What's in your (train) box? Sometimes the answer isn't that obvious. Case in point: Kato pre-Amtrak passenger cars. When Kato decided to model pre-Amtrak passenger car service in the United States, they took on a complex task. They produced some fantastic, high-quality models that illustrate the uniqueness of each type of passenger car produced by the major U.S. manufacturers: ACF, Budd, and Pullman. Unfortunately, there are a LOT of different body styles in production by Kato that, at first glance, can seem very similar to one another. For instance, you own an ACF ("ACF Smoothside") Union Pacific dome car. But is it a Dome Diner or a Dome Observation car? Ambiguous documentation and the fact that these cars look INCREDIBLY similar make it very challenging to know for sure what exactly you have. The answer to this conundrum? If you look closely at each car, important differences can be discerned. So, after lots of googling and close inspection of the different rolling stock, we created this page, which serves as a visual guide to recognizing the different kinds of Passenger rolling stock produced by Kato over the years. We hope fellow train enthusiasts will find this helpful. http://www.trovestar.com/general/blog/blog.php?Article=21
I model B&O and thus I purchased the Kato B&O 6 car set when it was initially released. It was only last year when I discovered a full 10 car set of B&O available and I purchased it. After seeing the Illinois Central set, I spent some time deliberating whether I would purchase it; I was hesitant because I do not model IC. Eventually my sales resistance dropped and I purchased the 10 car set. I especially like the improved lighting in the IC observation car; i.e. the factory installed tail light. I am less concerned about whether B&O or IC actually owned the special style car Kato produced. I am just delighted to have all of the cars. I do wish they would offer an observation lighting upgrade from my two B&O observation cars. Thanks for posting the link to the blog.
Of course, you could always go to Fred woo woo woo's 'Prototypes for N scale passenger cars' site which identifies the actual prototype where possible. It doesn't include the more recent releases, though. Note: Fred's last name has been replaced because it is the same as a retailer in the Baltimore area. Adrian
Hi Adrian: Thanks for sharing this resource on prototypes. I just added this to our N Scale Train Resources. Here's a link to that page. Always happy to list more Resources. Please feel free to share others. http://www.trovestar.com/general/resource/resource_display.php?Collection=4 George.
