Head-end workhorses. Railroads began buying all-steel or heavyweight baggage cars in the early 1900s. These cars were either storage mail for U.S. mail not to be worked en route, or for baggage and express with provisions for a riding clerk.
The prototype. The Walthers model is based on a baggage car built by ACF for the MP in the 1920s. The car’s dimensions match plans in the fall 1986 issue of The Eagle, the official publication of the Missouri Pacific Historical Society. The model doesn’t have the side and end vents that were present on the MP cars after delivery and then plated over in the 1940s.
Our samples came decorated for the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy RR and the Baltimore & Ohio RR. Both railroads purchased similar cars, and the model’s length, width, and height, are within scale inches of CB&Q and B&O prototypes.
Model construction. The fit and finish on both our samples was superb. All lettering was crisp and opaque. On the two-tone livery of the B&O model, the mask lines between the colors and stripes were sharply defined. None of the sepa-rately applied parts were loose.
The press-fit car roof is easy to remove. Inside the car is a clerk’s desk with letterboxes, sink, stove, and cabinet. The rooftop smokestack aligns correctly with the interior pipe of the stove.
The model features many factory installed details, including stirrup steps, brake levers, handrails, and vestibules. The underframe includes air reservoirs, brake cylinder, triple valve, and toolboxes.
The model rides on cast-metal Pullman type 2411 six-wheel trucks. with scale 5′-6″ axle spacing that matches the prototype. Painting the metal wheels would make them look even more realistic.
With their high level of detail, these ready-to-run baggage cars offer a convenient way to add head-end traffic to your HO scale passenger operations.
Price: $44.98
Manufacturer
Wm. K. Walthers, Inc.
P.O. Box 3039
Milwaukee, WI 53201
www.walthers.com
Description: Ready-to-run plastic and metal model
Road names: Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe; Baltimore & Ohio;
Chicago, Burlington &
Quincy; Chicago & North
Western; Louisville &
Nashville, Milwaukee Road;
Missouri Pacific; New York
Central; Pennsylvania; Soo
Line, Southern Pacific;
Union Pacific (gray and
yellow versions); Wabash;
painted, unlettered
(express); undecorated
(express and storage mail)
Factory-installed handrails
Removable roof
Scale-sized plastic magnetic knuckle couplers (mounted at correct height)
Six-wheel trucks with RP-25 contour blackened metal wheels (mounted in gauge)
Two baggage door styles
Weight: 5.75 ounces
