S-Helper Service Passenger Car | Heavyweight | Historical Note

S-Helper Service

Passenger Car

Heavyweight

Historical Note

S-Helper Service, during their collaboration period with American Models, had American Models produce for them a large collection of passenger cars. The project was started in 1991, and the cars appeared on the market in 1992. They arrived in boxes similar to the American Models ones and with the same colors, except that they had S-Helper Service graphics on them. The boxes displayed no numbers on the outside.

After S-Helper Service sold their paid-for inventory, American Models continued to manufacture and sell these cars directly, starting in 1995. Some of these are still available today, however, if you are looking for a specific car, you will likely need to check the secondary market (private sales, mailing lists, train shows, auction sites, etc.).

They produced cars for many road names, all but one of which were available in three sets. One set contained three cars, another contained five cars, and the last one contained all 8 cars.

The three-car set consisted of three 82' Pullman cars, which were the cafe/diner car, the 12-1 sleeper car, and the 10-1-2 sleeper car.

The five-car set consisted of a 70' baggage car, a Railway Post Office car, a coach, a combine (combination passenger coach and baggage car), and an observation car.

The eight-car set was simply the combination of the three- and five-car sets.

The cars were also available singly, although the sets were more economical for both the manufacturer and the modeler, if you wanted more than one.

S-Helper Service had American Models produce two runs. Don Thompson recalls that over 7,000 cars were sold with the first run. The second run was done in 1993, as the first run was a runaway success.

In 1995, as American Models continued to produce these models, they added a center metal weight to help the cars track better, made the centersills shorter at the ends, so that the trucks could swivel more (for tighter-radius layouts), installed interior lighting, and introduced the silhouettes. These four changes were not part of the original S-Helper Service specifications.