Passenger coach 8600 Series Penn Central No. 2522

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.”

Model Features:
- 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

equipped with:
- interior lighting through 2x LR41 batteries (not included)
- magnet for turning on the lighting
- knuckle couplers