PRODUCT REVIEW: 1:22.5 SCALE ROLLING STOCK
Manufacturer: LGB of America, 6444 Nancy Ridge Drive, San Diego, CA 92121. Price: Ready-to-run 32840 Denver, South Park & Pacific Baggage Car $117.75 suggested list; 45670 Colorado & Southern boxcar $100.95 suggested list.
TWO VERY POPULAR LGB railroad cars are back with different paint jobs and, as David Letterman would say, they look terrific. The Colorado & Southern boxcar is LGB's original Southern Pacific Narrow Gauge boxcar with some additional and effective detail. The South Park baggage car originally appeared in Denver & Rio Grande Western yellow, black and silver and looks at least as good in bright red, black, and silver.
LGB typically strives to capture the flavor of real railroad cars rather than precisely trying to duplicate them. Purists should then realize the C&S boxcar has neither the exact dimensions, proportions, details, nor graphics of a real C&S car but it does provide a beautiful and top quality complement to LGB's C&S Moguls, reefers, flatcars, and cabooses. If you care to make a direct comparison, LGB's artists apparently used boxcar number 8258 on page 39 of Robert L. Grandt's Narrow Gauge Pictorial, Volume VIII, as a guide.
The car is mostly extremely high quality injection molded plastic with metal truss rods, brake staff, wheel axles, and screws. The solid brass brake staff is a relatively new improvement, as is the separate plastic lower brake staff support casting, the separate brakewheel casting, and the separate press in grab irons. The operating doors are a carryover from earliest production.
The car's finish is Tuscan red with excellent quality white lettering on its sides and ends, dark "weathering" on the roof, and dark gray truck sideframes. The other parts of the car are black.
The South Park baggage car derives its heritage from D&RGW number 126. Its length is undersize and its height oversize for that car but its length is pretty close to most baggage cars on the C&S (32 feet instead of 34). Since most C&S passenger cars came from its predecessor, the Denver, South Park & Pacific, the car should appear pretty much at home behind LGB's South Park Mogul. Since the original baggage car's introduction about four years ago, it has been a very popular item in LGB's catalogue and the folks at Nuremberg will need a crowbar to pry it from the greedy hands of the OR staff.
The baggage car also is mostly injection molded plastic. Aside from screws and axles, the only metal parts are the solid brass grab irons on the car ends. The car captures the detailing of the original very well, even down to the beautiful boltheads and the width of the siding. The truck sideframes are works of art and the intricacy of the truss rod and turnbuckle castings is awesome.
The primary color of the car is bright red. The lettering is silver. So is the roof. The rest of the car is black and the contrasts are striking.
Unless you demand absolute fidelity to a specific prototype, LGB products are virtually impossible to criticize. The quality of their components and assembly is superb, their decoration is outstanding, and their charismatic qualities compel you take them home. Need we say more?-RR
