C&O Grill car

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

I have an IHC corrugated side grill car, “Chessie Club”. At the time when I bought it, I made the mistake of not getting the interior kit they had for it. Now I have the rest of the cars for the train that ran from Grand Rapids, MI to Chicago in the 60s along with the interior kits and I would like to make an interior for the grill car, so I need a floor plan for this car. Can anyone help me with this?
Jan

2

Check out the C&O Historical Society:

http://www.cohs.org

They can probably help you find the diagram. Another place to look would be in the appropriate Car Library book by David Randall.

3

Jan-

Using the IHC car, you have four choices on how to approach this, depending upon just how accurate you want to make this:

  • Go with the “real” floor plan for the Chessie Club, which won’t match the window arrangement on the car. This could require some interesting scratchbuilding, since the Chessie Club had unusual curved seating in its lounge section. It wouldn’t suffer much, though, if you were to substitute straight seating

  • Go with the floor plan for cars 1920-1922, which were used as diners off and on between GR and Chicago The IHC car is by no means an exact match for these cars, but looks closer to them than it does the real Chessie Club.

  • Order an IHC interior. It won’t be correct for the real 1920-1922 or for 1903 (Chessie Club), but it will match the IHC car.

  • Scratchbuild/kitbash a hybrid interior based on the characteristics of the IHC car and features you like from the real one.

I have floor plans of all four of the real cars that I can scan and send. Reply to me via e-mail and we can set this up.

4

As far as I can tell, the interior for the IHC grill car is no longer available from them. That’s why I’m seeking a floor plan for this car. I have sent an e mail to Fritz and we’ll see what we can work out. Maybe I will be able to kitbash one from a couple IHC interiors for other cars.
Jan

5

A better option is to purchase the Red Cap Line coach partition kit and use Precision Scale dinning car interiors. much easier that ***izing several IHC interiors which are inferior
Ch