Rivarossi A and B sets


StingraySteve

New Member
Anybody know how many HO scale passenger cars Rivarossi made as a complete set? I have 4 Santa Fe heavyweights and would like to aquire every version Rivarossi/AHM made. I have never seen an actual list of passenger car types. Just vague descriptions (" Set B , 4 car set, 6 car set...... Many times from the pictures on E Bay it appears the "Sets" are simply multiple cars with identical numbers. I would be okay with duplicates after I have acquired one of each of the various car types. A 13 car train would be great. Dumb question I'm apologizing in advance. This is probably one of those topics that has been discussed over and over. Thanks for any help.
 
Hi Steve.
I have a copy of "Model Railroader" magazine dated October 1998 which has a two page advert by Model Expo Inc of Florida for Rivarossi Passenger car sets.
There are 23 sets of four 1920s heavy weight cars each with A and B sets for 21 road names. UP and B&O have two sets of four cars each !
(Different liveries).
In the listings there are also the individual part numbers for the cars included in each A & B set as they were available separately.
As an example.
Santa Fe 6914 A set.
6566 Baggage Exp
2716 Combine.
2732 Diner
2717 Pullman.

Santa Fe 6915 B set.
2807 RPO Bagg
2743 Coach.
2821 Dup sleeper
2725 Observ car.

Reading further it seems that each of the sets contains the same car type combinations for any road name.

If you need more info then ask but you may be able to find a copy of the magazine on your side of the pond if this info is what you need.
By the way there are 27 1930s smoothside sets each with A and B sets.

Hope this helps. Colin.
 
Anybody know how many HO scale passenger cars Rivarossi made as a complete set? I have 4 Santa Fe heavyweights and would like to aquire every version Rivarossi/AHM made.
That would be 8 cars. As far as I knew the only "set" that AHM did with more than 8 was the streamlined Missouri Pacific. So the B&O and UP 8 car sets that Hunslet040 mentioned are news to me. I wonder if that means 16 unique cars or if there are dups between the sets.

I have never seen an actual list of passenger car types. Just vague descriptions (" Set B , 4 car set, 6 car set...... Many times from the pictures on E Bay it appears the "Sets" are simply multiple cars with identical numbers.
Yes on ebay anything goes for description. When AHM went under, Rivarossi chose to market the "Set A" and "Set B" of 4 cars each. So if you have one of those you have one of each kind of car they made.

I would be okay with duplicates after I have acquired one of each of the various car types. A 13 car train would be great.
In real life a car "set" is totally different and will contain many duplicates of kinds of cars. For example to simulate a real train one would want more baggage, coach, and sleepers in the consist because that is where the revenue comes from. You mention the Santa Fe, so that could range from the early 1900s California Special (with all sleepers), to the later 1940s when it was almost all express, baggage and mail cars.

You can research the Santa Fe trains by name California Limited, Scout, Ranger, Grand Canyon Limited, etc. Try queries that include the word "consist", to try to track down exact cars used in each train. To me, a typical Santa Fe trans-con train in the late 1930s would have (maybe an RPO), two baggage cars, dorm-baggage, 3-5 coaches, lounge/parlor, diner, 3-5 sleeper cars, observation. When Santa Fe trains got too long, instead of adding cars and more locos they just ran a second train and called it a 2nd section. It is reported one Christmas the California Limited left Chicago in 23 sections, others contend that was the El Capitan instead.

If you care, the California Limited was always a heavyweight train being replaced with lightweight cars and a new name "the San Francisco Chief" in 1954. The Grand Canyon Limited on the other hand transitioned from heavyweight cars to the lightweight as other trains handed them down. It lasted all the way up to Amtrak.
 
I really love the E1 diesels. Did Santa Fe ever use them to pull the "Pullman green" heavyweights? I think that would look great with the Signal Red warbonnet scheme or maybe I'll custom paint and decal some "beater" Athearn F7 A & B units in Pullman green and delux gold. I grew up with TYCO toy trains so I do love it when the Loco paint scheme matches the cars even when not prototypical. Steve
 
I really love the E1 diesels. Did Santa Fe ever use them to pull the "Pullman green" heavyweights?
My first response is that the short answer is no. Mutt and Jeff pulled the Superchief when it started and was still heavyweight. It transitioned to lightweight cars before the E1s came into the picture.

When the E6s took over around 1941, the E1s were demoted, but usually as they were moved to lesser trains, the streamlined cars were also. A bigger BUT is that one of those assignments was the Chief and the Chief regularly had heavyweight front end cars.
 
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Years ago I saw an N scale Boxed set that came with 4 green heavyweights and a single Red and silver War Bonnet F unit as power. Looked cool then but now that I know steam was generated by the B units. Even in my consists of fictitious color schemes I like to Imagine they are mechanically possible. Dumb question: Did Santa Fe ever have a green diesel in service? Yellow,Orange,Red and Blue I have seen.
 
Hi Steve. Glad to help.
The Rivarossi catalog is perfectly clear on my laptop.
If you click on the page list on the left on the page you want to see, the page appears on the right bigger than the box so you have to scroll around to see all of the page.
Page 138 is the start of the H0 coaches.
There are two ranges of Rivarossi coaches, the less detailed type with horn/hook couplers are the ones shown on the catalog pages the link leads to but there is another range with more detail and Kadee type couplers. I believe that these better type were sold through Walthers as well as in sets by Rivarossi. I can't find these in the catalog listings.
Try looking at the catalog again and I hope it works for you.
Regards, Colin.
 
Hi Steve. Glad to help.
The Rivarossi catalog is perfectly clear on my laptop.
If you click on the page list on the left on the page you want to see, the page appears on the right bigger than the box so you have to scroll around to see all of the page.
Page 138 is the start of the H0 coaches.
There are two ranges of Rivarossi coaches, the less detailed type with horn/hook couplers are the ones shown on the catalog pages the link leads to but there is another range with more detail and Kadee type couplers. I believe that these better type were sold through Walthers as well as in sets by Rivarossi. I can't find these in the catalog listings.
Try looking at the catalog again and I hope it works for you.
Regards, Colin.
Got it. Thanks
 
Did Santa Fe ever have a green diesel in service? Yellow,Orange,Red and Blue I have seen.
Yes the Mutt and Jeff units I mentioned above were kind of an olive green and cobolt blue. But they were a one off deal.
Santa Fe started with basic black switch units. Migrated to the zebra stripes for safety purposes.
The first FTs were blue and cream with red trim.
The first E was silver with sunset orange warbonnet, which quickly gave way to the standard silver with red warbonnet.
F units moved to the "cigar band" blue with a yellow stripe.
GP units started in zebra but later also got "book end" paint scheme where body was basic blue but each end was yellow, and even later the blue with yellow war bonnet.
There were a few F units in solid blue.
For a few years when the passenger F units were being retired to freight service they did a few silver with blue bonnet, and silver with yellow bonnet.
finally settled on the blue paint scheme with yellow war bonnet for everything.
During the Southern Pacific merger times, there was the red with yellow war bonnet called Kodachrome scheme.
 
Thanks Iron Horseman.
I saw a video of an HO E6 Warbonnet pulling a string of silver heavyweights. Valley Flyer coaches? I thought it looked great but seems I remember a semi-streamlined locomotive similar to the Blue Goose maybe? Did Rivarossi (or other mfr) offer these as 85 footers? Are the Con-cor VF cars full length?
 

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