Post by harborbelt70 on Feb 6, 2023 11:39:51 GMT
I've always been vaguely interested in the Bombardier cars used in North America and I'm sure someone else on OGF has a set from one or another manufacturer - so I thought I'd raise the following point, if only for my own knowledge base.
Overnight I had an email circular from a West Coast dealer which I looked at more out of curiosity than anything as I am not in the market. The circular linked to a stock of 3rail passenger cars and I clicked on GGD and K-Line just to see what they had, which was a fair number of things generally at not exorbitant prices given the quality.
The set in question is of the Caltrain cars done by K-Line around 2005. The dealer has two 4 car sets, one consisting of 21" cars and one of 18". They are described in the circular as aluminum and are priced to match. However, looking at the K-Line Legacy Catalog online:
www.legacykline.com/ords/otmapps/catalog.html?useraction=road&p_road_name=Cal+Train&p_oem_sku=K-4636B
I see that there are only plastic-bodied cars listed although they are in the two sizes, the 21" being set K-4636B. The Legacy Catalog doesn't list every last K-Line item they made and I am conscious that they produced a number of fine aluminum passenger cars although all the ones I know of were streamliners.
Judging by the shape of these cars and the amount of exterior detail, most significantly including rivets, I would not think that the bodies are aluminum extrusions but I could be wrong. Here's a couple of images from an auction site that illustrate what I mean - the box description says that they are "sturdy plastic":
I got a little bemused because the dealer's photo (bottom of the above) shows these cars with what appear to be Kadee couplers and that certainly isn't stock but the dealer may have used a photo of an HO version. (Come to think of it, the shiny wheelsets and lack of a visible center rail roller must mean that this is a HO model.)
Anyone know if K-Line actually made any of these Bombardier cars in aluminum? I doubt it but would like to know. Incidentally I looked for these on another K-Line specialist dealer's site and all I found were 21" plastic cars - at $300 less for a 4 car set than the price in the circular! I think that maybe the first dealer has got the wrong end of the stick in terms of what material these cars are made of.
P.S. I am not knocking the dealer or their price, I'm just curious to be sure how K-Line made these cars.
Overnight I had an email circular from a West Coast dealer which I looked at more out of curiosity than anything as I am not in the market. The circular linked to a stock of 3rail passenger cars and I clicked on GGD and K-Line just to see what they had, which was a fair number of things generally at not exorbitant prices given the quality.
The set in question is of the Caltrain cars done by K-Line around 2005. The dealer has two 4 car sets, one consisting of 21" cars and one of 18". They are described in the circular as aluminum and are priced to match. However, looking at the K-Line Legacy Catalog online:
www.legacykline.com/ords/otmapps/catalog.html?useraction=road&p_road_name=Cal+Train&p_oem_sku=K-4636B
I see that there are only plastic-bodied cars listed although they are in the two sizes, the 21" being set K-4636B. The Legacy Catalog doesn't list every last K-Line item they made and I am conscious that they produced a number of fine aluminum passenger cars although all the ones I know of were streamliners.
Judging by the shape of these cars and the amount of exterior detail, most significantly including rivets, I would not think that the bodies are aluminum extrusions but I could be wrong. Here's a couple of images from an auction site that illustrate what I mean - the box description says that they are "sturdy plastic":
I got a little bemused because the dealer's photo (bottom of the above) shows these cars with what appear to be Kadee couplers and that certainly isn't stock but the dealer may have used a photo of an HO version. (Come to think of it, the shiny wheelsets and lack of a visible center rail roller must mean that this is a HO model.)
Anyone know if K-Line actually made any of these Bombardier cars in aluminum? I doubt it but would like to know. Incidentally I looked for these on another K-Line specialist dealer's site and all I found were 21" plastic cars - at $300 less for a 4 car set than the price in the circular! I think that maybe the first dealer has got the wrong end of the stick in terms of what material these cars are made of.
P.S. I am not knocking the dealer or their price, I'm just curious to be sure how K-Line made these cars.
