HO Scale Passenger Car Prototypes

I originally posted this information on my old website on March 26, 2009 and last updated it on March 17, 2010. I have since updated it.

I compiled a list of the the prototypes for HO-Scale passenger cars because while most guides like this will tell what models are correct for a particular railroad, and they leave out cars like the Athearn and Con-Cor 72-footers, because they are too short, I wanted to create a list from the opposite perspective, that gives the road names that are correct for a particular model, and I wanted to include the 72-foot cars because some of them are relatively nice despite their shorter length and could be useful to model railroaders with small layouts with sharp curves. I have only included ready-to-run cars and easy-to-build decorated kits. More difficult kits and models that aren't available decorated, as well as brass models, are not included, because these models usually already identify their correct prototypes. I have also included only steel heavyweight and streamlined cars. I used a large number of resources to compile this list, including the websites of the manufacturers listed, plus manufacturers of brass cars and car sides to find similar cars, pages of photos and rosters of prototype cars. Some of my major sources of information include The Pullman Project, PullmanCar.org, Prototypes for N Scale Passenger Cars by Fred Klein (as many of them are also made in HO), Prototype Review: Walthers Budd Passenger Cars from Railroad.net and Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society HO Scale Model Reviews. Other sources of information included the book The Union Pacific Streamliners by Harold E. Ranks and William W. Kratville and Union Pacific Modeler, Volume 3 by Metcalfe Publications. In the case of similar cars, some may not be listed. Some number series may have gaps that I have not show to save space.

Click on the following link to see the list.

HO Passenger Car Prototypes

Related Links:

Websites of Listed Manufacturers
Athearn
Bachmann
Broadway Limited Imports
Con-Cor
IHC
Kato
Life-Like
Model Power (also Mantua)
M.T.H.
Rapido Trains
Rivarossi
Roundhouse Trains
Walthers

Other Manufacturer Websites Used
Troop Cars from MRR Warehouse
Railway Classics, Inc.
Union Station Products
Brass Car Sides
Athabasca Scale Models

Passenger Car Model Information
PullmanCar.org
Prototypes for N Scale Passenger Cars by Fred Klein
Prototype Review: Walthers Budd Passenger Cars from Railroad.net
New York Central Passenger Car Models from Canada Southern Railway
Prototype HO Models for the Southern Pacific Railroad & its subsidiaries by David Coscia
Santa Fe Railway Historical & Modeling Society HO Scale Model Reviews

Prototype Rosters, Photos & Information
The Pullman Project
Web Lurker's DOME.main
Passenger Car Photo Index
California Zephyr Virtual Museum
Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Car Information
PRR MP54 at Wikipedia
1923 PRR Passenger Car Roster from Keystone Crossings
MP-54 Roster at Penn Central Railroad Online
Con-Cor P54 Coaches topic at the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society forum
Con-Cor mP54 Erie Coaches topic at the Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
The Great Northern Empire Then and Now
Milwaukee Road Passenger Cars
UtahRails.net
Karl's Railroad Pages
Southern Pacific Passenger Car Reference pages at the Espee Modelers Homepage
Greenspun.com forum topic giving the prototype for the Rivarossi Heavyweight Coach
Metra Equipment Roster from the Chicago Railfan & Transit Website
Amtrak Photo Archive
On Track On Line
AMT Roster from MyRailfan.com
Metrolink roster from Rapid Transit Press
The Story of America's Freedom Trains
Grandluxe Rail Journeys Roster