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Rivarossi - 9643 - Passenger Car, Lightweight, Smoothside - Amtrak - 417

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N Scale - Rivarossi - 9643 - Passenger Car, Lightweight, Smoothside - Amtrak - 417
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Stock Number9643
BrandRivarossi
ManufacturerRivarossi
Body StyleRivarossi Passenger Smoothside Combine
Prototype VehiclePassenger Car, Lightweight, Smoothside (Details)
Road or Company NameAmtrak (Details)
Road or Reporting Number417
Paint Color(s)Silver, Red, White and Blue
Print Color(s)Blue
Paint SchemePhase III
Additional Markings/SloganUnited STates Mail Railway Post Office
Coupler TypeRapido Hook
Wheel TypeNickel-Silver Plated Metal
Wheel ProfileDeep Flange
Item CategoryPassenger Cars
Model TypeLightweight/Streamlined
Model SubtypeSmoothside
Model VarietyCombine
Prototype RegionNorth America
Prototype EraNA Era III: Transition (1939 - 1957)
Scale1/160



Model Information: The Atlas/Rivarossi smoothside baggage RPO prototype: It has always been rumored/assumed that the car was a modeled after a PRR heavyweight modernized to appear lightweight, probably because the other two lightweight cars were PRR. The actual key was the builder, ACF. I finally found a photo of the very car in "Trains We Remember" by Robert J, Wayner. This is a model of a Baggage, 30' Mail Car, based on a pair of ACF Army Hospital cars converted by the Monon. The cars were part of ACF lot number 2733, ordered 5/1944 and delivered 12/1944. These cars had wider than normal vestibule doors to facilitate stretchers. [Stretchers were also passed through opening windows and mid-car doors.] The Monon purchased 28 cars in 1947 (their entire lightweight fleet) and converted two to this configuration. The car, having what appears to be a vestibule on one end, looks fictitious. This is actually correct for the Monon cars. The under carriage detail is the same as that for Rivarossi's observation car and is thus totally wrong. The real cars were equipped with three axle passenger trucks even though they were considered lightweight (presumably to provide a smoother ride for wounded soldiers).
Prototype History:
In the post-war period, passenger rail service boomed. In order to increase efficiency, the railroads set to replacing their old wood, steel and concrete heavyweight passenger cars with newer lightweight, streamlined cars. The new cars were made from stainless steel, aluminum and Cor-Ten steel. These cars required less motive power to pull and were cheaper to manufacture. Production was also concentrated in a few manufacturers rather than each railroad making its own. This led to standardization which further reduced costs. The new "lightweight" cars were also given "streamlined" designs to make them more visually appealing. Budd, Pullman Standard and ACF were all well known manufacturers of these cars.

Smoothside cars are typically painted, unlike their corrugated brethren. This meant that they typically required more maintenance, but this also allowed the railroads to apply distinctive paint schemes to their fleets, typically matching the paintwork on their locomotives.
Road Name History:
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak, is a passenger railroad service that provides medium- and long-distance intercity service in the contiguous United States. Founded in 1971 through the government-sponsored consolidation of most of the remaining U.S. passenger rail companies, it is partially government-funded yet operated and managed as a for-profit corporation.

Amtrak operates more than 300 trains each day on 21,300 miles (34,000 km) of track with select segments having civil operating speeds of 150 mph (240 km/h) and connecting more than 500 destinations in 46 states in addition to three Canadian provinces. In fiscal year 2015, Amtrak served 30.8 million passengers and had $2.185 billion in revenue, while employing more than 20,000 people. Nearly two-thirds of passengers come from the 10 largest metropolitan areas; 83% of passengers travel on routes shorter than 400 miles. Its headquarters is at Union Station in Washington, D.C.

The name "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "trak", the latter itself a sensational spelling of "track".

Read more on Wikipedia.
Brand/Importer Information:
Rivarossi was one of the world's most famous Italian manufacturers of model railways. Rivarossi was founded in 1945 by Alessandro Rossi with Antonio Riva. In the 1990s Rivarossi acquired Lima (1992), Arnold (1995) and Jouef (1996). In 2003, after several years of managerial and financial vicissitudes, Rivarossi ceased its activities.

In 2004 Hornby Railways plc acquired assets from Rivarossi, in particular the brands Arnold, Jouef, Rivarossi and Lima. Since 2006 products are sold again under these brand names, with product manufactured in China. For complete information, visit Rivarossi Memory (mostly in Italian with some sections available in English).
Item created by: gdm on 2018-09-13 08:00:55. Last edited by gdm on 2020-07-24 07:29:20

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