What NON-engine models should Bachmann make next?

[Maletrain]

Since the similar thread has focused on engines, I thought I should start a new one to address non-engine wants.

What I think is lacking through-out the N-scale industry is short steel passenger cars.  Bachmann used to make its "65' passenger cars" with and without incandescent internal lighting.  But, they were really not proper scale models and are not "interior friendly."  There ARE short 60' and 65' passenger cars with 4 wheel trucks that are the size of these old Bachmann models.  For example here: http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?diag=P53_fp-.gif&sel=coa&sz=sm&fr= and here http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?diag=P58_fp-E94787.gif&sel=coa&sz=sm&fr= .  These are 62' and 67' cars respectively.  The old Bachmann cars are about 62', but have paired windows that really belong on the 67' cars.  So, the interior seat spacing ends-up as only 32" to make an interior. And the end windows are not right for the toilet compartments.  Plus the old models have non-model walls between the coach compartments and the vestibules that are hard to make look realistic.

A proper model of the Pennsylvania 62' cars with electic pickup wheels for adding a good lighting package should sell like hotcakes to the many N-scale modelers who run minimum radius curves in the 14' range but still want passenger trains.  There is really nothing else on the market to compete.  The Wheels of Time limited run models of the 67' Harriman coaches and 70' cars are not produced in sufficient number to fill the demand, nor in sufficient road names.

Anybody else have cars they would like to see?

[Piyer]

Osgood Bradley 4-axle "heavyweight" cars like the B&M used.

[Desertdweller]

I agree about the need for short passenger cars, especially cars that were short in real life: baggage; RPO; maybe a short diner with proper window and service door.

We also need a monitor roof option.  This could be just an optional piece that could fit on any of the shorter carbodies currently using clerestory roofs.  This might even be offered as a stand-alone piece for converting clerestory roof cars into monitor roof cars.

The original shorty cars should also be re-run.

Another thing we could use would be some full-length streamlined cars to go with the full-length dome.
This is a nice piece that needs some more cars to complement it.  A square-end or round end dome observation would be nice, along with a baggage/food service car.

Les

[TJ]

I'LL vote for some ERIE RR Stillwell passenger cars and some Wagner Palace Passenger cars.

TJ

[Country Joe]

I like the idea of generic passenger cars that can be used by many different railroads. The coach that comes with the doodlebug would be a good start.

[kmcsjr]

I'm. Huge B man steam fan. Not so sold on the non engine offerings. BUT BUT BUT, if they wanted to do the polar and hogwarts express, in N and a Blue Comet train... i might be converted!!!!!

[Desertdweller]

Here is something that used to be available that we still need:
 
We need some transition-era (mostly 1950's) automobiles.  Even a re-run of the sets available in the 1980's would be appreciated.

1930's and 1940's cars are fairly well represented in resin.  Classic Metal Works offers a good selection of late 40's and early 50's cars.  They also offer a few 1959 Fords.  Almost no mid-50's cars and other late-50's cars are out there.

We don't need the unusual ones: early T-birds, 300SL's, Rolls-Royces.  We need the common, everyman cars:  1955-57 Chevys; 1959-60 Chevys; 1955-57 Fords, Pymouths, Dodges.  Maybe an Edsel.  The Edsel, Lincoln, and Cadillac would probably be the most exotic cars present.

These are the everyman cars that show up in photos of trains of that period.  Relatively few cars will actually be new.  The average age for cars in this period was seven years old.  In effect, the date of a period modeled can be determined by the model year of the newest vehicle.

Les

[brokemoto]

B-mann's shorty standard passenger cars actually have a prototype:  Chicago and Northwestern operated these cars.  The prototype had mostly coaches, but there were also a few baggage/passenger and baggage only.  I would not   mind seeing these re-run and a full baggage car added.  I have done a bash by cutting up two combines and butting together the baggage ends.  The result is a car with the two baggage doors and 'messenger windows' in the middle.  Someone out there has a resin version of a full baggage based on butting together two Bachpersonn combine baggage ends.  I seem to recall that someone also did a Shapeways version of this.  As for a full RPO, Micro Trains already has that.  It looks allright with the shorty Bachmann  cars.  I would like to see these cars in  more roads, as well.  Funny, B-mann never did these in Cheap and Nothing Wasted.  That would not be a first, though.  The Atlas/Rivarossi Faribanks-Morse B/A-1-A cab unit did not come in any of the roads that ran it, either.

B-mann's newest freight cars are pretty good.

I would like to see some more street trackage, especially #4 turnouts.  The curves on the Kato UNITRAM trackage are sharp; the turnouts even sharper.  Very few locomotives will go through them without at least climbing and losing electrical contact.  Many small locomotives even derail.  B-mann's switchers will not clear the turnouts, although they will take the curves.

[Desertdweller]

I think several midwestern railroads once operated short passenger cars like the Bachmann shorties.
In addition to C&NW, similar cars could be found on the CB&Q, the Milwaukee Road, the Santa Fe, and likely more.  They were used on branchline trains.

I've made the conversion Brokemoto made.  It is not hard to do if you are careful to make straight cuts.
The roofs do not need to be altered, as the length of the cars stay the same.  Two combines yield one full baggage car and one coach.

I've also made some cars of this type by taking some short (40') German prototype open platform coaches and mounting them on caboose underframes.

That short M/T RPO does look good with the Bachmann shorties.  The prototype of that car is on display in Cody Park in North Platte, NE.  It is open for public inspection.  Since it is so short, the body-mounted M/T couplers operate well with the truck-mounted Bachmann couplers.

The Bachmann auto set I mentioned contain a couple Camaros that are a bit oversized, and a late-60's Corvette that is just plain ugly.  I haven't been able to come up with a good use for the Camaros, but I was able to modify the Corvette with a little careful use of sandpaper.  It can be re-shaped into a nice model of an early 60"s E-Jag.  Doneldon take note.  I still think those first-series E-Jags are some of the nicest styled cars ever made, the equal of a 1941 Lincoln Continental.  In my opinion, the '41 Lincoln is pretty much the gold standard of automotive styling.

Les

[Maletrain]

Brokemoto,

Do you have a link to any pictures or drawings for the prototypes for the the Bachmann shorty passenger cars.  I would especially like to see how they fitted-out the interiors.

[brokemoto]

If you go to the Chicago and Northwestern Historical Society website, www.cnwhs.org and click on the 'photos', it will take you to a page where you choose the photograph category.  Click on 'passenger'.  Go to page twelve.  You will see a photograph that shows SD-9 #1721 as it pulls a suburban train made up of the coaches.

If you will go to Jerry LaBoda's PASSENGER CAR PHOTO INDEX, you can go to 'Chicago and Northwestern' or go to the CMStP&O section (the Omaha Road was a Northwestern subsidiary).  Click on car #3194 and there is the combine.  That particular combine was a proto bash from a coach, but the cars built as combines looked similar.

The 'observation' that B-mann offered was simply the coach with one end altered.  In the PLUS passenger car sets, the 'diner' is really a coach that is marked as a 'diner'.

The Can't and Never Will used these  shorty cars mostly on suburban trains.

Another thing that I would like to see Bachpersonn do  is upgrade the nineteenth century passenger cars: specifically, GET THEM OFF THEIR STILTS!

If Bachmann can get the dies and the rights, it would not be bad if they could offer the old N scale Rapido four wheel caboose as an alternative to the one that they did produce.  The four wheel nineteenth century caboose that B-mann did sell was based on a Reading prototype, although D&RG had one similar, at least one of which survives.  The old Rapido four wheel caboose was based on a B&O prototype.  The Rapido cabooses are EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to find.  I found one at a train show ONCE.  It was used and had a four dollar price tag on it.  I grabbed it, quickly handed the man his four dollars, RAN from the exhibition hall and put it into the car before the guy figured out what he had and could change his mind.  I have never seen one on FeePay.  If one did make it there, I would expect a vicious bidding war for the whole time the seller had it listed.  The sniping war would probably crash the whole site.

[airferber]

Here are some Items I want Bachmann Industries to make in the future:
Rail Equipment:  Tri-level autorack in more roadnames,
                         Santa Fe Old-Time passenger coach and combine for the upcoming ATSF 4-4-0,
                         Matching Old-time passenger cars for CP Jupiter and UP 119,
                         Durango and Silverton Excursion Car
                         Full Dome Cars in Princess Cruises Livery (great addition to McKinley Explorer Train)

Static Models:  Crown Motor Coach School Bus (Streamlined)
                      Blue Bird School Bus
                      International School Bus
                      Greyhound Bus
                      Winnibago and other popular RV's.

I would also like to see a lineup of airport accessories in N scale since they are only available in O scale.

                      Airport Buildings (i.e. Hangars, ATC Tower, small terminal, etc.)

                      Fixed wing Aircraft:
                      - Cessna Single engine (Piston and Turboprop) airplanes
                      - Beechcraft Bonanza airplane
                      - Beechcraft twin turboprop (i.e. King Air Series, 1900 series, etc.) airplanes
                      - Saab 340
                      - DHC-6 Twin Otter
                      - Curtiss JN-4D Jenny
                      - Piper Cub
                      - Canard aircraft (Velocity, Long-EZ, Cozy, etc.)
                     
                     Helicopters:
                      -Bell 206 Jetranger
                      -Eurocopter AS-350 Squirrel
                      -Robinson R-22 

[brokemoto]

B-mann used to sell the nineteenth century coach and combine in Central Pacific and Uncle Pete.  If you look at shows, you can find them.  Some hobby stores have them as NOS.  They also pop up on FeePay from time to time.

Athearn ran the thirty four foot passenger cars in All Tramps Sent Free.  MDC also had them in that road name.  The Athearn cars come in a set of four:  baggage/RPO, baggage/passenger, coach and 'business car'.  The Athearns are copies of the MDC designs.  MDC sold them individually and in sets.  They are at shows.  Some hobby stores may have them hiding on the corner of a shelf.  They come up on FeePay frequently.

The B-mann wood nineteenth century cars are nice, but you do have to take them off their stilts.  They also offer a different type of truck.  The MDC/Athearn thirty four foot cars come with archbar trucks.  Those trucks are appropriate to the nineteenth century, but there were so many other varieties during that time.  Most of the rolling stock marketed as nineteenth century comes with archbar trucks.  

[Maletrain]

Brokemoto,

Thanks for the links.

But what I was hoping for was a set of drawings with dimensions for the exterior and interior, like the drawings in the links that I provided in m original post.  That would show me an interior layout that fits the windows.  The links that I posted indicate that the windows on the Bachmann "65-foot" cars would result in a seat spacing of only 32", which seems awfully tight.

[brokemoto]

Maletrain,

I am not aware that any interior plans for those cars survive, but as I am not a Couldn't and Never Would fan or modeller, I do not know for sure that plans for these cars have perished.  Perhaps and e-Mail to the Chicago and Northwestern Historical Society could put you onto the correct path.  The Northwestern called these things 'suburban cars'.  They also called the bi-Levels that, so make sure that you distinguish the two.

Jerry LaBoda posts regullarly on Trainboard.  Sign up there, and you can send him a PM.  He may be able to point you in the proper direction.

Charlie Vlk also has commented on these more than once in the past.  He also shows up on Trainboard.  Charlie possesses a wealth of knowledge on many roads, including mid-western and Grange roads.  I forget if Spookshow has anything about passenger cars on his site, but you can check there.