3 Brothers fluted bi-level commuter cars in HO?

I need help finding some bi-level commuter cars in HO from 3 Bros. Does anyone know of any avalible? I need the fluted ones! I know that Walthers and Kato are making smooth side ones.

It has been several years at least but I last saw them in the larger hobby shops in the Chicago area.

There is or was a store north of Schaumburg that had them, the name and location escape me but perhaps someone else can help out. This store also was tied into the C&NW Historical Society if I recall correctly.

Are you after the green/yellow CNW? If so, I would recommend the Kato's. I've got both, and the Kato's are 100% better! The 3 Brothers are hard to put together and lack detail. Price evens out when you factor in the cost of getting additional detail parts (postage ect...). Paint matching was not fun either....The ready to run Walthers are a few levels below, but I would go with them before the 3 Bro's. All you need to do is add a few detail parts, weather...
That brings up an important point, patience really pays dividends in this hobby! I know, I have none. If you wait, they will come. I've been burned a couple of times, CNW Bi-levels, LIRR RS-1's, and Cam. & Fun. P-72's.... It's not that I mind putting kits togeather, I just can't handle the styrene jobs....

I dont think CNW ran fluted bi-levels. This guy is probably looking for BN or MILW fluted bi-levels.

-otto-

Yes, what's being discussed here are the extruded-aluminum kits that represented corrugated bi-level cars in two styles. I think I've seen a few every once in a while on eBay, but I also noticed a company called Golden Spike Industries that you can find on the Walthers website. There are some items in their listing that sound almost exactly like the Three Brothers Manufacturing smooth-side kits, but I don't see any reference to corrugated cars.

It's my understanding that Three Brothers Manufacturing had simply been the latest in a series of companies to produce essentially the very same kits. About a decade ago there were smoothside bi-level cars available from Keil-Line Models in the Walthers catalog, and before that people used to talk about similar kits from Holgate & Reynolds. I might be wrong, but I had the impression these were basically the same models over and over again.

The only other clue I know of is that the corrugated kits being sold by Three Brothers were set up in a very similar way to the all-metal passenger kits that have been available from OK Engines or Herkimer for a long time now. OK does offer custom services, last I knew, and there's a chance they may have actually been involved in the production of the bi-level cars for Three Brothers. You might want to see if you can contact them and inquire about that.

One final thought - Union Station Products has recently started selling craftsman kits for Amtrak California bi-level cars in HO. They apparently use the roof and ends from the Hi-Level cars made by Train Station Products, adding new laser-cut fluted sides and other parts, so maybe you could persuade them to manufacture different sets of sides for the older corrugated cars that you're after. Worth a try, anyway...

astrosa, you're quite correct on the history of the 3 Bro's cars. Keil-Line owned the tooling to the Budd-built cars, but never produced any. After about 1984, Keil-Line effectively didn't produce anything from the line. Advertised 'em fer shur, but never made them again.

John Keil had originally acquired the tooling from Holgate & Reynolds, who last produced the Budd style in the 70's. H&R apparently bought the tooling from Zircon Models. The first reference I ever saw to these very long-lived kits was a Zircon ad from about 1959 or 60. No changes or updates were ever made to these kits until Three Brothers began including the wheel trucks pre-assembled.

To my knowledge, though, Herkimer/OK was never involved in the bilevel cars--that would make soliciting their help a long shot, indeed.

But there's hope! Train Station Products has Budd-built bilevels listed in the Walthers online catalog (732-808 and 732-809), but I have so far been unable to find out if they're just vaporware or not. I'd love to see what they make, because I'd already concluded that I would have to scrap every part except the shells from my 3 Brothers cars and scratchbuild everything to get a decent-looking MILW scoot...

For the record, RTA sent one or two sets of Budd-built cars over to C&NW starting in the early 80's, but they always wore either RTA or Metra placards. With their fixed-direction seats, they were very unpopular with riders accustomed to Pullman's reversible walkover seats.

I have one coach unit. Contact me at [email protected] if interested.