THURSDAY, MAY 11, 2023
MODEL RAILROADING / N-SCALE / PASSENGER TRAINS / AMTRAK
MY AMTRAK "RAINBOW" PASSENGER TRAIN
I've been on a crazy quest to build my own early 1970's era Amtrak "rainbow" passenger train. Amtrak never used the phrase for their trains, it was a name given to the them by railfans. In the beginning days of Amtrak back in 1971, there were no diesels or passenger cars painted for the new organization, so the trains were a mish-mash of different equipment from the railroads that Amtrak took over, and many cars carried the livery of it's former railroad.
The railroad era that interests me the most is the mid 70's, specifically 1976. Amtrak had painted most of its inherited fleet of old passenger trains in Amtrak's early red, while and blue colors, so rainbow trains were already very rare. However, in the world of model trains, one can always pretend, and in my version of the mid 70's, the rainbow trains will still rule the rails.
At this time I'm mostly interested in the Burlington Northern (BN) railroad in terms of history and modeling, along with the other railroads that served northern Minnesota. The BN was born from a huge merger of four western railroads in 1970, and operated its own rainbow fleet of passenger trains before Amtrak took over in 1971.
The miniature rainbow passenger train I'm interested in creating is going to be influenced by both the early years of the Burlington Northern and Amtrak.
Here's what I plan on doing for my own N-Scale (1:160) BN/Amtrak passenger train:
THE DIESELS: KATO AMTRAK EMD SDP40F in Amtrak "Phase I" paint.
The EMD SDP40F was Amtrak's first new passenger diesel. They were built by EMD in 1973-74, and 150 were delivered. Based on the extremely successful SD40 an SD40-2 freight locomotives, the SDP40F's had a short life due to being prone to derailing. Most of them were withdrawn by 1977.
I plan on having two SDP40F's for my train, both from KATO, a Japanese maker of model trains that makes wonderful pieces.
THE BAGGAGE CAR: KATO AMTRAK BAGGAGE CARS in Amtrak "Phase I"paint.
Well, you got to put people's extra baggage somewhere....Amtrak had a ton of baggage cars that they inherited from the predecessor roads, they simply repainted them in Amtrak colors and kept them going.
I plan on having just one baggage car on my train, but KATO sells their Amtrak baggage cars in sets of two.
THE COACHES: 56-SEAT COACHES IN A VARIETY OF PAINT SCHEMES
Here's where things get interesting. The coaches will represent the Burlington Northern, Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads. They are all 56-seat coaches from Centralia Car Shops, a division of Des Plaines Hobbies. These cars are not cheap, hence I only plan on owning a handful. Here are my main selections:
1. NORTHERN PACIFIC 56 SEAT COACH in it's Raymond Lowey designed "North Coast Limited" paint scheme:
2. GREAT NORTHERN 56 SEAT COACH in the green & orange "Empire Builder" paint scheme:
3. GREAT NORTHERN 56 SEAT COACH in the "Big Sky Blue" paint scheme:
4. BURLINGTON NORTHERN 56 SEAT COACH - in a "Burlington Route" silver paint scheme:
THE DINING CAR - Burlington Northern's "Lake Michigan"
The Burlington Northern started repainting the Burlington Route, Northern Pacific, and Great Northern passenger cars it inherited from its merger, and painted them in "Cascade Green" with a white "hockey stick" stripe. Only a few were repainted before Amtrak took over. I believe "Lake Michigan" was a former Great Northern dining car.
So that's the core of my rainbow passenger train! Just two diesels and six cars long, but I like it. Since it's an all-coach train, it will represent some sort of short-distance train that ran during daylight hours, like the old "Gopher" & "Badger" trains that the Great Northern ran between Duluth and Minneapolis.
But being a model railroader, you can never just leave well enough alone. So here are some additional cars that might be seen on my train from time to time:
POSSIBLE ADDITIONS TO MY RAINBOW PASSENGER TRAIN:
THE GREAT DOME CAR - Great Northern
These dome cars were just introduced by Centralia Car Shops in N-scale. Great Northern was able to paint this car in "Big Sky Blue" right before the merger took place. A few of these eventually wore BN's "Cascade Green" paint scheme. I already have one of these cars in my collection.
THE "HEAVYWEIGHT" RAILWAY POST OFFICE - Northern Pacific
A beautiful Railway Post Office (RPO) from Micro Line trains in the "North Coast Limited" paint scheme. There were no RPO's left in service in the 1970's, but some were used as baggage cars.
THE UNION PACIFIC COACH
For some odd reason it was not unusual to see Union Pacific passenger cars mixed in with Burlington Northern passenger cars in Amtrak's early days. Some of these cars might have also been from the Milwaukee Road, which was using the exact same paint scheme for their trains. Here's a nice Union Pacific coach from Bachmann:
THE SPOKANE, PORTLAND AND SEATTLE COACH
The Spokane, Portland and Seattle (SP&S) Railroad was one of the four lines that became the Burlington Northern. They had some very handsome passenger trains of their own. This particular coach was painted to match Northern Pacific's "pine tree" paint scheme. The SP&S often had their equipment mixed in with Great Northern and Northern Pacific equipment, and would paint their equipment to match the other railroads, though they also had their own unique passenger livery as well. Finding model trains painted for the SP&S railroad is difficult, but Centralia Car Shops does have this one coach available.
THE HEAVYWEIGHT HORSE CARS
Yes, a passenger car dedicated to transporting horses! Normally only prize race horses or rodeo horses road in these specialized cars. Micro Line trains makes them in a variety of paint schemes, I hope to have several. By the mid 70's, most of the horse cars had been retired, but one can always pretend. I do own a few of these on already. I try to pick them up whenever I go to a train show and see them for sale. Might just collect them all! The one in this photo is painted for the Southern railroad, but the horse cars come in a wide variety of different paint schemes.
And that's about it for my ideas concerning a 1970's era Amtrak rainbow train. I never, ever would have considered something like this for my model railroad, but trains like these were as normal as could be back in the early 70's when Amtrak was trying to get it's act together. Any railfan who knows his history would immediately recognize what I'm trying to showcase if they were to see this train running on my layout.
Another possibility would be to get EMD F7 or E9 diesels in Amtrak colors to go with my train, which would be even more realistic than the SPD40F diesels in regards to being a pointer to the early 70's. Not a priority, but if I can find one or two of these older EMD models in the future in N scale, I might just bring them into the collection.
- Pseudo Boethius
