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Carolina Custom Models · HO Scale

Talgo
Series VI

HO Scale Trainset

Fully reserved · Waitlist open

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A complete 13-car Talgo Series VI set in HO scale, assembled and unpainted, with an interior in every passenger car and a functional rodal at every joint. Reserving a place in the first production run is free and commits you to nothing.

Meet the 13 cars
How reservations work
Poster: an Amtrak Cascades Talgo Series VI trainset running along the shore past a station and marina, titled Talgo Series VI, HO scale set, unpainted model kit, with the Carolina Custom Models logo
The prototype in Amtrak Cascades service. The set is the 13 Talgo cars, assembled and unpainted; the locomotive is not included.

The consist

Thirteen cars, Power to Baggage.

The full Series VI set, from the Power car’s batwing end to the Baggage car. Every joint rides on a functional rodal, the shared wheel unit between cars that makes a Talgo a Talgo.

  1. Power7900
  2. Business7450
  3. Accessible Business7550
  4. Dining7800
  5. Bistro7300
  6. Accessible Coach7500
  7. Coach7400
  8. Coach7425
  9. Coach7402
  10. Coach7403
  11. Coach7404
  12. Coach7401
  13. Baggage7100

Swipe to see the whole train →

13

Cars in the set

12

Articulated joints

1:87.1

HO scale

The set

Every car, finely detailed.

Each passenger car gets its own interior insert, from the Business class seating to the Bistro counter. Here’s a first look, straight from the production CAD files.

Set includes

  • Complete 13-car Talgo Series VI set
  • Resin-printed shells on PETG chassis
  • Interior inserts in all 11 passenger cars
  • Functional rodals
Render of the Power car

Power car

7900

The batwing end, with roof fittings, louvres and a socket for the end-light board. Drilled for brass grab irons, with room inside for the decoder and speaker.

Render of the Business class car

Business class

7450

26 seats, mostly in a wider 2+1 layout.

Render of the Dining car

Dining car

7800

30 places at padded booths, with diamond divider screens.

Render of the Bistro car with its two roof vents

Bistro

7300

A sweeping counter and seven bar seats under a Pacific Northwest ceiling map.

Render of a Coach

Coach

×6

Six in the set. 36 seats each, with headrests, armrests and tables.

Render of the Baggage car

Baggage car

7100

Wide baggage doors and the second end-light socket. Drilled for brass grab irons, with room inside for a decoder.

Renders from the production CAD files. The cars come assembled and unpainted; glazing, wheelsets and couplers are not shown.

How it goes together

Four parts to every car.

Each passenger car is built from the same four printed parts. The interior sits on the floor, the shell lowers over both, and the cars articulate on shared rodals between them.

  • Shell — resin-printed, with the windows, doors and end details
  • Interior — one resin-printed piece per passenger car, seats to luggage racks
  • Floor — the chassis that carries the joints, filament-printed in PETG
  • Rodal — the shared wheel unit under each joint

Resin gives the shells and interiors their fine detail. The chassis takes the load, so it’s printed in PETG, a tough filament that stands up to heat: it holds its shape to about 70 °C (158 °F) and doesn’t soften until around 80 °C (176 °F), some 20 °C higher than PLA, the most common printing plastic. The frame stays straight and the joints stay true in a warm layout room.

Exploded render of a Talgo Series VI coach: the shell above the one-piece interior, above the floor, with the rodal below ShellResin InteriorResin, one piece FloorPETG chassis RodalShared wheel unit
Coach 7400, exploded. Render from the production CAD files.

A look inside

Each car shown sectioned just above the seat backs, so you can see the interior in place.

Render of the Business class interior inside its shell, sectioned above the seat backs

Business class

7450

26 seats, mostly in a wider 2+1 layout.

Render of the Dining car interior inside its shell, sectioned above the seat backs

Dining car

7800

Padded booths with diamond divider screens.

Render of the Bistro interior inside its shell, sectioned above the seat backs

Bistro

7300

The sweeping counter and its seven bar seats.

Render of the Coach interior inside its shell, sectioned above the seat backs

Coach

7400

36 seats with headrests, armrests and tables.

Lights and power

Lit ends and interiors. Power through every joint.

Three systems are designed into the Series VI: working end lights on a slide-in circuit board, lit interiors in every passenger car, and track power shared along the whole train through its articulated joints.

Render of the Series VI Power car with its end wall cut away, showing the end-light board in its socket with two red marker lights at the top and two white ditch lights at the bottom Marker lightsRed End-light boardSlides up into the shell Ditch lightsWhite
Power car, end wall cut away to show the board in its socket.

Slide-in end-light board

A slim circuit board slides up into a socket moulded into the end of the Power and Baggage shells. It carries two white ditch lights and two red markers, with the left ditch light, right ditch light and markers on separate decoder functions. The boards come with the Lighted version.

Render of the end-light circuit board on its own: a U-shaped board with red marker LEDs at the tips, white ditch-light LEDs at the lower corners, four resistors and four wire pads Markers Ditch lights Four wire pads
The board on its own.
Render of a seated Series VI joint: the coupling collar wrapped in a gold-tracked flexible circuit, with a gold rolling contact pressing on it from each side, above the shared rodal Gold contact tracksRail A and Rail B Rolling contactsOne for each rail Shared rodalThe pin still carries the load
A seated joint, floors only. Contacts and flex circuit shown as their envelopes.

Continuous train power

Lower a car into place and two rolling spring contacts meet gold tracks on its coupling collar; lift it and they separate. There are no plugs and no wires to connect between cars. Wheel pickups on several rodals feed both rails along the whole train, so every car draws power from all of them. The contacts are an optional extra.

Render of the same joint with the car lifted: the collar and its gold tracks have risen clear of the contacts Collar lifts out Contacts stay put
Lift the car and the joint separates.

In prototype testing now. On a reversing section, the joined train counts as one long pickup, so the section needs to fit the whole train.

Exploded render of a Series VI Coach interior on its floor, with the light board lifted above the ceiling recess and two thin diffuser films between them Light board12 warm-white LEDs, facing down Diffuser filmsOne under each row of LEDs InteriorCeiling and recess built in
Coach interior, light board lifted out of its recess.

Lit interiors

Every passenger interior has its own ceiling, with a recess that takes a slim light board, LEDs facing down. The warm-white LEDs shine down through opal diffuser films in two rows along the car. Two short wires tap the train’s power bus, so the interiors light whenever the track is powered. The boards come with the Lighted version.

Render of the two interior light boards, component side up: the narrow Universal board with twelve warm-white LEDs, and the wider Bistro board with twenty UniversalTen cars BistroMap, crescents, downlights
The two boards, component side up.

Two boards light eleven cars

One board design, with twelve LEDs, fits all ten Coach, Business, accessible and Dining cars. The Bistro gets a wider board of its own with twenty: two rows for the crescent lights, six behind the ceiling map and two downlights. Both run straight from the track on DCC or DC, with no decoder to set up.

Render looking up at the Series VI Bistro ceiling with the lights on: a map of the Pacific Northwest down the middle with 176 towns glowing through it, a downlight at each end, and a row of crescent lights along each side Town lights176 Northwest towns Crescent lightsAlong both sides DownlightOne at each end
Bistro ceiling, looking up, lights on.

A Northwest map in the Bistro ceiling

Like the real Bistro cars, the model has a lit map overhead. A map of the Pacific Northwest runs down the middle of the ceiling, with 176 towns picked out in pinpoints of light, from Kamloops and Nanaimo in British Columbia to Medford and Klamath Falls in Oregon. LEDs in a chamber above shine through a pinhole at each town. Crescent lights run along both sides, with a downlight at each end of the map.

Our own map: terrain and coastline from Natural Earth (public domain), town locations from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). The render shows the lights on; brightness and colour will be set on the first built boards.

Two versions

Lit or unlit. The same 13 cars.

Every set is the complete train, assembled and unpainted, with its rodals and painting stencils. The Lighted version adds the circuit boards for working end lights and lit interiors.

Unlighted

$799 per set, plus taxes

The complete train, ready for your paint shop.

In the box

  • 13 assembled cars, unpainted
  • Resin-printed shells and interiors on PETG chassis
  • A rodal for every joint
  • Painting stencils

Lighted

$999 per set, plus taxes

Everything in Unlighted, plus the light boards.

In the box

  • 13 assembled cars, unpainted
  • Resin-printed shells and interiors on PETG chassis
  • A rodal for every joint
  • Painting stencils
  • PCB end-light boards for the Power and Baggage cars, each with two white ditch lights and two red markers
  • PCB interior light boards

The boards come in the box for you to fit.

You add

  • 36″ RP-25 metal wheels (14)
  • Kadee couplers
  • Weights
  • Assembly screws

Optional extras

  • Contacts for continuous train power through every joint (in prototype testing)
  • ESU LokPilot 5 FX decoders, to control the end lights
  • ESU LokSound 5 FX decoders, for the end lights plus head-end power (HEP) sound

Both versions come from the same first run of 25 sets, and you choose when you reserve. Reserve yours

Kadee, ESU, LokPilot and LokSound are trademarks of their respective owners. Wheels, couplers, weights, screws, contacts and decoders are not included.

Reservations

How reserving works.

A reservation holds your place in the first production run. It’s free, it isn’t a purchase, and you can release it at any time.

Reserve for free

No payment and no card details. A reservation holds your place in the first production run.

Confirm by email

We’ll send you a link. Your reservation counts once you click it.

Join the waitlist if it fills

The first run is limited. Once it’s full you can join the waitlist, and any set that frees up goes to the next person in line.

Purchase when it’s ready

When your set is ready, we’ll email you a link to complete your purchase.

Questions first? The FAQ covers confirmation, the waitlist and what happens to your details.

Join the waitlist

All reservation slots taken 2 people waiting

Scale
HO
Estimated price
$799 unlighted · $999 lighted, plus taxes
Estimated delivery
From December 2026, in reservation order

This run is fully reserved. Join the waitlist and we will contact you in order if a slot is released — and your spot helps us size the next production run.

We send a confirmation link here. Your spot is not saved until you click it.

Which version? *

Your choice covers every set in this reservation. Want a mix? Say so under Anything else.

No payment is taken and no card details are collected. You can release your spot at any time with one click. Privacy policy

Next on the workbench

What comes after the Series VI.

Two projects are well into design. Neither is taking reservations yet; here’s where each one stands.

Render of the Talgo Series 8 cab car with its detailed nose, glazed headlights and two-axle truck

In design

Talgo Series 8

Oregon's Series 8 trainsets in HO: a 13-car set led by a detailed cab car, with every passenger car getting its own interior.

See the Series 8 plans
Render of the original ATC Cab prototype with its two cab-signal heads, throttle and brake handles, knobs and toggles

Prototype on the bench

ATC Cab

Advanced Train Control in your hand: notched throttle, proportional brake and a real reverser, all 28 functions, switches and consists, and cab signals from JMRI. Built for Digitrax.

See the ATC Cab plans

About us

Small-batch models, made in North Carolina.

Carolina Custom Models makes high-quality 3D-printed HO scale models and custom fabrication work, with precision and detail in every model. The Talgo Series VI is next on the workbench.

More about us
HO scale layout scene with green and white locomotives passing a scrap yard
Three HO scale CN locomotives lined up on parallel tracks
HO scale freight yard with locomotives and rows of freight cars

Questions before you reserve?

Most answers are in the FAQ. For anything else, email .

Read the FAQ
Contact us