Fred Klein, 2013
Caltrain took over the San Francisco peninsula commuter service from Southern Pacific in 1985. In 1980, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) began to subsidize SPs money-losing operation, and called the operation Caltrain. Starting in 1987, the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board managed and funded Caltrain. Hence the reporting marks JPBX. In 1985, Caltrain replaced SPs aging EMD GP9 locomotives with new F40PH diesels, and the gray Pullman 1955-vintage gallery commuter cars with shiny Nippon Sharyo gallery commuter cars. Caltrain adopted the Caltrans CT blue and green logo for its locomotives and cars.
The line runs from San Francisco to San Jose with an extension to Gilroy, California. Trains are run in push-pull operation with a cab control in the last passenger car. Locomotives are always in the lead when leaving San Francisco. Trains are not turned but simply reverse direction. Trains are no more than 5 cars long because that is the maximum platform space in many cities. Many platforms such as Menlo Park are also constrained between adjacent streets. The large Caltrain placard on both of the car sides is always at the end farthest from the locomotive. The locomotive and cars used the newly-designed (in 1985) Caltrain lettering. There was no Caltrain-specific logo on the train, but a CT logo from Caltrans (the parent organization) was on every car.
Modeling a 1985 Caltrain commuter train in N scale is now possible because Kato makes the Nippon Sharyo gallery commuter cars. Kato’s model car bodies are those designed for Chicago’s Metra or the Virginia Railway Express and are not exactly the same car sides as Caltrain. I used the VRE car bodies for the Caltrain cars because the Metra cars have green-tinted windows, which are wrong for Caltrain. Most cars in Caltrain’s 1985 order from Nippon Sharyo have 24 windows, but the last car (the cab control car) appears to have 22 windows allowing for a restroom (see prototype photos below). Every Caltrain has a restroom in at least one car. Later versions of the commuter trains have cars with 20 windows (using a solid wall to shield a larger handicap restroom) and an additional outer door to accomodate wheelchairs (see the page for the 1997 Caltrain for photos of later gallery cars painted in the red-dot scheme).
My model train uses a F40PH locomotive that was factory-painted in the 1985 Caltrain scheme from Model Power. Microscale decals of the 1985 scheme are available for those wishing to paint their own Kato F40PH locomotive. I used decals from this locomotive sheet to decorate the commuter cars, but the car numbers are just made-up until I know actual numbers from that era.
A Caltrain in the late 1980s photographed near Bayshore Boulevard in San Francisco. Downtown San Francisco is a few miles to the left. The trains operate in push-pull mode and it could be headed in either direction, but the locomotive is always to the south and farthest from San Francisco. Note the last car is missing a pair of windows (that hide a restroom) at the end opposite to the cab-control end. Photo by Marty Bernard.
A Caltrain at Santa Clara, California.
A 3-car Caltrain commuter train at Millbrae, California. In the 1980s, ridership demand was not as great, trains were not as crowded as it is now (2013), and trains less than the 5-car maximum were common.
|
prototype car |
maker |
model car |
model # |
prototypl? |
|
F40PH diesel |
Model Power |
F40PH diesel |
904 Palo Alto |
yes |
|
gallery commuter car |
Kato-custom |
gallery commuter car |
Made up |
almost |
|
gallery commuter car |
Kato-custom |
gallery commuter car |
Made up |
almost |
|
gallery commuter car |
Kato-custom |
gallery commuter car |
Made up |
almost |
|
gallery commuter car |
Kato-custom |
gallery commuter car |
Made up |
almost |
|
gallery commuter w/cab |
Kato-custom |
gallery commuter car w/cab |
Made up |
almost |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Caltrain commuter train in the 1985 paint scheme
An F40PH locomotive and five Nippon Sharyo gallery commuter cars. The last car has an engineer’s control cab (with small window) for push-pull operation. The large Caltrain sign is always at the end of the car farthest from the locomotive when seen on either side of the car. The car numbers are just made up until I know actual car numbers. The cars are painted Kato models decorated with decals from the 1985 Caltrain locomotive sheet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caltrain
http://www.bayrailalliance.org/peninsula_commuter_rail_history
