Model Train Specials

In order to attract customers back to the rails after the end of WWII, the New Haven decided to modernize the fleet with new lightweight passenger cars. In December 1945 a large order was placed with Pullman-Standard for a variety of car styles, including 103 coaches, 25 parlor cars, diners, grill diners, combination baggage buffet lounge/parlors, and two tavern lounge observation cars. These were produced in the old Osgood Bradley factory in Worcester, MA, so they bear more than a passing resemblance to the Osgood Bradley Lightweights delivered in the 1930s.

The New Haven’s stainless cars were not built entirely from stainless steel like the cars produced by Budd in Philadelphia. Instead, they were constructed from Cor-Ten steel and sheathed with stainless steel fluting panels. The New Haven touted the 8600s as “the newest of the new in coach equipment – gleaming stainless steel on the outside, the last word in attractive decoration and design on the inside.”

The 8600-series coaches were ubiquitous, used on trains system-wide from delivery until the Penn Central years. Penn Central later sold 74 of the 8600s to MBTA and they remained in service in the Boston area until 1988! N Scale Northeastern modelers have waited far too long for accurate models of these iconic cars. The wait will soon be over.

Our N Scale Model Features:

Never before available in N scale
Accurately scaled from original blueprints
Designed with input from NHRHTA
Correct tubular cross section with accurate Pullman-Standard stainless steel fluting profile
Rapido’s renowned stainless steel finish at the correct color temperature for New Haven’s cars
Partial skirting or no skirting as appropriate
All-new 41-BNO-11 outside swinghanger trucks with metal wheelsets
Full interior and underbody detail
End diaphragms with etched metal end gates
“Easy-Peasy” battery-operated interior lighting
Six car numbers plus un-numbered available per paint scheme