Micro-Trains - 142 00 320 - Passenger Car, Heavyweight, Pullman Sleeper 12-1 - Northwestern Pacific - 1347

Specific Item Information: This 12-1 heavyweight sleeper car is two-tone green with white lettering and runs on 6-wheel passenger trucks. These cars continued to serve NP through the mid-1960s.

Prototype History: Pullman was the leading producer of heavyweight coaches during the 1st half of the twentieth century. They were known for the quality and luxury of the passenger cars. The observation car was a common sight on heavyweight consists during 1920s and 1930s.

Sleeping, parlor and lounge cars of riveted carbon steel body-frame construction were built, owned and operated by the Pullman Company. These cars were better known by the name "Heavyweight Cars." Between March 1907 and February 1931 there were 8011 cars built.

The first steel passenger cars were 12-1 sleepers, such as this Plan 2410, which are simply a steel adaptation of the "Varnish" Plan 1963 car - "gothic" arched windows and all. 12-1s of the Plan 2410 and 3410 are one of the relatively few steel designs in true mass production: being churned out in 100+ lots for a total over 4000 units: 40% of the entire Pullman steel fleet.

The spread of accommodations is interesting: the lowest level of Pullman space - the open section - together with the best - a drawingroom. Sleeper cars have a relatively low occupancy capacity, and Pullman has long held to the open sections for maximum payload. The drawingroom on 12-1s is actually intended for families: the High And Mighty prefer all-room cars.

Some typical features of these cars are the two large restrooms (the mens room - at left - is also the smoking lounge while the ladies have a vanity table in their restroom). The drawingroom has an arrangement similar to the sections, plus a sofa which makes up into a third berth. The drawingroom, of course, has its own facility. Externally we see that the traditional clerestory vents have been replaced with the new sheet metal ventilators. These use the forward motion of the car to create a draft through the fore-and-aft openings which, in turn, causes a venturi effect drawing fresh air into the car through the center openings.

Road Name History: We’ll start with a bit of backstory for this one. By the 1980s, Southern Pacific had run out of patience with their Northwestern Pacific subsidiary which ran from the area north of the San Francisco Bay north to Eureka, California. SP sold the northern half to Eureka Southern and in 1993 leased the southern half to California Northern while selling it a segment at a time to various state agencies. By 1996, the state owned all of the southern segments which were combined under a single agency. They then canceled the lease to California Northern and began operating freight service again between Schellville and Willits under the resurrected name of Northwestern Pacific. GP9’s and SD9’s were painted in a version of SP’s Black Widow scheme with a new NWP logo. The new NWP lost money and washouts and bridge problems that had always plagued the line caused operations to cease in 1998. The line sat idle until 2001 when they attempted to resume service between Schellville and Cotati but the FRA determined that the line wasn’t safe and ordered it closed after just a month. In 2009, the state began rebuilding the line as far as Windsor. Freight trains began running again in 2011 and continue to run today. They are currently rebuilding the line up to San Rafael for use as a new commuter rail operation.

Brand/Importer Information: Micro-Trains is the brand name used by both Kadee Quality Products and Micro-Trains Line. For a history of the relationship between the brand and the two companies, please consult our Micro-Trains Collector's Guide.

Manufacturer Information: Micro-Trains Line split off from Kadee Quality Products in 1990. Kadee Quality Products originally got involved in N-Scale by producing a scaled-down version of their successful HO Magne-Matic knuckle coupler system. This coupler was superior to the ubiquitous 'Rapido' style coupler due to two primary factors: superior realistic appearance and the ability to automatically uncouple when stopped over a magnet embedded in a section of track. The success of these couplers in N-Scale quickly translated to the production of trucks, wheels and in 1972 a release of ready-to-run box cars.

Micro-Trains Line Co. split off from Kadee in 1990 to form a completely independent company. For this reason, products from this company can appear with labels from both enterprises. Due to the nature of production idiosyncrasies and various random factors, the rolling stock from Micro-Trains can have all sorts of interesting variations in both their packaging as well as the products themselves. When acquiring an MTL product it is very important to understand these important production variations that can greatly enhance (or decrease) the value of your purchase.

Please consult our Micro-Trains Collector's Guide