Description:

- Ready-To-Run
- Pike size passenger cars
- Realistic underframe detail
- High fidelity of details like little rivets
- Multiple authentic car numbers
- Characteristic arched roof
- Micro-Trains Couplers
- Perfect for your limited, local or even troop train movement.

Note: Pre-production Photos: The coach will have a brown roof and an additional stripe under the windows.

For Students of Railroading - A brief history.

Introduced in 1906, just before Henry Ford made famous the model ?T? automobile, these cars were the defining characteristics of steam passenger trains for the Union Pacific, the Illinois Central, the Southern Pacific and other associated railroads. For the traveling public, this was a step up for people riding in wooden coaches that would break like a match stick in the event of a derailment. So durable were these all steel cars that some they lasted until 1968. A life span of 60 years!

The great Edward Henry Harriman who controlled the Chicago & Alton Railroad, the Union Pacific, the Southern Pacific, the Illinois Central, the Central of Georgia, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, Wells Fargo Express Company, directed the development of the ?Common Standard Specifications? among the Associated Lines.

The Common Standard allowed common specifications of parts, car and locomotive design to be shared with all Harriman-controlled railroads. This allowed economical bid prices due to the sheer size of standardized orders.

Further, it allowed the Harriman-controlled railroads to standardize on part inventories and method for car repair. These cars were designed with the all distinctive arched roof and diamond underframe crossbearers, a departure from the clerestory roof design.

Developed by the Associated Lines for all Harriman controlled roads, these wide window coaches seated 68 passengers on Hale and Kilburn reversible seats. These C-4 and C-4 (Common Standard Specifications CS 217) were built by Pullman 1909 to 1912 and numbered 395 cars.

Initial purchasers of these cars were the Illinois Central, the Oregon Railway & Navigation, the Oregon- Washington Railroad & Navigation (UP), the Oregon Short Line (UP), SP Pacific Lines (SP, CP, O&C) and Texas and Louisiana Lines (T&NO, GH&SA, H&TC, HE&WT).

The most famous ?second hand? purchasers was the 20th Century Fox used in Hollywood movies. Later, it became Sierra Railroad No. 11. These cars were introduced in 1909 and some lasted more than 60 years later.