1:29 SCALE PASSENGER CARS
Manufacturer: ARISTO-CRAFT TRAINS, 346 Bergen Avenue, Jersey City, NJ 07304. Price: Ready-to-run ART-31510 Southern Pacific Dining Car, ART-31707 New York Central Combine Car $199.95 each suggested list.
ARISTO-CRAFT'S NEWEST passenger cars carry on the quality of the cars we reviewed in our December 1992/January 1993 issue: striking paint and graphics, good detail, neat assembly, and handsome overall proportions.
They represent 72 foot standard heavyweight passenger cars deriving from 1920-era Association of American Railroads design and actually scale 71 feet 4 inches long by 13 feet 11 inches wide by 10 feet high in 1:29 scale (29 1/2 by 5 3/4 by 4 1/8 actual inches). They negotiate two foot radius track, but excessive overhang and potential clearance problems with tunnel portals, bridges, and sidings make a wider radius much more desirable.
The cars are mostly ABS plastic but they have solid brass grab irons and handrails, chemically blackened metal wheels and screws, and brass springs on realistic equalized trucks. For more information, please refer to the December/January review. The main purpose of this review is to draw attention to the new paint schemes and the combine, a model new to the line.
The Southern Pacific dining car comes in the famous red, orange, silver, and black Daylight scheme. Since, in all other respects, it is identical to other ARISTO-CRAFT diners, I will mention only two things:
First, the shade of orange is too dark. It is close enough to the red above and below it to fail to stand out. Otherwise, the paint job is excellent.
Second, somebody at ARISTO-CRAFT has a unique sense of whimsy. The car carries the name Donner Pass. Yes, the Southern Pacific tracks do indeed go through the pass. But, in case you somehow missed a most fascinating tidbit of nineteenth century California history, the Donner wagon train party found itself caught in the pass during severe winter weather and had to survive on a rather unusual menu.
The combination car has operating side and end doors and an accurate two-tone gray New York Central "lightning stripe" paint scheme. So, while it may be new, ARISTO-CRAFT is producing it match previous passenger cars and roadnames. Again, ARISTO-CRAFT has taken extra care with the graphics. Correct markings even occur on the underbody air tanks and "Watch Your Step" appears on the end steps. The car ends also have markings, but they read "31707" instead of the "1707" on the car sides. ARISTO-CRAFT has correctly included 4-wheel trucks on the NYC cars but uses 6-wheel trucks under cars where such trucks are appropriate (Union Pacific cars, for example).
The combine has interior detail-seats in the passenger section, a partition, and bare floor in the baggage section. The lighting is over the passenger section, too, so the baggage area will receive only a small amount of illumination.
As with the company's other passenger cars, the quality is high and they present a very good appearance. No other manufacturer mass-produces anything similar. Anyone interested in standard gauge mainline passenger trains owes him- or herself a close look.-RR
