WALTHERS
HO Scale
Ready-To-Run
20th CENTURY LIMITED
PULLMAN STREAMLINED
22 ROOMETER - Bay Series SLEEPER Car
Out-Of-Production
DISCONTINUED By the Manufacturer
20th CENTURY LIMITED
Completely New from Diesels to Lookout Lounge!
* Based on 1948 Train * 9 Completely New Cars * Authentic Paint & Lettering * Superbly Detailed Inside & Out * PROTO-Max(TM) Die Cast Metal Knuckle Couplers * Matching PROTO 2000(R) E7 Diesels
No other train fired the imagination of the American public like New York Central's 20th Century Limited. Its exclusive clientele and blistering schedule between New York and Chicago made it the stuff of legends for 65 years. A favorite with business and industry leaders, its luxurious accommodations - including a red carpet on the platform at New York - also attracted stars of stage and screen, further fueling the train's celebrity status and romantic image.
New equipment finally arrived from Pullman in 1948, supplemented by refurbished 4-4-2 sleepers and RPOs from the 1938 trains. Painted in a new version of the two-tone gray scheme, sleepers and observations were named for various bodies of water in salute to the "Water Level Route" slogan. Up front, matched sets of EMD E7s provided 4000 horsepower to meet the 16-hour westbound, 15-1/2 hour eastward schedule.
20TH CENTURY CONSIST A typical consist in the late 1940s would include the following (the actual number of sleepers would change daily to meet demand, and the train usually ran in two sections):
E7 A-B Diesel Set (used for entire trip) One RPO/Baggage Five 4-4-2 sleepers Three 10-6 sleepers One Lounge One Dorm/Kitchen One Full Diner Three 13 Double-bedroom sleepers ATSF 10-6 or 4-4-2 Sleeper* One Observation/Lounge
*Starting in 1946, ATSF and NYC offered run-through service so coast-to-coast passengers wouldn't need to change trains at Chicago; Santa Fe cars went east on the "20th Century," while New York Central 4-4-2 Bridge and 10-6 River sleepers went west on the "Chief."
Like the prototype, Walthers 20th Century is "Completely New from Diesels to Lookout Lounge!" And best of all, you can build a complete and affordable Century fleet, from the Phase II EMD E7 diesels to the train's signature "...Creek" series observation-lounge.
In addition, these First Edition models include a special certificate of authenticity, and an in-depth history of each car and loco!
PLEASE NOTE: As these cars are the correct prototype length and feature full underbody detail to match the prototypes, a minimum 24" radius is recommended for operation. Photos show preproduction models with modeler-applied grab irons installed and painted; some details may vary. And Like the New York Central, you'll want the best motive power available to pull your 1948 Century - the all-new PROTO 2000 EMD Phase II E7 diesels available with or without sound and DCC.
SLEEPING CAR HISTORY
The sleeping car or sleeper (often wagon-lit) is a railway passenger car that can accommodate all passengers in beds of one kind or another, for the purpose of sleeping. George Pullman was the American innovator of the sleeper car.
History
The first American sleeping car, the "Chambersburg" started service on the CVRR in 1839.
In the spring of 1839, the Cumberland Valley Railroad pioneered sleeping car service in America with a car named "Chambersburg", between Chambersburg and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. A couple of years later a second car, the "Carlisle", was introduced into service.
The man who ultimately made the sleeping car business profitable in the United States was George Pullman, who began by building a luxurious sleeping car (named Pioneer) in 1865. The Pullman Company, founded as the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1867, owned and operated most sleeping cars in the United States until the mid-20th century, attaching them to passenger trains run by the various railroads; there were also some sleeping cars that were operated by Pullman but owned by the railroad running a given train. During the peak years of American passenger railroading, several all-Pullman trains existed, including the 20th Century Limited on the New York Central Railroad, the Broadway Limited on the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Panama Limited on the Illinois Central Railroad, and the Super Chief on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
Pullman cars were normally a dark "Pullman green", although some were painted in the host railroad's colors. The cars carried individual names, but usually did not carry visible numbers. In the 1920s, the Pullman Company went through a series of restructuring steps, which in the end resulted in a parent company, Pullman Incorporated, controlling the Pullman Company (which owned and operated sleeping cars) and the Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing Company. Due to an antitrust verdict in 1947, a consortium of railroads bought the Pullman Company from Pullman Incorporated, and subsequently railroads owned and operated Pullman-made sleeping cars themselves. Pullman-Standard continued manufacturing sleeping cars and other passenger and freight railroad cars until 1980.
For nearly a year at the end of World War II the United States government banned sleeping cars for runs of less than 450 miles (720 km). The development of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s and the expansion of jet airline travel in the same decade negatively impacted train travel.
One unanticipated consequence of the rise of Pullman cars in the US in the 19th and early 20th centuries was their effect on civil rights and African-American culture. Each Pullman car was staffed by a uniformed porter. The majority of Pullman Porters were African Americans. While still a menial job in many respects, Pullman offered better pay and security than most jobs open to African Americans at the time, in addition to a chance for travel, and it was a well regarded job in the African-American community of the time. The Pullman attendants, regardless of their true name, were traditionally referred to as "George" by the travelers, the name of the company's founder, George Pullman. The Pullman company was the largest employer of African Americans in the United States.
Railway porters fought for political recognition and were eventually unionized. Their union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (established, 1925), became an important source of strength for the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement in the early 20th century, notably under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph. Because they moved about the country, Pullman porters also became an important means of communication for news and cultural information of all kinds. The African-American newspaper, the Chicago Defender, gained a national circulation in this way. Porters also used to re-sell phonograph records bought in the great metropolitan centers, greatly adding to the distribution of jazz and blues and the popularity of the artists.
From the mid-19th to the mid-20th centuries, the most common and more economical type of sleeping car accommodation on North American trains was the "open section". Open-section accommodations consist of pairs of seats, one seat facing forward and the other backward, situated on either side of a center aisle. The seat pairs can be converted into the combination of an upper and a lower "berth", each berth consisting of a bed screened from the aisle by a curtain. A famous example of open sections can be seen in the movie Some Like It Hot (1959).
Private Accommodations
In the mid-to-late 20th century, an increasing variety of private rooms was offered. Most of these rooms provided significantly more space than open-section accommodations could offer. Open-sections were increasingly phased out in the 1950s, in favor of roomettes. Some of them, such as the rooms of the "Slumbercoach" cars manufactured by the Budd Company and first put into service in 1956, were triumphs of miniaturization. These allowed a single car to increase the number of sleepers over a conventional sleeping car of private rooms.
Roomettes
A Roomette, in the historically correct sense of the word, is a private room for a single passenger, containing a single seat, a folding bed, a toilet (not in a private cubicle of its own), and a washbasin. When a traditional Roomette is in night mode, the bed blocks access to the toilet. Like open sections, Roomettes are placed on both sides of the car, with a corridor down the center. Duplex Roomettes, a Pullman-produced precursor to the Slumbercoach, are staggered vertically, with every second accommodation raised a few feet above the car's floor level, in order to make slightly more efficient use of the space. Single-passenger Slumbercoach accommodations are a particularly spartan form of roomette; Slumbercoaches also included a few two-passenger units.
Compartments and Double Bedrooms are private rooms for two passengers, with upper and lower berths, washbasins, and private toilets, placed on one side of the car, with the corridor running down the other side (thus allowing the accommodation to be slightly over two thirds the width of the car). Frequently, these accommodations have movable partitions allowing adjacent accommodations to be combined into a suite.
Drawing Rooms and Larger Accommodations
A Drawing Room is a relatively rare accommodation for three people traveling together, again with a washbasin and private toilet, again on one side of the car. Even rarer are larger rooms accommodating four or more; generally the needs of large parties were better served with multiple rooms, with or without the ability to combine them into a suite.
This is the PULLMAN STREAMLINED
22 ROOMETTE - BAY Series SLEEPER Car
932-9315
Car Features:
Accurately scaled from engineering drawings
Scaled Dimensions & Rivet Detail
Complete End, Roof & Underbody Detailing
Factory - Installed Side Door Hand Rails
Scale set-back windows
Correct Trucks with RP-25 Metal Wheels
Detailed Full Interiors
Full Decal Set
Removable Roof
Standard Drawbar Gearbox
Light pick ups installed (accepts light bar - sold separately)
Crisp detailed, realistic lettering, matched to prototype photographs
Realistic satin paint finish, great for weathering
Great for weathering with chalks or airbrush
Detailed truck side frames
Low-friction, nonmagnetic, needlepoint metal axles, no lubrication required.
Minimum Radius 24 inches recommended
It is part of the
" 20th CENTURY LIMITED " Series
with paperwork and CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY
SHIPPING:
We do combine shipping on
multiple purchases. If you do a Buy It
Now the transaction requires immediate payment for each item separately.
What you need to do is put it in the shopping cart and then
when you go to checkout it will recalculate the shipping and combine the items
for you.
If you pay first I am unable to make any adjustment because
ebay has then taken its fees on the shipping as well. If you have a concern message me and I can
work something out for you.
THIS IS AN ASSEMBLED Item
The item is NEW in the original box from old stock
PERSONAL INVENTORY:
Many of these unique items are from my personal inventory
which was accumulated over the years.
They are hard to part with but due to downsizing in retirement they too
are looking for a good home which can appreciate and enjoy them.
STORE INVENTORY:
Having discontinued my Hobby Store and left frigid
“Minne-Snow-Da” I have relocated and retired to the warmer part of the country,
Down to Sunny TEXAS.
I will be Liquidating the remaining stock.
I will be listing items over the next year or so clearing
them out.
Please see the photos we take actual photos of each item
Most of these items are New in the box removed only to take
photos of them.