Wheels of Time - 11105 - Passenger Car, 1957 ACF Bi Level Design - Virginia Railway Express - V405

Specific Item Information: As ridership soared on VRE trains out of the northern Virginia suburbs into Washington D.C. Union Station, contracts with CSX prevented adding trains. Further, VRE's station platform length prevent longer trains on their routes. Their older single cars just did not have the capacity to handle the larger crowds. The solution was to purchase second-hand former Chicago & North Western bilevel cars. These St. Louis Car and Pullman-Standard coaches were made in 1953 and 1955-56, respectively. No longer needed by Chicago Metra, they were refurbished and repainted for service with VRE. Today, you can see some of these cars out on the Federicksburg and Manassas Lines on trains 300, 311, 313, 324, 325. My understanding is that Alex Buchanan of the VRE, who took our pics, came up with the nice paint scheme for these cars. Thanks Alex for the photo.

Road Name History: The Virginia Railway Express (VRE) (reporting mark VREX) is a regional/commuter rail service that connects the Northern Virginia suburbs to Union Station in Washington, D.C., via two lines: the Fredericksburg Line from Fredericksburg, Virginia, and the Manassas Line from Broad Run/Airport station in Bristow, Virginia.
Service to Manassas began on June 22, 1992; the Fredericksburg service started on July 20, 1992.
VRE is owned by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission. The NVTC and PRTC are governmental entities that were created by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Local governments (such as counties and cities) within each commission's geographic area are members of each commission.

VRE opened in 1992 as a commuter rail service to connect Washington D.C. to suburbs in northern Virginia. Two lines are served, one to Fredericksburg and the Manassas Line to Bristow. There are a total of 18 stations over 90 miles of line. Today, trains are powered with a fleet of twenty MP36PH-3C’s. There are 100 coaches, 20 of which have cabs for push-pull service.

Brand/Importer Information: Wheels of Time was founded by Matthew Young in the fall of 1995. From an early age, Matthew has had a passion for trains, both in full-size and in miniature. His family frequently went out of their way so he could ride the train, or simply watch the action on the tracks. "On one occasion mom took us to San Francisco along the waterfront. Spotting a State Belt ALCo S-2 locomotive switching the wharves, I persuading my mom to follow it. I watched in wonder as I saw and heard the hit-cup sputtering of the ALCo engine as it revved-up to move railroad cars on and off the car float at Pier 43." Other early family experiences included watching Southern Pacific freight and Amtrak's San Joaquin Amfleet trains roll by as his family waited to be seated at Spenger's in Berkeley, which sat happily right next to the tracks. "My brother and I would shoot pictures of the trains with our Instantmatic 110 cameras, sometimes only getting the wheels or worse yet ... getting a real good close up of my big thumb."

Matthew and his brother built models of all kinds, but their model train career began in elementary school when they started making 3-D cardboard miniature trains from pictures found in the pages of Trains Magazine and Model Railroader Magazine. On a visit, many years later, with the late Richard Buike of Trackside Trains in Burlingame, California, the conversation turned to the lack of N-Scale passenger trains and how the few that existed didn't look right. "I told him right then and there that I was going to produce high quality, historically accurate passenger railroad cars. Even I was a little surprised when I said this." The first product was a 1950 Pullman-Standard "10-6" sleeping car made of brass. Wheels of Time became one of the first makers of historically accurate and realisticly detailed passenger train cars. At Wheels of Time, we research original equipment and recreate it with CAD software for production. We're lovers of history and sticklers for detail. On our line of Transit Motor Coaches (a fancy way of saying "buses"), even the destination *roll* signs are historically accurate. Be sure to check out all our beautiful and accurate products. We hope you'll come to share our passion for trains, here recreated in miniature. At Wheels of Time, you get to take home a piece of a fascinating history.

Wheels of Time manufactures historically accurate model trains, vehicles, and model railroad accessories with a real *wow* factor. Our obsession with detail and historical accuracy is reflected in our exceptional design and production: hold a Wheels of Time model in your hand and you'll be tempted to say, 'It's the real thing!'