The Kato N C&NW Bi-Level 400

I was eager to get one of these new sets, because I rode the remnant of the Peninsula 400 in late 1970, just before Amtrak. In fact, it was probably the last pre-Amtrak train I rode. I've been interested in these trains since I saw a blurb in a Trains magazine with mention that the C&NW had had Pullman rebuild a single-level diner with a false roof to conform to the bi-level profile of the Flambeau 400 and Peninsula 400 trains. The bi-level 400s wound up as pretty much the last C&NW intercity service, although I believe that by the end, they ran only as far as Green Bay, WI.

I also had a chance to ride C&NW bi-level suburban trains in the 1960s, and I remember being in a meeting in a Chicago office about 1967 and seeing from the window one of the bi-level 400s departing Northwestern Station complete with re-profiled diner. The 400 bi-levels were in a completely different pool from the suburban bi-levels and had different interiors. Kato has released C&NW E8s in C&NW paint in two numbers as well as cars numbered for the 400 trains in a set. They also appear to be releasing C&NW cars numbered as suburban gallery cars, as well as C&NW style cars repainted in contemporary METRA paint. While the C&NW cab cars have been retired from METRA, ex C&NW coaches remain in service.

I really like the Kato C&NW E8. These are heavy locos and smooth runners. I ordered the set with pre-installed DCC. The E8 is lettered in the late 1950s C&NW scheme without the horizontal black stripe in the middle of the body and with the nose numberboards blanked out and painted yellow.

By the time the bi-level 400s were introduced, the E8s had been rebuilt for head end power with diesel generators mounted in the rear of the body, with a porthole removed and vents added. This isn't reproduced on the Kato model. For N scale at normal distance, this isn't critical. The nose is painted with the older style C&NW silver winged bezel. Later, this was eliminated, and only a simple large C&NW monogram was placed under the headlights. Photos indicate that both styles appeared together during the 1960s. The overall effect is of the C&NW E8s I remember from the 1960s.

The set includes a cab car, but the bi-level 400s did not operate with cab cars. However, the cab car in the set gives a modeler a start on a suburban train of gallery bi-levels. The set that I got with pre-installed DCC includes an FL12 directional decoder for the cab car lights.

I especially like the red tail lights in the prototypical side mounts.

A note of caution: the horn on the cab car fell out in normal handling, an irritating feature of many preassembled models. Given its size, it's effectively gone forever. It would be smart to add a small drop of plastic solvent to hold it in place when you first take it out of the box.

Kato provides a model of car 903, which had 48 coach seats and 32 tavern seats (converted to snack coach in 1970).

The set provides two of the intercity coach cars, 700 and 705. Although there are interiors, there's no difference among the various configurations, and in fact I believe they represent the suburban gallery coach interior. Again, for N, this isn't important.

I had a couple of extra Kato lighting kits and installed them in the intercity coaches. They're easy to do.

The other car is parlor 6400. This is visually the same as the coaches. The prototype parlor was rebuilt to a suburban gallery coach in 1967, so the only unique feature on the model is the number.

The bi-level 400 trains appear on many videos. A full set of one running in reverse from Northwestern Station to the California Avenue coach yard is shown in the Green Frog Emery Gulash Chicago Odyssey Volume 2 Part 1, including both a re-profiled diner and the tavern coach about 1962.

Other videos show single-level RPOs running with bi-level cars on these trains. I found an old Atlas Rivarossi C&NW RPO on eBay that can work as a stand in:

Considering this model is about 45 years old, it's not bad at all. I'l.l probably just swap out a pair of Micro Trains trucks.

The consist and length of these trains varied widely over the years, from season to season, and probably by day of the week. Late videos show just two coaches, which I think was the consist of the train I rode in December 1970. That's what's currently on my layout: