F3A - Passenger vs. Freight

Rich:

MON F-Units Pained Red/Grey are for passenger trains.

MON F-Units in Black/Gold were for freight trains.

MON seems to be a rather tough road to model since it’s not real popular like N&W or B&O. Trying to find accurate HO scale MON passenger cars can be next to impossible. And those F-Units you have are extremely hard to come by!

However with the Black/Gold F3’s, it’s definitely possible to recreate a 1940’s/1950’s transition era freight. Might want to look up pictures to see what kind of cabooses were used in that time frame.

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Tell me about it. LOL.

I take credit in part for getting Rapido to manufacture red/gray streamlined coaches. But they were pretty generic and priced at $85 apiece. So, I took a pass.

The black and gold passenger cars simply do not exist in HO scale.

So, I wound up buying Walthers unlettered silver coaches and painted six of them red and gray and six more black and gold.

I also have a set of IHC heavyweight red and gray cars.

Rich

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You are right about that.

Rich

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Huh.

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My error. Guess the Black Gold F units could also be used in passenger service when needed.

The car behind the engine appears to be some sort of head end car maybe an express reefer or something.

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Monon used quite a few former Troop sleepers in baggage and express service.


They also bought some government surplus hospital cars and converted them to passenger cars, coaches and parlors I believe.

https://monon.org/passroster.php

Monon-Ex US Army Hospital Cars by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr

Good Luck, Ed

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Your IHC passenger cars do have potential to be kit bashed into decent models. But will require lots of work.

Union Station Products might have prototypical MON car sides you can make, but you might need some unpainted Walthers cars to use as donors.

Have you ever used Union Station Products before?

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Ed:

I wonder if any MON Troop Sleepers are available in HO Scale…

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In the later years (I don’t recall exactly when) as a money saving measure the Monon passenger fleet was painted in the black and gold scheme. This was while they were dropping passenger service as much as they could too.

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Good Luck, Ed

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Yep, like a passenger train to me. LOL.

Rich

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In fairness, though, my black and gold locos are marked “freight” on the boxes. Monon did run its locos both ways.

Rich

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Yeah, when I first started researching the Monon passenger service, I came across this type of photo and this kind of discussion about the use of troop cars and hospital cars. It must have been for budgeting reasons. Monon never seemed to bother with high quality passenger cars like a lot of the bigger road names did.

Rich

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Dunno, Guy, there is a certain charm to those IHC heavyweights.

I have not ever used Union Station products. To be honest, I have never heard about them until your raised it here.

Rich

None that I know of.

Rich

That’s what makes black and gold passenger cars impossible to find and why I painted (and decaled) my own.

Rich

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I am loving this thread.

I had not intended nor expected to see this much interest in the Monon. But it is a delightful little railroad, and it sure caught the eye of Lance Mindheim.

Rich

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I repeat:

The budget streamliners of Monon, I believe, were a product of John W. Barriger III’s economy measures. Kind of a last-ditch ‘do-or-die’ effort. The cars were pretty well appointed inside and they were done on a shoestring budget.

Monon-Hoosier Interior by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr

The dinner music in the diner left a little to be desired, though!

CI+L519 by John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library, on Flickr

Regards, Ed

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That is true in one sense, Ed. But, ATSF Guy asked if any are “available” and those cars are out of stock and discontinued.

Rich

Oops, I just made myself aware of.

I checked eBay and there is a “pre-owned” one available.

Rich

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