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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2019 1:57:08 GMT
I do!! A little over 2 years ago, I stumbled upon a set of SP Daylight cars made by Phoenix Railways, and grabbed it. Although I'm primarily a prewar tinplate guy, I love these cars and they are among my most prized modern-era O-Gauge trains. When this brand was introduced, I wasn't paying too much attention to trains as I was focused on other things (school, starting my career, girlfriend etc.). While visiting a friend's home a few years ago, he showed me a set of C&O Phoenix cars that he owned, and I really liked them. So, when the Daylight set appeared on ebay, I grabbed it and I sure am glad I did. To me, what they lack in detail (compared to other brands), they make up with quality paint work and lettering. And, at 18" long, they are a better fit for my layout than the 21-inch cars. And, I admit, I also like the fact that they appear to be somewhat "rare." Does anyone else here own Phoenix Railways cars? If so, please show them off--I'd love to see what other road names they produced. Here's the SP Daylight. I don't know if the bright colors they used are prototypical, but it doesn't matter to me--I think Phoenix did a fantastic job on them. John Attachments:
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Post by harborbelt70 on Sept 13, 2019 2:38:42 GMT
I know of Phoenix but only found out about them relatively recently. I have never found any of their cars.
The thing that jumps off the page at me about your photo is the dome car. No one else that I know of has produced an O scale model of the dome car actually built by SP, which had a shorter than full length dome structure. There are loads of photos of it and the interior online and I even once contemplated hacking apart my MTH dome car to try to reproduce it.
Very nice find and I for one am jealous!
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Post by harborbelt70 on Sept 13, 2019 13:19:23 GMT
P.S. On scaling up the photo, I see that the dome car appears to have a full interior and possibly passenger figures too - unlike the silhouettes used below and in the rest of the cars. Interesting, that, and if you have any other photos of this car or the set I would welcome seeing them.
The window placements and other details of the cars seem to me pretty close to the prototypes even though the cars are sub-scale.
Quite a find, I’d say!
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Post by ptc on Sept 13, 2019 14:25:45 GMT
They are beautiful cars and were well ahead of their time. Highly sort after. John's set is outstanding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by harborbelt70 on Sept 14, 2019 18:16:49 GMT
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Post by thebigcrabcake on Sept 15, 2019 2:12:46 GMT
I'd never heard of Pheonix Railways but they look very nice. Does anyone know what happened to the company?
Emile
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Post by harborbelt70 on Sept 15, 2019 12:37:53 GMT
I'd never heard of Pheonix Railways but they look very nice. Does anyone know what happened to the company? Emile There’s an old thread on the subject on the OGR forum: ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/phoenix-rail-o-scale?reply=70974704604801761#70974704604801761Basically the business was two fellows from Phoenix, AZ, and the extrusions were made by Jack Speer, also of Phoenix. Production seems to have stopped some time in the mid- to late 90’s when one of the original pair passed away. They appear to have done only BTO but now again one of the sets comes up for auction. All nice cars and collectors items although there are photos in the thread of cars modified to have full interiors and LED lighting. P.S. They appear to have also made an articulated SP diner-kitchen-coffee shop set but I haven’t found photos of that. As noted on the 3rd Rail thread, GGD is coming out with that in 18” and 21” cars next year (subject to meeting the production threshold).
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Post by thebigcrabcake on Sept 15, 2019 14:54:33 GMT
Made in America! Even better. It almost sounds like something we could do if we gathered a half dozen of us and started making parts. I’d love to know more about these guys and how it all got started.
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Post by ptc on Sept 15, 2019 15:36:11 GMT
You stumble on these sets once in a great while at the train shows. Most are rare now.
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Post by harborbelt70 on Sept 15, 2019 16:26:06 GMT
Made in America! Even better. Yeah, and it was quality merchandise as well. Could it be produced in America today? Sure, but just as you say, it would need people who were in it for quality (and did not expect to reap huge financial benefits).
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2019 1:21:04 GMT
I know of Phoenix but only found out about them relatively recently. I have never found any of their cars. The thing that jumps off the page at me about your photo is the dome car. No one else that I know of has produced an O scale model of the dome car actually built by SP, which had a shorter than full length dome structure. There are loads of photos of it and the interior online and I even once contemplated hacking apart my MTH dome car to try to reproduce it. Very nice find and I for one am jealous! I just discovered the dome on this car is made by Lionel--Phoenix used the domes from the Lionel 15-inch "full-length" dome cars. Pretty crafty!! It turns out Phoenix only made the aluminum bodies; the car ends and trucks were made by Jerry Williams.
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Post by harborbelt70 on Sept 16, 2019 11:18:34 GMT
Ah, now that makes sense. I imagine they might have got the dome interior assembly from Lionel as well. Any chance of a photo of this car? They are very scarce.
Not sure how Phoenix would have got hold of those specific parts at least in any quantity. The thread linked above explains that Lionel would not supply the end pieces and trucks and so they came from Jerry Williams. Also there were still some Speer extrusions around a couple of years back.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2019 14:35:26 GMT
The cars are unfortunately packed away right now but I'll make every effort to take a few shots this evening after I mow the lawn. A few weeks ago I snagged 3 Phoenix car bodies and some car ends on ebay, one of which was an extra dome car. That's how I found out the domes on the Phoenix cars were made by Lionel. They're not very easy to take apart, that's for sure. At some point I'd like to replace the trucks on all the cars; they are noisy and don't roll very well. In spite of that, my Williams GS-4 Daylight loco pulls all 7 of them with ease. Having grown up the son of a Lionel-only collector, mixing brands like this is still a new concept to me. Nothing but all-Lionel sets, just as they appeared in the catalogs, ran on my Dad's layout, so it's hard to un-learn that. I took a chance on matching the Phoenix cars and the Williams loco, and the color match is spot-on; the 2 brands really make up a beautiful train. Here's a shot of the entire set running, prior to having the loco converted to DCS. SPDaylightrunning.mp4 (4.38 MB)
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Post by laz57 on Sept 16, 2019 14:52:16 GMT
JOHN, Very nice set you have there. Good luck with the rebuild and find the right trucks. Looking forward to your pics.
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Post by harborbelt70 on Sept 16, 2019 15:04:54 GMT
The cars are unfortunately packed away right now but I'll make every effort to take a few shots this evening after I mow the lawn. A few weeks ago I snagged 3 Phoenix car bodies and some car ends on ebay, one of which was an extra dome car. That's how I found out the domes on the Phoenix cars were made by Lionel. They're not very easy to take apart, that's for sure. At some point I'd like to replace the trucks on all the cars; they are noisy and don't roll very well. In spite of that, my Williams GS-4 Daylight loco pulls all 7 of them with ease. Having grown up the son of a Lionel-only collector, mixing brands like this is still a new concept to me. Nothing but all-Lionel sets, just as they appeared in the catalogs, ran on my Dad's layout, so it's hard to un-learn that. I took a chance on matching the Phoenix cars and the Williams loco, and the color match is spot-on; the 2 brands really make up a beautiful train. Here's a shot of the entire set running, prior to having the loco converted to DCS. Wow, you are lucky! Even on the paint front, which is highly unusual to say the least with Daylight cars. And it's very kind, too, to offer to take photos. I think that this is such an unusual car that it deserves to be recorded photographically. (I think I have seen your video before.) I am very interested in the prototype as well as the model. If you researched it, there are still photos of the dome and lower section seating arrangement that are nice examples of Americana. I doubt that by using Lionel parts they produced a very close representation of this but that's O gauge for you. I've been mulling over the idea of asking Scott Mann of 3rd Rail/GGD whether he would model the 3/4 length dome car but I think he's got enough on his plate already.
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