I’ll compare some different cars and post them here, if anyone is interested.
Piko (left) USA (Right)
Sorry, I don’t do pictures…
You could also show the passenger cars offered by Bachmann, and LGB, which are a bit longer in length and offer as many or more varieties, such as two door and single door baggage cars, coaches and observation cars. The Bachmann cars ued to be much less expensive, when available…
On our expansive railroad here in Ottawa, we intermix a variety of the brands, and have them re-lettered for our railroad. As a branch line/short line we purchase used equipment and to save the cost of repainting, we simply re-letter the cars for our road…!!
There was of course the other cars put out by Delton…but they were a slightly smaller scale, although their RPO looks Ok in a consist of other makes, if you are not too fussy. Kalamazoo also put out a coach and combine, but they were offered only with arch bar freight trucks. Their combine was also offered as a Drover’s caboose, with a cupola…as was the LGB combine.
It is too bad that LGB, and or Bachmann never has offered an RPO in their line/scale, with or without a “Blind End”
Fred Mills
You will also note that in pictures, the Piko cars are almost just shorter versions of the LGB products.
Sorry for the numerous posts, but my memory seems to come out in short bursts…
Fred Mills
Fred,
You are not alone with the memory lapses. 
I think I have all (Or most–remember the memory thing) passenger car examples.
Except heavy weights or streamliners–none of those.
I’ll do more comparisons and post them to bore everyone to tears. 
The first thing I noticed is the one on the right either offers a better ride or has significantly cheaper fares. The one on the left does not have a single passenger. 
Seriously though, it got me thinking. There’s going to be a plethora of comparisons that folks will want to add to the conversation. Like what couplers come standard? Those couplers wouldn’t shake hands if they were both wearing gloves.
John, this is a perfect Wiki topic as it is doing a comparison. It would sure help those new to the hobby. It could include all sorts of things that newbies might want to know…
- scale accuracy
- ruggedness fragility
- enjoyability
- good for kitbashing
- do well on tight curves
*etc.
Anyway something to consider….
I thing the only one that will be compared is the Accucraft 1:20.3 that is to scale.
The rest are all whatevers… 
Couplers…well from my experience over 40 years is that in order to have a railroad in any scale, with varied makes of equipment, it is best to make one make of coupler, the coupler you like the most, and is dependable, your standard. If you keep all your curves and switches over 5 feet in diameter, then you can body mount…if you want to.
Trying to mix couplers is always frustrating.
All makes of rolling stock can be converted to any one make of coupler, without ruining your rolling stock, unless you are a collector, and want to retain some sort of value on resale.
Before Kadee finally came out with Large scale couplers, there was basicly only loop hook couplers available.
We standardized on the Kadee #1 gauge couplers when they first came out, as for once we had a coupler that didn’t look way oversize on a LS model, and performed very well on well maintained track. I also found that there was never a car that I couldn’t body mount a Kadee coupler on, and have the car look more prototypical.
Since way back then, I have body mounted Kadee couplers on well over 500 pieces of rolling stock…my own and for friends…my favourite is the Kadee #820.
Other people have their favourite couplers, and I respect their choice.
I don’t want to make couplers a major topic on this passenger car thread, but Couplers were mentioned a a part of the choice of Passenger cars on this thread.
