The prototype. Inaugurated in 1912, the Broadway Limited was the premier passenger train of the Pennsylvania RR. Running between New York City and Chicago, this flagship train received the newest equipment. Walthers is modeling the train as it appeared in 1953 with all lightweight equipment. At that time the Broadway Limited didn’t have coaches and offered passengers six kinds of rooms, including the roomette.
Budd delivered 50 new 21-roomette sleepers to the Pennsylvania RR in 1949. The PRR designated the cars as class PS21B. Each roomette gave single passengers a sofa seat, a fold-down bed, and private lavatory.
As more passengers opted for air travel rather than overnight trains, traffic on the Broadway Limited declined through the 1950s. In 1963, the railroad rebuilt the PS21B sleepers into coaches for use on commuter runs between New York City and Washington, D.C.
The model. The dimensions of the HO model match prototype drawings published in the October 1994 issue of Model Railroader. The interior of the Walthers car also matches a diagram shown in that issue.
Including the striping and lettering, the car is accurately painted for the 1953 Broadway Limited. The door window gaskets are black. The passenger window frames and hand grabs are painted silver to represent natural metal. A decal sheet with the names of all 50 cars is included.
The fluting along the sides and roof and the placement of the roof vents of the Walthers car match prototype photos. The underbody detail includes the correct electro-mechanical air conditioning equipment and some underbody brake detail. All the hand grabs and moveable diaphragms are factory-
installed separate parts.
There are no passenger or crew figures, so you may add your own. The interior floor, walls, and fixtures are molded in tan plastic. There’s a metal weight sandwiched between the interior floor and the car’s underbody.
The die-cast metal 41-NP-11 truck sideframes have sharply molded details, including the springs and clasp brakes. The brake cylinders and bolster anchors are separately applied.
The metal wheels are chemically blackened, but would have looked more realistic painted. All the wheels pick up track power for modelers who want to add interior lighting. Walthers sells overhead interior lighting kits that fit this model for use on direct-current (part no. 933-1049) and Digital Command Control (part no. 933-1084) layouts.
The Walthers HO scale version of the 1953 PRR Broadway Limited is off to a great start with this Budd 21-roomette sleeper.
Manufacturer
Wm. K. Walthers, Inc.
P.O. Box 3039
Milwaukee, WI 53201
www.walthers.com
Era: 1949 to early 1960s
Features
- Metal RP-25 contour metal wheels in gauge
- Minimum radius: 24″
- Proto-Max magnetic knuckle couplers at correct height
- Weight: 7 ounces (follows NMRA RP-20.1)
