Dear Santa Gaetan, I'd really like to see an E8 and some single level coaches under the tree in 2023...
BLW/ZT has a wide variety of legacy passenger sets... I own several and have enjoyed them immensely. The only roads missing at this point are my CNW, plus the Rock Island, MoPac and Katy. Now that there's a UP set, I'm hoping CNW can't be far behind. Several floorplans and cars used by the UP were also delivered to the UP because of the pool service on the Cities trains that ran on the CNW up until the 1955 shift where the MILW took over Omaha to Chicago. Many of those Cities cars stuck around until 1971, and a few lasted even longer than that in the CNW's commuter service as bar/parlor cars along with the bi-level cars (already available from BLW).
Until then, my kitbashed versions will have to suffice.
My E8 is based off the UP E9 shape with the BLW F7 CNW textures... those are HEP portholes at the back that were somewhat unique to the CNW units in commuter service.
My stand-in single level coach is kitbashed from the IC City of New Orleans set 48 seat coach as a base, the CNW commuter car textures, and a photo texture of the door on CNW 553 which up until Covid was still rolling on the Bankers & Lawyers 400 with Metra.
There's a possible IRM hook to both screenshots above... CNW 515 became part of the IRM's fleet in 2021, thanks to a donation by someone who bought it at the Iowa Pacific auction. It's still in IP livery, but will be backdated to CNW livery at some point in the future.
CNW 553 is the last remaining 400/Cities fleet car in regular service and in its almost-original state inside. It was a parlor car that was bought and running for a commuter club out of the North Shore in Chicago which charged an extra $300+ per month in addition to the Metra monthly pass. It's since been sidelined due to declining ridership and mechanical issues. If it's days in revenue service are truly over, boy would I love to see this wind up in the IRM's stocking.
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Originally Posted by drjayyyy
