St. Louis Car Co 161 Seat Gallery Coach

These are N scale 3D printable files for the St. Louis Car Co 161-Seat Gallery Coach — an early and influential bi-level gallery coach, built for the Chicago & North Western Railway in 1955 and numbered 1–16, among the pioneering bi-level commuter car designs that transformed Chicago-area railroading. Available in four livery variants spanning the car's full ownership history: CNW As Delivered, CNW Late, RTA, and Metra.

The St. Louis Car Co gallery coach is a bi-level gallery car — a distinctively Chicago design in which passengers ride on two levels connected by open galleries overlooking the lower deck, maximizing seating capacity within the car's length while maintaining a single-level floor at the doors for fast station loading and unloading. With 161 seats, these cars were purpose-built for the intense peak-hour commuter traffic of the Chicago metropolitan area. The coach configuration seats the maximum number of passengers per car and is the backbone of any gallery car consist — a real Chicago commuter train typically required multiple coaches paired with a single cab car, making this an essential car to roster in quantity for a prototypically accurate model.

Delivered in 1955, the CNW's 1–16 series were among the earliest bi-level gallery coaches built, following the pioneering Budd-built bi-levels delivered to the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy in 1950. Built by the St. Louis Car Company — one of the great American railcar manufacturers of the 20th century — these 16 cars proved the concept so decisively on the CNW that the railroad immediately followed up with the larger Pullman-Standard Plan 7653 order in 1956. Together, the early bi-level orders from multiple Chicago-area railroads launched an era of gallery car procurement that would define Chicago commuter railroading for the next half century and beyond.

The four livery options trace the car's journey through Chicago commuter railroad history:

• CNW As Delivered — the cars in their original 1955 Chicago & North Western livery as they emerged from the St. Louis Car Company shops, representing the early days of bi-level commuter operations out of Chicago's North Western Station.
• CNW Late — the cars in the CNW's later livery scheme, reflecting the railroad's evolving image as it continued to modernize its Chicago commuter operations through the 1960s and 1970s.
• RTA (Regional Transportation Authority) — the cars in the livery of the RTA, the Chicago area's regional transit authority that assumed oversight of commuter rail operations as the private railroads struggled financially in the 1970s and early 1980s.
• Metra — the cars in Metra's livery, as the newly created commuter rail agency took over operations from the RTA in 1984 and rebranded the Chicago area's commuter fleet.

The St. Louis Car Co gallery coach is an essential car for any layout depicting the early years of Chicago bi-level commuter operations — a rare and historically significant prototype that modelers rarely have the opportunity to capture in N scale.

After purchase, your digital files will be available for immediate direct download from your order confirmation. These files are for Personal Use Only — if you are interested in a commercial license, please contact us.

Please allow a few weeks for 3D printing and shipping. Decals are shipped separately — please allow some additional time for decal printing and shipping after ordering.