible oil, and notes that you may need to do some trimming of the center sill to obtain clearance for operation on 24″ curves.

The 12-1 sleeper is a good- looking, smooth-rolling car that scales out very accurately and features smooth paint and sharp lettering. The cars come with a set of decals for appropriate car names (if you choose Francis Scott Key, note that the composer spelled his name with an “i” and not an “e”), and the decals go on easily.

The car also includes optional end grab irons, uncoupling levers and eye bolts, and a handle for the air compressor door, plus a brine holdover tank for use when backdating the car to an earlier version of the Pullman mechanical air conditioning system, which used brine for cooling at low speeds and when stopped. If you want to backdate the car to the ice-air-conditioned era, however, you’ll need some ice boxes. Eastern Car Works (no. 9101), Branchline Trains (no. 151116), New England Rail (nos. 251, 252, 350, among others), and Train Station Products all offer details for an ice-activated system.

For me, the car has two special highlights: the finely rendered roof rivets and the multicolor interior. For most modelers, though, I suspect the biggest highlight of all will be seeing these accurate and well-built cars in service behind their favorite steam or diesel power.

HO Pullman 12-1 sleeper

Price: $41.98

Manufacturer
Wm. K. Walthers Inc.
P.O. Box 3039
Milwaukee, WI 53201-3039
www.walthers.com

Description
Plastic ready-to-run
heavyweight passenger car
Road names
Pullman; Atchison, Topeka &
Santa Fe; Baltimore & Ohio;
Chicago & North Western;
Denver &Rio Grande
Western; Great Northern;
Milwaukee Road; New York
Central; Pennzylvania RR.;
Southern Pacific; Union
Pacific (gray); UP (yellow);
and undecorated

HO Pullman 12-1 features

Built-in electrical pickups
Factory installed railings
McHenry semi-scale magnetic
knuckle couplers mounted at
the proper height
Metal NMRA RP-25 contour
wheels mounted in gauge
Multicolor plastic interior
Optical end grab irons
Removable roof
Swinging drawbars
Working diaphragms