Hi there,
Does anyone know if Life-Like ever made a baggage car and a combine car. I have some Amtrak passenger cars with the figures at the windows on paper and would like to get one of each baggage car and combine car if they can be found.
Short answer is no Baggage or Combine cars were done..
Life-Like only did the Observation, Full Dome, Coach, and Dome-Diner cars, and they appear to be getting phased out by Walthers since they bought Life-Like.
Len
Actually they did make a combine but not for Amtrak and it wasn't a streamline car, but rather a heavyweight car. They also made a Pullman, Diner, coach, & observation for the heavyweights. They came in PRR (Tuscan red) or Unlettered (Pullman green). The 60' streamline cars came in B&O, AT&SF & AMTRAK. They made a full dome, observation, vista dome, dome diner & coach. Incidentally it is a moot point, because they have all been discontinued and probably won't be made anymore, but some hobby-shops, flea-markets or train-shows probably have some yet.
Quote from: ACY on January 05, 2011, 11:53:58 AM
Actually they did make a combine but not for Amtrak and it wasn't a streamline car, but rather a heavyweight car. They also made a Pullman, Diner, coach, & observation for the heavyweights. They came in PRR (Tuscan red) or Unlettered (Pullman green).
Some of these came in boxes labeled "Scenemaster." They show up on eBay. Not the greatest looking cars in the world, but their length is convenient for a small layout with sharp curves.
Those streamline cars date back to Penn Line, who left the train business in 1964 and a portion of their tooling and products were purchased by Varney, who produced some of the items just before being sold to become Life-Like. There are baggage and RPO cars that match the other cars, I have at least one of them here, but it appears they haven't been made in a long time and you may be on your own with regard to painting them to match.
Quote from: lvrr325 on January 06, 2011, 06:03:37 AM
Those streamline cars date back to Penn Line, who left the train business in 1964 and a portion of their tooling and products were purchased by Varney, who produced some of the items just before being sold to become Life-Like. There are baggage and RPO cars that match the other cars, I have at least one of them here, but it appears they haven't been made in a long time and you may be on your own with regard to painting them to match.
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No kidding, I checked a few of the Walthers catalogs and I checked the oldest one we had and they were not listed, it has been at least 30 years since they were made. I do not think it is worth the trouble to find them, paint them and possibly "refurbish" them.
Thanks to everyone who replied. I figured as much that there weren't any made. Just wanted to make sure. I have some coach cars and the vista domes and observation cars and just wanted to add to the set. You are right. Not worth the time to track em down and paint em and refurbish them. Guess I should upgrade to Athearn cars or Walther cars...LOL!!
The Life-Like passenger cars are around but I don't know why anyone would want to run them. They aren't all 30 years old, though the ones labeled Life-Like may be. I did buy some once to remove the silhouette strips in the windows. Other than that their best use is as a train wreck scene or a roadside diner.
Quote from: Doneldon on January 07, 2011, 01:51:04 AM
The Life-Like passenger cars are around but I don't know why anyone would want to run them. They aren't all 30 years old, though the ones labeled Life-Like may be. I did buy some once to remove the silhouette strips in the windows. Other than that their best use is as a train wreck scene or a roadside diner.
You completely misunderstood what I said, the streamline baggage and RPO haven't been made in at least 25-30 years as best as I can tell. All the other streamline cars were last produced for individual sale in 2006, and have since been discontinued, but the one set came with 2 ATSF streamline cars and that was made up until 2009 if I recall correctly.