Bachmann Fleet of Modernism PRR

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
21

I was smart lucky enough to pick up a Cascade-series 10-5 back when these first came out.

PRR_FOM_Pullman-broadside by Edmund, on Flickr

They are beautiful cars as are nearly all the Walthers Proto passenger cars.

PRR_FOM_Pullman by Edmund, on Flickr

Rapido did a run of Budd coaches that are pretty good for the Pennsy lot. I grabbed one figuring its now-or-never.

PRR_Budd_Tuscan by Edmund, on Flickr

Color being subjective. I believe Walthers came a tiny bit closer to the Tuscan of the era, which was “reder” but the Rapido is good, too. If nit-picking, the gold pin stripe should be on the tip of the flute rather than in the valley. Like I said, nit picking [;)]

PRR_FOM_Tuscan by Edmund, on Flickr

I hear the Budd sales people had tried to convince the Pennsy purchasing agents that painting the stainless steel was not necessary, and PRR finally caught on but not for a few years [:-^]

Cheers, Ed

22

Well, to get even further away from the OP’s question. It seems everyone has different color matches on their versions of FOM cars.

Were they Tuscan Red with a darker band through the windows or was the band TR with a lighter red around it?

Assuming at that time they used Bronze Gold lettering & stripes.

oldline1

23

PRR_FOM-layout by Edmund, on Flickr

The car body was the same “Tuscan Red” as the remainder of the “fleet”. The band was darker Tuscan #70-19 or PRR Maroon #47-2249.

Lettering was going through various changes in materials from gold leaf to DuPont gold pigmented lacquer to Pullman Imitation Gold #600-9 throughout years 1938 through 1953.

Even the above drawing is a simplification of the original plan. A 1/4 " gold stripe has been eliminated at the drip rail and the 1/8 black outline has been removed from the 5/8" window band stripe and the lettering outline.

Good Luck, Ed

24

Bruce Smith at Auburn, who is probably as close to a ‘definitive reference’ to PRR paint details as we have, noted as late as the end of 2019 that PRR never used ‘Bronze Gold’ for lettering, even as a euphemism for gold leaf. (A conclusion which logically follows is that decals using ‘bronze gold’ for PRR lettering - and there are many - are inaccurate. I have no credentials to judge whether that is so or not.)

On the other hand, 3768 when streamlined in 1936 was initially painted a ‘dark bronze’ color (which I remember being discussed as being a kind of early metalflake paint in appearance).

25

I am loving gmpullman’s detailing pics. Very nicely done. Although few of us have $6k to spend on some passenger cars I do like to log in at the brass guide section of brasstrains.com and ogle their detailed pics of complete train specific Fleet of Modernism consists. It’s my favourite of all the paint schemes and I do find the betterment cars very interesting. Can’t see us ever getting a decent set in plastic for the Spirit of St Louis or Southwind, but I live in hope.

If the Bachmann observation car was skirted I would get one for sure but I am piled high with passenger trains for now.