09/09/2026
Following in the footsteps of Pullman-Standard's original Comet car first built in 1970, the Comet II was built by Bombardier Transportation who acquired Pullman's patents following their closure. The first cars were built between 1982 and 1983 for New Jersey Transit with the order consisting of 142 trailer coaches and 19 cab cars. A second order was placed in 1988, with these cars named Comet IIB. These came with long end doors with trapdoors over the stairs for use at low and high platform stations. Metro-North and the Connecticut Department of Transportation purchased their own Comet II car variants in the form of the Shoreliner I and II coaches. These cars lack the the long doors. Between 1999 and 2003, AAI Corporation and Alstom overhauled the Comet II cars to be aesthetically and technologically similar to the Comet IV cars built in 1996. These day's the Comet II's can typically be found on the Newark Division, Midtown Direct, and Atlantic City Line.
Rapido's HO Scale Comet II Cars feature:
- New schemes and roadnumbers including Boston's popular MBTA
- Serving commuter rail operations for over 40 years
- Match them with the P32AC-DM and F40PH locomotives
- Operating ditch lights on appropriate models per era
- Dual or single cab car windows per prototype
- Free-rolling, highly-detailed inside-bearing trucks with roller-bearing axles and metal wheelsets
- Full underbody and unrivaled interior detail
- Accurate painting and lettering, both inside and out
- Prototypically accurate tinted windows
- Metal side grab irons
- Constant interior lighting in DC and DCC
- Controllable cab car lighting in both DC and DCC
- MoPower capacitor for uninterrupted DCC lighting
- Suggested minimum radius: 22”
📦PRE-ORDER BY JANUARY 15th, 2027:
https://factorydirecthobbies.com/collections/rapido-ho-scale-comet-ii-cars-2026-run
