Streamliners!!! The word evokes mental pictures of sleek colorful trains crossing the country at high speed, providing all the comforts that any passenger could want. This has always been a train that model railroaders have sought to reproduce on their miniature empires.
The real railroads ordered their trains on a custom made basis, which made each unique. Even after they received their cars, many roads made changes and modifications to suit their needs. It is here that we meet with a dilemma in our modeling. No manufacturer can reproduce the exact consist for every railroad in the U.S., and make a profit. Thus we wind up with a model train that looks good, but does not display every detail that it's 1:1 cousin has.
That being said, it was exciting news to see that USA had started to release it's new line of passenger cars over the past months. Much has been written about these cars, and I will present as much information to you as I can, so that you can make up your own mind as to whether you want to make a purchase or not. This information is from a great many people with which I correspond. Also, thanks goes to Jim Matthews of SE Trains, who let me closely examine the cars which he had for sale at the recent GATS.
The cars are nice. They are prototypically 80 scale feet (1/29 scale) long which makes them close to 36 inches in length. Typically an eight car consist will scale out to around 24 feet without motive power. These are heavy cars, being extruded from aluminum, which will require substantial motive power to move them over your layout. I understand that each box weighs just under 15 pounds. The cars are prototypically low, so they look good, but will not mate well with the Aristo streamliners or smoothsides. Once Once the Aristo cars are lowered, they should mate well.
USA says the cars will negotiate 8 foot diameter curves, but everyone says they are more at home on 10 foot diameter curves or greater. In fact it is the consensus that they look great on 20 foot diameter curves, but who has that kind of room!! The couplers are body mounted, and they move to allow a better turning radius, but still appear to require broad curves. Because the couplers are body-mounted, they do not like S-Curves, and crossovers using Aristo wide-radius turnouts may cause problems even with straight sections before, after, and between the turnouts. These cars seem better suited for the new Aristo #6 turnouts that have just been released. The trucks are nicely detailed but un-sprung, and I hear are not real forgiving of uneven track. The wheels are shiny and would require some paint to make them look right. Definitely do not try to back these cars through a turnout or into a tight curve.
The couplers themselves are mounted so that the cars close couple and are of a new design. They do not appear to be suited to mate with Aristo couplers, but Kadees would probably work just fine. There are rubber diaphragms between the cars just like the F3 units have. Unfortunately, many prototype streamliners had full car end diaphragms to give a more streamlined effect, and cover the breaks between car ends. Still, this is a nice touch by USA giving the consist a prototype feel.
There is a great deal of underbody detail that is not provided by other manufacturers. This of course is not going to be visible on the average garden railroad, unless the trains are run at eye level, or the car turns over in a derailment. From the sides, the detail looks good on all the cars.