SP Daylight Passenger Cars

Don't think you will see MTH tooling up or retooling any Premier streamline passenger cars soon, they have never made combine nor a diner with a kitchen all these years,

AFAIK only GGD has made prototypical Daylight cars but being 21" I don't think they will handle 054. I have two MTH cars (20-66217) from the most recent release. They are nice looking and will negotiate 042. Lionel cars are also nicely done but not prototypical either.

I think you will have to choose between Lionel or MTH but you can find MTH cars today. Lionel cars will be harder to locate.

If you decide on MTH my 2 car set (new) is for sale.

Pete

How picky are you?  So far, as near as I can tell, no truly accurate Daylight cars have ever been done in O Scale.  Sunset and PRB each came very close.  Jack Speer had extrusions made that came even closer, but still not absolutely spot-on.

K-Line had credible Daylight cars - the corrugations are inverted and the windows not quite tall enough, but at ten feet, you cannot tell.  And they came in 18" lengths, which is not all that far away from the original 77' carbody.

I would also look for a set of 18" K-Line passenger cars. They come up once in a while on the big auction site.

The one with silver journal covers (SP never did that) is cut from a Speer extrusion.  The one on the right is an old B-C Models kit, with very accurate windows and Budd- style corrugations.

Trucks are Lobaugh one-piece castings.  They are, so far, the most accurate ever done in O Scale from the standpoint of overall size and dimensions/layout.  Other trucks have more fine detail, but none match the drawings as well as these.

Hi John,

I have a ten car set of the 3 rail GGD SP Daylight passengers cars. I have to say the cars are impeccably detailed. The best on the market. However, they required a bit of tweaking before they ran successfully on my NJ Hirailers Club layout. First off, the under carriage detail is low and it hit the Ross switch motors on curves. Our curves are .080 or better. I carefully trimmed each car for clearance in the problem areas without destroying the underside details. I spoke to Scott Mann about this and he told me the cars were not checked on Ross switches. Secondly, they had no side to side motion. When the car was tipped slightly the wheels came off the rail. I removed the extra washers from the truck bolsters to gain more play without being sloppy. After hours of work the cars finally run on every line we have without derailing. I don't know anyone else who has them and runs them, but out of all the excellent GGD passenger cars I found these to be the most finicky.    

For Oguage I almost wish manufactures would do a separate sale of passenger cars instead of doing them in a generic 5 car set. A lot trains did not have dome cars yet in alot of these sets they include one.  Some passenger trains were just a few head end cars and a few coaches. I usually do not care what is prototypical but this has always bugged me.  OP if you have 0-54 curves I would just stick with some MTH or Lionel cars.  I doubt the GGD 21 inch Daylight cars would make it around curves that small. 

The most important statement in this whole thread!

Since the original poster indicated he was planning on 054 diameter curves, that pretty well eliminates the K-Line and Golden Gate Depot 21" SCALE Daylight cars. Personally, I think the GGD full Daylight train set is the absolute best on the 3-Rail market, as they even have the three section articulated diner plus multiple 2-car articulated chair cars. Obviously they are EXTREMELY had to find on the 2nd hand market, since they were produced quite a few years ago.

Now, another point you should consider is; which MTH SP GS-4 steam locomotive model are you considering?  MTH offered a few different styling versions, such as the "as delivered" pre-1946 with the small "Southern Pacific Lines" lettering up high on the tender sides. Then there is the "post 1946" large "billboard" SOUTHERN PACIFIC lettering on the tender sides. MTH also offers Premier line SP Daylight passenger set in BOTH lettering schemes.

GGD SP Daylight cars I believe only came with post 1946 lettering, "Southern Pacific."

Thanks for your responses.  I realize the Golden Gate Depot cars, as well as any car over 18 inches would not work on my layout.  But I wouldn't be satisfied with a 15 inch car, nor would I want to run a car a GS-4 with Southern Pacific (not Southern Pacific Lines) on the tender wouldn't have pulled.  I don't think this engine ever had a baggage car, an RPO car, or a vista dome in its consist.  I believe that limits me to a combination car, chair cars, a diner (not an articulated one, of course), a parlor car, a tavern car, and an observation car from which to choose.  I don't need all these cars and I don't expect any of them to be truely accurate.  The chair cars and the observation car in the MTH set would probably be fine for my purposes.  I'd like the remaining two cars in my consist to be a combination car and either a diner, a parlor car, or a tavern car; but it seems I'll have to settle for less.  

PULL FREIGHT UNTIL THE PASSENGER CARS SOME ALONG

Actually they pulled 2 types mentioned. The baggage and RPOs were repainted heavyweights both Harriman cars and traditional monitor roof cars were used. Heavyweight diner cars were also repainted.

Pete

I was fortunate in that a fellow OGR forum member sold me 8 K-Line heavyweight SP Daylight 18" passenger cars for $200. The techie at my LHS repaired all loose wiring and unlit bulbs and the DAYLIGHT signature (I forget the proper term) on the tail end of the observation car and....all for under $20. I have heard you can run these on 0-54 but I will try my hardest to keep them on O-72.

The only possible negative is that they have the silhouette people showing in the windows. Until I actually run it I'll withhold opinion on the pros or cons of the silhouettes. I am presently VERY happy with these cars.

Please go back and recheck my post, as you incorrectly quoted what I stated. I stated "best in the 3-Rail Market". Thus, that eliminates all those extremely "high end" O SCALE 2-Rail passenger cars that sell for well over $500 EACH.

@ Erik You are right, for the "money best on the market."

There's a compromise inherent in what the OP said. On O54 you'd have no luck trying to run the GGD Daylight cars, which are the best in 3 Rail hands down. MTH streamliner passenger cars have become rather generic IMHO - only the paint schemes differ. Best bet may be LIonel 18" Daylight cars; the Shasta daylight 5 car set and 2 car add on pack are hard to beat.

First step is to get the engine. Assuming the newest MTH Daylight Northern matches their passenger cars then the 2005 Lionel cars will be a better paint match as the early Lionel cars and current MTH cars are a very close match. i have both. The Shasta cars are much darker than either. If I read the OP correctly he is looking for post 1946 cars so that rules out the 2005 Lionel cars as they are lettered SP LINES. Pretty much comes down to MTH cars or live with a paint mismatch.

Pete

I think that LOS has given you an excellent suggestion. You are restricted to 0-54, so the METAL Lionel SP 18" cars would be your best option. As mentioned, they are not scale, but look as good as you are going to get to stay within the 0-54 parameters you have set.

We see this from time to time. Someone buys an engine without first figuring out if he can run any satisfactory cars behind it. Sort of a cart before the horse thing. Now you know - it can produce a dilemma. I think Passenger Train Collector has a good solution, that the Lionel cars are your best bet, assuming the colors are a close match with your MTH engine. That's an additional factor and potential problem no one has mentioned that arises when mixing and matching engines and passenger cars from different manufacturers - color. There are a lot of variations among different manufacturers.

For example, the K-Line Daylight cars/engine have considerably different shades of orange and red than the Lionel cars/engine, and they'll look lousy together. MTH has changed their Daylight colors over the years- don't know how close the current MTH Daylight color shades are to the Lionel ones, but I think the MTH colors are now closer than they used to be.

The Lionel cars at 18" are still pretty big, and look great with the scale engines. But your 054 limitation is a reality, so you just have to accept the fact that you can't have super big engines or cars. With the 18" cars, you're still going to have a fair amount of overhang on curves, but if you have to have larger stuff on a limited size layout, that's just the way it is. I have a smaller layout also, and 18" cars work, although the 15" look better, and are mostly what I run.

One other factor will be finding the Lionel cars - they're fairly scarce, especially finding them by themselves. Finding older complete passenger car sets is often problematic. While, as Passenger Car Collector notes, the Lionel cars are metal (which many prefer), if the cars are all painted (like the Daylights), plastic may be acceptable to you. All things considered, getting the matching MTH cars is certainly worthy of consideration as well, given that you will have a MTH engine. That choice certainly eliminates a lot of guesswork.

Oops- a fun thread needs a bump!

Remember - the early Daylight cars were 77' long.  That is 19 1/4" in O Scale.

Opinion! The very expensive brass Daylight cars were not all that great, especially in comparison to the much lower cost Sunset cars.