Building The Ultimate HO Amtrak Passenger Train
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- A few months ago I was sent several passenger cars as a project. Today I got them out of their boxes and finally assembled them to build a complete Amtrak passenger train. I believe the cars are 70s era but I ended up running them with several different locomotives anyway.
Those cars are gorgeous, and they worked really well visually with each logo you showed. Thanks for sharing!
Good idea using CA glue, very easy to break it down again if you decide to add interiors to the cars. Too many cars I see get ruined because folks think they need to use epoxy or Model plasti weld glues which then require cutting. I have never secured bodies to any cars except with screws on those that come that way, so much easier to get apart and do whatever needs doing, especially repainting. Great video!!
Five truly beautiful carriages, and four beautiful locomotives (even the growly one). I wish you, Sir, "More power to your elbow!"
You can hear how smoothly the cars run. The same for all the locomotives. Very nice, indeed.
the 2th train is... SICK!!! 🤑🤩
@@martenmusa8028 in proper English it's 2nd...
is a sother fire
Always liked Amtrak stuff. Rode it a lot as a kid.
Beautiful sound as well as appearance.
Had these same amtrak cars as a kid, definitely takes me back to a rough time in life but a good time, thank you SMT !! greetings from southern California
1:55 Great tips re: weights and gluing them in to dampen the unrealistic rattling noises. I bought my first glue gun recently based on your use of one for multiple tasks.
Awesome Amtrak set. Looks good. I too have an Amtrak set. Phase 3, Walthers EMD F40 loco, 4 coach cars and 2 superliners. From Texas.
I love these Athearn blue box passenger cars, got a set of SP and UP cars myself! They're so easy to assemble, the only difficult (if you can call it that) is installing the window glazing. In some cases you may have to file down the outer edges of the glass to get them to fit properly. Just file very small incriminates at a time and test fit them, that way you don't file to much of the material away!
be careful with type of glue
@@billfusionenterpriseI've been pretty lucky, haven't had to use glue on mine, but I keep a bottle of canopy glue around just in case!
@@randallellison6421 one trick i do fro windows on building is scotch tape, frosted for no interiot building and easy to apply
Very nice train. All it needs is an observation car and it will be a complete passenger train.
only thing is they where ran much as time went on
Nice work!!! And as an owner of several blue-box Athearn passenger units - adding the extra weight is a good idea. But that can get a bit difficult when one adds interiors, as I have done....FYI...I uses interiors for older Rivarossi passenger sets and kitbached them to fit the Athearn units. I even added LED lighting, with a power supply unit in the baggage car.
I remember my brother had a full set of these cars, including a rear observation car in the same Amtrak livery. Plus a matching F40PH (might have even been the same LifeLike unit you were running at the end!), it was a regular runner under the tree at the holidays.
I started out to mention putting the couplers on before mating trucks to the chassis, but I see you did this after the first assembly/ install. Well done sir! I am new to the channel and I am very pleased I found you! Great material every time!
I bought 3 of these in B&O livery brand new back in 05, mine are lighted, that is why half the wheels are plastic, to avoid shorting out, probably just cheaper to use those wheelsets in the unlighted models as well instead of having a set of wheelsets for one and a different set of wheelsets for the other.
The nostalgia! When I was younger, I had these exact cars that I had collected at different model train shows and a similar P42 locomotive. I miss this collection.
Saweeet!! Ive been waiting to see you put those cars together and run them. Looks great with that old F40ph pulling them. Reminds me of the Amtrak trip i took as a youngin’. Thanks for sharing!
What would make the train look even nicer would be another coach or two, and an observation car, otherwise, that’s a nice train, like the video🚂
This video is wayyy under rated. Instead of 5 star review on this video, I'll go for 1000 Stars!😀
I always love some Amtrak action. Very nice.
The silver express, definitely looks pretty good on this Amtrak passenger train, although I liked it better with the Dash-8 and F40PH. (PS: The Dash-8 could use a snowplow)
make a video where you mix these vintage amtrak cars with some modern amfleets and horizon czrs and some sleepers and maybe even some superliners
That is one awesome train! Thanks for showing this. Great Vid SMT!!
Your skill set makes everything look SO easy...very talented sir
The classic well forks I love that
Good idea hot gluing the standard weights as well. They often times come loose. Good video on how to upgrade basic Athearn passenger cars.
Very enjoyable video & nostalgic for me. In 1975 I was a teenage model railroader in suburban Vancouver, British Columbia. I managed to acquire some of the Athearn Blue Box Amtrak passenger cars you assembled in your video, from local hobby shops. The rest of the Athearn Amtrak cars I bought on a day trip from New Westminster to Seattle return on the slapdash ' Pacific International' Amtrak train. I had a note from my parents, so had no aggro crossing the border. In downtown Seattle I took an ancient Twin Coach or Pullman trolley bus from near King Street Station to north side of downtown Seattle. I went to the Frederick & Nelson Department store, which had a hobby shop on the 5th floor. At F&N, I bought the rest of the Amtrak Athearn Blue Box kit passenger cars, so I had a complete consist, including the round end observation car. Then I walked to the Woolworth's store in downtown Seattle. Woolworth's had a large selection of H.O. model railway items in the toy department. There I bought an AHM / Rivarossi H.O. scale E unit locomotive in Amtrak colour scheme, to go with my Amtrak Athearn Blue Box passenger train consist. The Amtrak " Pacific International " train that I returned to New Westminster on had an E unit on the head end, just like the AHM / Rivarossi model I had just bought, in Amtrak livery. The ragtag passenger cars on my trip back to New Westminster were in Amtrak colours, like my Athearn set. I wrote the car numbers down of my Amtrak train home, later I found out that most of the coaches were ex-Great Northern & Union Pacific & that the dome cafe observation was a former Wabash ' Blue Bird' car.
Anyway, I digress. Your video took me right back to assembling my Amtrak Blue Box passenger cars back in 1975. BTW, I still have those now 48 year old Athearn Amtrak cars I purchased in B.C. & Seattle. They still look fab. I can't remember where my AHM / Rivarossi E unit is, likely buried in storage crate, somewhere.....
Glad to see the new bridge is working well!
Excellent work, SMT Mainline!
What a nice looking train! Very good job Harrison I was a pleasure watching them run, great video.
I have the same passenger car set but mine is 7 cars long .... I did notice that your missing the observation car, basicaly its the caboose, it has a rounded end .... I love these cars, They look amazing Harrison!!!! 👍
This was a year ago and I'm sure you already got one but they are always on Ebay if you need one
I should go looking for one.
I’ve got a few of these coach kits too, the only only one I need is the diner. I’ve got an observation car to go along with these and it was a pain in the neck for me to install the rear windows, they kept popping out even with super glue.
Congratulations on finishing the hersheys factory
The GE Genesis looks best in front of those Amtrak passenger cars!
Yes! I did enjoy watching you assemble your Amtrak cars!!! I always enjoy your "assembly" and "repair" videos!!!!
The sound affect is amazing
Amazing Video! Please post more like this soon! I'm probably gonna request this train in the next Livestream if I'm in it.
2:39 Though pea-bulb lights do not appear to have been included, it appears the wheelsets were made that way to accomodate interior lighting. I had an early 70s blue box undec. heavyweight combination coach kit with the same configuration. The metal wheels became heavily oxidized over time.
depends, some kits did not have metal wheels and lighting kit was separate
All aboard Amtrak 👌 very nice passenger set and looks great with all the locomotives 👍
I got an Amtrak p42 #116 with dcc and sound with 5 Amtrak amfleat passenger cars
Good day to you, Hope you are doing well. Been watching allot of your video's. They have been been bringing back memories of when I was a kid and my father and I use to build layout's together. Sadly by the time I hit junior high and got on swim team I walked away from model railroading with my father. and he pretty much took it all apart and gave almost everything away. Then when I was done with high school I got working and found no time to get back into railroading. However recently I was injured in a wreck and disabled from it. So I am not able to work a regular job anymore and have lots of time on my hands. looking through you tube I found your page and started watching it. and found the railroading bug returning. I looked through the boxes of items my father had packed away and found a couple 0-4-0 switcher's a few cars not many though. and the old passenger station, water tower, and dock crane that were all that remained of our old layout. A couple friends have offered to help me set up 4x8 layout again. and I have taken the old buildings back apart stripped the paint off the building's and plan to repaint and build them. So I wanted to let you know you inspired someone to get back into model railroading
Welcome back to the hobby. I'm glad to hear you still have a couple of your 0-4-0s, they're solid locomotives which I'm sure will start even after being in storage
@@SMTMainline I know one for sure is I set up a small circle attract and put it on it with the old transformer just to see if it would run took off right down the track with no problem headlight even still Burns bright.
Recently I ordered and just received in the mail today. I'm wanting to do a small harbor scene on the layout, and these old 0-4-0 switchers were used as Dock side work, so they'll come in handy to be used for that.
3D very nice and congrats.
Lighting kit for those cars would be nice. Athearn cars and locos are rock solid but those passenger are not prototypical at 72 ft.
Think my new favorite Locomotive may be those diet Pepsi can Dash 8s
i wish european trains were this much work, get more satisfaction
Awesome video! These Athearn blue box stuff brings back memories, especially from my early childhood years in the mid-late 90s and I remember the HO Amtrak stuff. So Harrison, have you ever thought about motorizing one of the Revell plastic locomotive model kits before? Like either the Big Boy kit or one of the German locomotives made by Revell Germany? I'm not sure if that would be a cheaper alternative to buying a locomotive, especially a RTR German locomotive identical to one of those of the said kits.
i remember old german n scale passanger cars had boggies installed on pins with circlips, but between circlip and the chasis there was also a washer and little weak spring, so the boggie could picit under the car weight but in general it would keep itself straight,
SMT when will you do another video by putting the double track around the table?
On this addition of smt mainline -
Harrison builds a train, and possibly the double track mainline might be finished soon 😳
There is something really satisfying about putting a full set of equipment into service. And then it performs well.
Banner. I have really struggle make passenger equipment perform across my whole layout, so I have limited equipment
in service, and alot on Standby* lol My own fave is a set of Kato Superliners.
Anyway I need to ask you, did you use the wheelsets on those that P. Waco sent you? He noticed them and got
all excited. He requested I ask, (picture lurch in a bouncy house) so I ask. His computer is acting up so asked me to inquire.
I talked to him on the phone. Anyway you won't get the odd messages from him for a few days. A nice break. Take care.
Oh BTW I always had thought that there was an NMRA gauge in the crazy box he sent you, but he says there is yet
another (!! ) box that went missing long ago. cheers.
Hello, Harrison glad to see you finally got my gift I sent you to have a full-passenger Amtrak set and see you had fun putting them together, awesome to see them finally rolling on your layout cheers my friend.
Thanks again, they have been working wonderfully so far.
@@SMTMainline That is what I love about Aerthern blue box extremely reliable and easy to convert, for engines, freight cars and passengers next step is to put some led lights in most passenger cars and see them run at night.
Super cool!!!
Working on some N scale would be a nice diversion. 😁
Cool ho train
Wonderful... lately, my trains' couplers have started malfunctioning... they get detached... and some of them are partially broken.. I need to buy good quality couplers...
One of the best amtrak trains ive ever seen
I sent in my model train to a friend who said their dad may be able to fix it, and within 4 hours, he had! So I’m gonna get it back tomorrow!
(That one that burned my finger with its screwy circuit board)
I also realized that I have some Athearn passenger cars like the ones you unboxed in Northern Pacific colors
Fabulous video with some great tips. Would you consider doing a video with more detailed information on your control panel?
I really should as I get asked about it quite a bit.
I was thinking back then of making a MASSIVE Island Of Sodor layout in HO Scale. Safe to say is good thing I never got around to it. Would've cost me a pretty penny too.
I’m planning to get a used life-like amtrak f40ph locomotive and 3 amtrak cars all for 35 bucks. Is it a good deal? Is lifelike reliable?
Nicely done on the Amtrak set! I really like how your double mainline track is looking and running since you updated it...keep up the great videos...
Rich...
HO scale Amtrak passengers cars, HO scale superliner passengers cars set undecorated, Under Siege 2 Dark Territory.
Grand Continental train passengers.
I really enjoy you putting the Amtrak cars and passenger cars together! Great job ! Love the Amtrak train set going around the track❤❤😊😊👍👍😍💯💯
Great set-up - looks awesome and runs so well
Those Athearn streamliner cars are lovely! I have a Santa Fe set (although the Diner is Amtrak and I don't have a baggage car) That is probably my favorite thing to run. The good thing about modeling early Amtrak trains is that you can add in cars and locomotives from other railroads.
I have some budd Amtrak cars from Walthers mainline
Nice, those bluebox kits are always fun to build
Looks fantastic! And quiet also. Your layout changes add to SMTs overall functionality
We have some Athearn kit passenger cars as well which could benefit from some extra weight. I will remember the hot glue trick!
Chippewa Northern shop guys say "nicely done", Harrison. The shorter blue box cars look great on the layout.
Athearn passenger cars are a rabbit hole. First you put the cars together, and then you realize they are empty so you put an interior kit for each particular car that cost more than the passenger car itself. Of course you cannot see the interior you work so hard to put in the car. So then you get lights in the passenger car to illuminate the passenger car and then you realize the passenger car is empty. Now you buy a whole bag of passengers and you have to paint them all. So between the interior and the interior lighting and the passengers you spent three times what the passenger car kit originally cost you. That's that's how they get you. Of course that's part of the fun of the hobby hahaha 😂🤣😂😂😂😂🤣🤣.
Now this is quality entertrainment!
9:51 i also have that same station
Have you completed the double tracking all around the layout yet? And, also - How is that project layout coming along. We haven't been updated about that for a couple of weeks.
Awesome SMT, Have you ever thought of getting a ScaleTrains locomotive? they have NS, BNSF, CN, KCS, CSX, and more
I believe he's on the market for one.
He likes the older locomotives tho
bro please let me come over i wanted one of these my whole life
please make my dream come true
I have some cars like that but from Märklin in the santa fe livery, nice and shiny, but they were not kits, they are very similar to these
Need the Observation car to complete the consist and the cars need metal wheels.
if you get a bunch of athearn cars I highly recommend getting the A-Line bullseye jig. Screws the coupler clip in place and it's darn near bullet proof at that point.
You should use a E8 in Amtrak
It looks amazing. The only thing is missing is some am fleets.
Wow that’s old and classic I like it!
That Amtrak engine looks like bnsf
I think you should do another Santa fe super chief video and can you try to find some Santa fe cars?
Athern did such a good job!
Yes
I would go through my entire rolling stock haul and add weights to all of them if i had 5 minutes
I remember my model railroad club in Ada, OH having a complete set of the each of these Amtrak cars offered from Athearn including two Amtrak FP45s to pull the train. I wanted to mention that the wheels and the way the weights are made for Athearn's lighting system without wires, which was sold separately, but I don't see them for sale too often. Also, one car is missing. Athearn offered an observation car in Amtrak to round out the set.
11:59 why did i hear in my head a voice saying ' all we had to do, was follow that damn train, CJ!'?
It would be fitting.
I've got a set of Amtrak Life Like coaches that are illuminated. I changed the incandescent lighting to LED lighting. Now I've got to get an Amtrak F7 Athearn shell for my F7 I want to change over to Amtrak. That second engine has its own sound effects with the whine. The E-8 looked the best. Cheers from eastern TN
Oooh, I love me some old Amtrak model trains
I have those Exact Athearn Amtrak passenger cars. I have all of them except the other baggage you have and the diner and dome car. The only issue I had was the windows at first which I didn't have plastic nippers but now I do it makes stuff easier. Good work
Your layout is really shaping up. That Amtrak train looks swell.
Great looking Amtrak train! I still like those vintage Blue Box passenger car kits, they're quire reliable. I did a few as VIA Budd coaches.
YAY
Great looking set of cars.
I have. Plastic wheels and it doesn’t ruin my tracks
Do you a have a retail source for those weights you hot glued in the bottom of the cars?
Good looking train!
Nice looking setup Harrison; I have two sets of the same cars with a tapered-end observation car. They look really good behind my Kato F40PH. For added weight in my cars I used adhesive-backed wheel balancing weights. They come in 1/4oz and 1/2oz increments, and you can usually find them at any auto parts store or online!!!