I had heard the colors were not correct.  remember hearing Danny P. repainted a train to correct colors.

Love to see them finished. It's amazing how often they come up on E-bay. Don

Thank you, Erik! Those sets look incredible! I'd love to put together a Hiawatha, and this seems like the best option. The super dome looks amazing. I'll definitely look into these.... I better start saving for that Key set!

Eric,

great post. I've wanted to build some Walthers Pullmans, but all I've seen have unpainted sides and roofs. Is their a series of Pullmans that are painted, especially heavyweights, or all the painted cars streamlines like HI, UP and SP ?

Ron H

Again Erik, another excellent post!

The designer of The "Skytop Lounge", Brooks Stevens did quite a job.  One of the finest passenger cars to ride the rails.  He also designed one of the longest produced automobiles in history, the 1963-1991 Jeep Wagoneer. 

Erik  another great post!! My dad and his father worked for the Milwaukee at the Western Av coach yard in Chicago for almost 90 years. he worked on all the Hi's but his favorite was the one you pictured till they got repainted in UP colors.

But now again you got my attention diverted from layout building looking at the Walther's kits.

John Kiel yes he was a master to say the least with his ability to crank out high quality detail pieces was amazing. I talked to him when the Weaver hoppers came out and gave him an idea for the bracing for the offset hoppers, the corners and the weights. the next day he had them ready to go. He and his wife Martha wonderful people and he is truly missed.

Ron H to the best of my knowledge only the Hi's were pre-painted. i have never seen any other pre-painted Walthers' kits.

Excellent pictures Erik. If I had deep enough pockets I would purchase Keil-line I am praying someone does as there is not one passenger car I have built since I started building train models that did not benefit from his castings, details or trucks to be more prototypical.  The walthers heavyweight kits to my knowledge were allways unpainted so you the modeler can decide. When I started 5 years ago the hardest thing is and was sourcing parts, with Mr. Keil's passing some things have gotten harder. Nothing more satisfying and frustrating than building it yourself.

While my wife and I were dating, high school, her Dad was often working on a Walthers O scale passenger car kit. I was in HO at the time......never understood why he built those expensive kits as I was picking up Athrean HO HW kits for about $4! If I had the vision then I'd bought as many of those Walthers kits as I could......but hindsight is 20/20. Thanks for showing the kits. 

what? Dave found a girl whose Dad builds trains, AND he marries her? what a genius!

My father-in-laws oldest brother worked for the PRR. 

He was an engineer. He was one of the crew members that worked the 1939 World's Fair that 'ran' the S1 display for the PRR. So when my Father-in-law visited the Fair.....he got a cab tour!! One of the reasons I had to have a O scale S1!!! 

And now you can figure out why I got converted from a west coast railfan to a PRR fan! Thx

Erik, a couple of questions about the Super Dome and Skytop Lounge cars.

Was the full length dome a single piece of clear plastic that was later painted by the modeler?  Or, a frame with "windows" installed after painting?

And the dome/frame for the Skytop Lounge is a single piece of clear plastic to be painted by the modeler?

Hey Pingman if that superdome is one vacuformed piece and painted that car gets my vote for best in show that's some fine painting

Erik said the dome was a Railway Classics dome.  Here is a similar one, certainly a nice piece.

http://www.brasstrains.com/cla...awatha-Super-Dome-55

Enlightening thread.  I had no idea these were anything more than just standard Walthers kits with pre-painted smooth sides.  That skytop plastic piece looks like the way to go.

How do they measure up to K- Line?  I saw a few K-Lines including the Skytop, and was impressed, except the maroon looked brown to me.

If I decide to lay in more trains (doubtful) it will be a die cast Bi-polar, a sand-cast or scratch Erie-Built, and a string of K-Line Hiawatha cars, repainted maroon instead of brown.

ABSOLUTELY AGREE!!!

Thanks, Howard.  I didn't understand the reference to Railway Classics in Erik's post, but your link showed me this is an HO model.

And as Erik points out, any Skytop lounge that doesn't use flat glass per the prototype is just wrong.

For those who want to look at prototype photos, Google "Milwaukee Road Skytop Lounge images" and you'll see plenty.  It's one of my favorites.

It's probably worth noting that the sleeper Olympian Creek series Skytops were built to Brooks design at Pullman Standard. The home shops built the Rapids series Parlors. 

HO guys are so spoiled. 

Look at these things. 3D litho scanned high end tooling. 

Out of of box on the track...

Hey Atlas or whoever look at the design of this model; it is fantastic. 

SuperDome is SUPER

Like I wrote --HO GUYS ARE SPOILED!

How does the MTH OBS compare??? I have not seen it brought up yet. 

True. We are out-numbered in that condition as well as in their volume of whining combined with a willingness to buy in mass quantities. 

Trucks look mighty squatty on that MTH car - anybody have a clear shot of them?

I think this would be a fantastic project for Golden Gate Depot. I'd be in for a full set if done by them. Atlas would be nice too, but I doubt they would jump in in the short term.

Maybe we could start a petition for Sunset Models?

3rd Rail could re-run their E units in Milwaukee livery!

It could be a great third in a row best passenger car of the year for Sunset.

ToT, El Cap and the Hiawatha!

I've enjoyed the photos of the prototypes and models, and the information noting the compromises the manufacturers/importers make.

When I jumped back into trains  I was excited about MTH and purchased the Blue Goose passenger set plus extra cars and the Milwaukee Hiawatha set plus extra cars. Eventually found out the unprototypical nature of the cars and promptly sold the blue cars , they were pretty but I will build a proper consist over time for the Goose, I kept the Hiawatha as they are the only short cars I have left and look nice would be interested in the Hiawatha if Sunset or GGD made it . It appears that Scott is getting the extrusions capable to do multiple passenger car consists  in the bag and eventually O might have all the toys that HO does. Now we need the #'s. But before the Hiawatha I would still like to see  a Prototypical North Coast Limited.