Rivarossi 60' HO Passenger Car Set Unboxing & Review

Hi guys! Here's a quick unboxing and review of the Rivarossi 60' HO Passenger Car Set. My set is painted for Santa Fe. These cars are far more like Walthers "premium" cars than the old Rivarossi "toys like" models. The set comes with RPO, baggage, combine, and coach cars. A highly recommended set if you're interested.
Enjoy!
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[@trainman440]

OUTRO MUTED DUE TO COPYRIGHT CLAIM, please excuse that :( Things I forgot to mention: 1. the cars have an identical method of securing the roof to the car. In order to open the car up(if you wanted to add figures/details/paint), you do the same twist method like on Walthers cars. 2. The coach and combine is based off of a C&NW prototype, and the baggage and rpo are also C&NW, although altered. 3. C&NW did indeed use the odd lever handle brake lever instead of the wheel. 4. Turns out the reason why they are so comparable to Walthers cars is because they were indeed first made by Walthers Trainline, then later sold to Rivarossi. Go figure!

[@TrinityShoji]

Walthers also offered lighting kits for these cars, 933-1076 and 933-1075. I was going to comment the above, as I saw a few of both Rivarossi and Walthers Trainline models pass through the hobby shop that I worked at, and I remember seeing a Model Railroad article outlining how to update these cars to make them prototypical of the early 50s commuter train.

[@TrinityShoji]

One other thing: Rivarossi offered a re-release of these cars for NYC, ATSF, ("Pullman" Green) and UP and SP (Two-tone grey) around 2014 They're the same molds, but the paint scheme is juuuust off. For example, the lettering on the Santa Fe cars are a brighter yellow and have a smaller space between letters.

[@michaelramsey82]

Thanks for this review! I've always liked the look of these cars, and this has inspired me to pull the trigger and finally get some.

[@trainman440]

always glad to hear my videos are helping someone out here! Yes, these are indeed some nice cars. Thanks for watching!

[@daylightbigboy]

Almost Walthers? Almost prototypical? Good enough for my 1953 San Joaquin Daylight project. They coach and combine almost look like SP Harriman cars minus the arch roof. If they made the arch roofs I'd buy ten! Thanks for the review!

[@trainman440]

Yep! I believe Walthers somehow later bought out this model from Rivarossi, as they made the same exact car in their trainline series. They do look great! Im sure you can find some Harriman roofs and cut/trim/shorten them into place. Arch roofs could be purchased as parts from BCW, or even take a roof from a Roundhouse Harriman kit. Thanks for watching!

[@gonebamboo4116]

Nice job reviewing those cars. Good point about the break lever vs break wheel issue.

[@trainman440]

thanks! The brake lever seems very odd for a model that's clearly modeled after a US prototype. Although I bought the set mostly for the Santa Fe RPO and NYC Baggage car, the unprototypical coach and combine have really grown on me. I might actually keep them... thanks for watching :D

[@w.rustylane5650]

There's a product from ESU Loksound called current collectors, part #50707, that you can mount to the bottom of the trucks that ride against the inside of the wheels to supply current for lighting up those coaches. I've ordered two sets from Litchfield Station and you get enough to do 8 axles for $8.99 + $4.00 postage which isn't too costly to do 8 coaches if you only use one pair. The trick is to cut them apart and use one for the pick up wheel and the other one to return power (ground) to the track. I only plan to use 2 per coach which probably should be enough but you could use 4 for better conductivity. Cheers from eastern TN

[@trainman440]

I make my own pickup wipers, but theyre not as effective since they induce additional rolling resistance. Whenever possible, I prefer to use walthers trucks instead which have built in pickups

[@BattleshipOrion]

A few things to correct as we go along (I just got 6 of these, for a pre-exisiting now 3 car Daylight) 1: Prototype: 60ft cars where common place during the interwar era, and throughout most of the second world war. 2: Brakes: The brake lever on the cars are actually mainland European design for the era, that "round brake lever" is a brake wheel, which is still used on most cars under 60ft & most locomotives (Southern Pacific for example did not have them) 3: Never compare rolling stock from one railroad to another. The Pennsy car you showed is to PRR spec, not Pullman, or Budd. You can get away with this for more standardized equipment, such as GEVO's & SD40's, but never passenger or steam equipment 4: The box is a septic tank. Most cars of the era given by the cars where gas, and the heat was powered through steam. Batteries where still very much limited to vehicles such as the Ford Model A & Volkswagen, and self propelled armor (tanks & what not). 5: everything else seems to be a repeat of the RPO, but with different sides, good job +1 sub.

[@trainman440]

1. Not necessarily common per say, most major railroads already switched to lightweight cars from Budd and PS in the late 30s, but yes they did still exist. These cars in particular were based on a C&NW prototype, which used 60' cars on their commuter trains. The short nature of these cars allowed for tighter radisu curves found often in the Chicago commuter district at the time. 2. Yep they were a european design, which for some reason C&NW had on these cars which I found interesting. 3. I was using a Walther PRR B60b baggage not to compare underbody detail accuracy, but only to show how walthers tooling tends to go. Both have crude outlines of the majors parts present at the bottom of passenger cars. Each manufacturer makes underbody details differently. Walthers and Bachmann only have the major components, whereas Branchline has individual pipping all present, and rapido includes pipping, but is molded into the frame. My point wasent to use the PRR car as a point or reference to accuracy since obviously it would never be the same. But I do find it a reasonable example to show how similar the tooling behind the car is to other walther cars. 4. Good info thanks for sharing! 5. So after some research (see pinned comment), the baggage, RPO and coach were all individual C&NW prototypes. There are black and white photos present of the RPO and coaches, and there is actually a preserved C&NW 60' baggage car at IRC which upon closer inspection has the same underbody detail and european brake lever. So with the exception of the combine (which may or may not be fantasy), the other cars are actually faithful to a prototype, and not made up cars based off of the RPO. Thanks for the sub!

[@BattleshipOrion]

@@trainman440 that'd hardly be the case with No.1. The Steel that Budd used at the time was hring sent to Lima Locomotive Works for tank hulls (for the Shermans). Lend lease made the steel hard to get without military contracts. Even Baldwin had military contracts so they could keep producing Locomotives while they produced the Lee/Grant & M34 tanks. Most of the lightweights around would have to be home built, such as Northern Pacific's fleet (which does not have the "Budd-lines".

[@trainman440]

@@BattleshipOrionBoth Broadway Limiited and 20th Century Limited recieved lightweight equipment in 1938. Santa Fe's super chief recieved lightweight equipment in 1937. I know these were the railroad's top luxury trians, but heavyweights were being gradually phased out in early 40s.

[@BattleshipOrion]

@@trainman440 Wow...but what about the steel embargo? Surely that'd have an effect after Pearl Harbor.

[@trainman440]

@@BattleshipOrion if anything, 85' ft cars save steel compared to 60' cars. The shorter the car, the more cars you'll need and therefore the more wheelsets and couplers and brake systems you'll need. Also the US didnt enter the war until 1941, way after the first lightweight equipment appeared in 1936. Its rather that some roads couldnt afford the new lightweight stuff despite all the benefits to their longer design and light weight nature, allowing engines to pull longer trains. As a result, lightweights were far more commonplace than youd think. Pullman heavyweights still existed but Im not sure what source you got that said roads were still using 60' cars outside of small roads or commuter service, especially by 1940s. The 60' passenger car as a whole was gone by the early 30s.

[@evanhizon8112]

I have the Union Pacific TTG. (9 Cars) They are good and nicely detailed, but they are a little on the light side. I prefer a Walthers Proto or MTH Passenger cars.

[@trainman440]

Yea these cars are a tad light. Being old rivarossi tooling, Rivarossi wasen't really known for making their freight cars heavy.

[@BOBXFILES2374a]

Thanks! I have several Rivarossi passenger cars like this. But, they are OLD and came with a LONG plastic extension from the truck. It had an NMRA coupler, so it could run on 18" radius track. However, these tended to BREAK, oops. I bought an Illinois Central passenger set + F3 diesel in glorious Brown, but...broken couplers. Has anyone heard of a source for replacements? Thanks!

[@trainman440]

Hello! For my standard length Rivarossi cars, I made basic upgrades, one of which was to add body mounted coupler boxes to all cars, and Id recommend you do the same. If youre interested, please see the Model Showcase video where I show off the Santa Fe Cafe Observation car! Good luck!

[@mickeystewart4504]

They are modeled after Italian prototypes. I lived in Italy rode the 60 foot passenger car.

[@trainman440]

Are you sure? Although I dont model the C&NW, I do believe these were based on C&NW prototypes. Baggage care preserved at IRM has the identical handbrake lever: www5.irm.org/cgi-bin/image.pl?conf=img800&img=/gallery/albums/CNW8728/aaa.sized.jpg Black and white photo of C&NW cars: 3.bp.blogspot.com/-c8sxzOQS5Fg/XGOWV20fdPI/AAAAAAABT-E/ngPCsmjOmMsdj5780D1gv337-Y9amQPWgCLcBGAs/s1600/51899424_2261219173902805_4042904156548104192_n.jpg

[@TGecko99]

I have those same coaches except mine are Southern Pacific instead of Santa Fe.

[@trainman440]

nice