Athearn has one of a number of "shorty" lines in HO, most of which lack any prototype. Walthers recently released a series of short heavyweights which are based on C&NW cars IIRC. The full-length Rivarossi passenger cars have been available for years in HO, so both options were present even before the recent spate of prototypical cars. The problem in S is not only are the AF turnouts tight radius (tighter than most HO snaptrack turnouts) but also have the big housing on the side which longer cars hangup on.
The Harriman cars used by SP/UP and a few others were also short. Vic Roseman converted the S scale AM heavyweights to Harriman cars in an article in RMC: Kitbashing Harriman coaches in S scale Railroad Model Craftsman, June 1994 page 64 (Kalmbach index) Mr. Roseman also has published a series of articles on building various full-length cars using repro AF bodies, mostly in the Dispatch. His models included various head end cars, PRR P70 coaches and Pullman parlour cars. Possibly someone could make a deal with the repro body manufacturer to re-produce such conversions as resin kits. One could probably make similar 80ft cars from the AM cars by splicing coaches. Splice the baggage car end on a coach to make a blind-end combine. Combine the remaining RPO section with another baggage-RPO to make a full RPO. It's possible that you could get 3 modified cars from four, depending on the exact details. Use the remains to make a "Piker" type one-truck shorty to really get folks going! Long distance coaches and many commuter coaches were the full 80+ ft length. Some had four wheel trucks, some six (New Haven had hundreds of full length commuter coaches, some with each truck type). Pieter Roos --- In [email protected], ken garber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 1/23/06, John Degnan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Bob Werre <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > (remember many HO Passenger cars are shorter also). > > > > RE : Oh REALLY? Since when, and from what manufacturer?!? > > > > The ONLY "too short" offering from ANY HO manufacturer that I am aware of > > is a model from Branchline Trains... but the model just happens to be an > > exact model of an actual prototype. > > > Athearn's passenger fleet (streamlined and the heavyweights) are short cars > (in the 70-75 foot range?). I don't know the prototypes. I think the > baggage or RPO was a little shorter in relation to the rest. > > Their RDC was also short - along the same lines as the American Hirail > version. > > ken > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
