Walthers HO Empire Builder ACF coach passenger carPrototype history. Great Northern 60-seat coaches nos. 1209 through 1214 were built by ACF between October 1950 and March 1951. Five of the six cars were assigned to the Empire Builder and had the train name on their letterboards. The sixth, car no. 1214, was used on the Western Star, so it was also painted Omaha Orange and Pullman Green but had “Great Northern” on its letterboards instead of the Empire Builder name.
One 60-seat coach was assigned to each of the five Empire Builder trains that provided daily service between Chicago and the West Coast (four trainsets were owned by GN, while the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy owned the fifth, including one of these cars). These coaches were intended for passengers traveling only short distances on the Empire Builder’s 2,200-plus-mile route, so the seats were spaced closer together.
The 60-seat coach features appliqué sides that press fit on a core body, similar to other recent Walthers HO scale passenger cars. Its movable diaphragms touch only when the slack is pushed in.
The car has a tan injection-molded-plastic interior and vesti-bule bulkhead. Modelers may want to paint the bulkhead’s vestibule side to match the exterior. According to a GN press release on the Empire Builder in our files, the prototype interiors had pastel green walls and seats and a cream ceiling.
The car’s dimensions and floor-plan match drawings in Charles A. Rudisel’s book Burlington Northern Passenger Cars (C.A.R. Publications, 1974, out of print).
I was pleased to find that the Omaha Orange and Pullman Green coach had the original skirting, while the Big Sky Blue car didn’t. I was unable to find the exact date the skirting was removed, but a photo in David Hickcox’s book GN Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment (Morning Sun Books, 1995) shows a skirtless coach no. 1213 in July 1964.
A number of factory-applied underbody details are included on the model (see photo above), such as a Trane air conditioner condenser, Waukesha fuel tank, battery boxes, and junction boxes, to name just a few. The model has no brake piping or rigging.
The 60-seat coach has die-cast metal General Steel Casting 41-N-11 trucks with 36″-diameter RP-25 metal wheelsets mounted on plastic axles. Two of the four wheelsets were slightly out of gauge, but this was easily adjusted by twisting them with finger pressure. A dab of cyanoacrylate adhesive at the wheel-axle joint held the wheelsets in gauge.
Though not glaringly obvious, the truck wheelbase is too long. The model’s axles are on 9′-0″ centers, while the prototype trucks had 8′-6″ centers.
Great Northern modelers have been waiting a long time for accurate mass-produced Empire Builder equipment, and these new passenger cars will begin to fill the need. With the orange and green and Big Sky Blue schemes offered, you can model the Builder as it appeared in the 1950s or late 1960s.
Price: $44.98
Manufacturer
Wm. K. Walthers, Inc.
P.O. Box 3039
Milwaukee, WI 53201
www.walthers.com
Description: Plastic ready-to-run passenger car
Road names: GN Omaha Orange and Pullman Green,GN Big Sky Blue and white, and Burlington Northern Cascade Green and black
Features
McHenry magnetic knuckle couplers
Minimum radius, 24″
Modeler-applied wire grab irons and stirrup steps
Movable diaphragms
Removable roof
Weight: 7 ounces (½ ounce too heavy)
