I read in MR a few years back a title that said that “passenger operation was a neglected opportunity” or somewhat in these words,meaning that many if not most modelers were much more intrested in assembling long freights,filled with a lot of different purposes cars belonging to different railway companies,giving very colorful consists.I loved it then and I still do.I didn’t care at all about being “scale” and still don’t.When I go to the club,it is to run trains and that’s what I do…having fun with the guys.
But…a while ago…it struck me.Why not having a “scale” train (or more) in my roster?A model train that would represent a prototype with a good level of accuracy and,even better,become a challenge within my hobby.Thousands of modelers have already assembled very accurate consists,so I didn’t invent anything,but to me it’s a first and I love every bit of it.
OK,I could simply buy the Kato’s Morning Daylight consist (I model N b.t.w.) wich I have started doing (I have the loco) but ,as nice as this set can be,it is no challenge.So I searched the web and found an array of different trains that used to run in the past,trains that carried a name and ran on specific schedules and operated on specific roads.I elected to model the “Portland Rose”.Why I chose this one…can’t really tell…it had to be a UP train to use my steamers…and the name had a smell of class,meant high standards traveling.
I then started researching this train (got the Streamliner mag article concerning it,huge infos) and found out that reproducing a prototype train to a certain level of accuracy is no easy task.This train never set wheel in my country and operated before I was even born,the era I decided to model (1937-42).I discovered that this train was modified a few times along it’s run,with most of it’s cars being replaced along the way as it shared passengers with other UP trains like the Los Angeles Limited to name one.Also,as if it wa
I will start at the end and try to answer some of you questions or at least point to some other resources.
Many passenger trains changed day to or, more likely, season to season based on requirements. They wuld add/subtract cars as needed so they had enough room, but not extra cars if possible. Pullman had a sizeable fllet of cars so it is possible that the green cars were true Pullmans versus UP cars.
Sleepers did not look the same, it all depends on how many drawing rooms, bedrooms, double bedrooms, etc the plan called for. An 8-1-2 would look different externally from a 12-1.
I would suggest getting with th UP historical society, Yahoo group (if they have one) and the passenger car consist Yahoo Group. In many cases, you can find a consist for a particular train on a given day that will help narrow your search for specific cars.
I’ve done the same thing for the Burlington’s Ak-Sar-Ben Zephyr which had many variations over the years.
During the era you’re talking about (pre-WW2) pretty much all passenger cars were Pullman Green. Only the streamliners like the M10000, Zephyr, 400, Super Chief, etc. would be either silver or painted in different colors.
As others have said, passenger trains consists varied on an almost daily basis, depending on many factors. Unless you find a specific consist list for a specific day–these do exist but are rare-- your best bet is to join the UP historical society, or maybe just the yahoo user group if there is one, and do some in depth research to see if somethings closely approximating a Portland Rose consist exists. Over time the experts in these groups usually get around to discussing or doing articles about the kinds of questions you’re asking. There may even be a good book on the subject of UP passenger trains that would be a jumping off spot.
Your thread title may not lead to you getting much help, unforutnately. If the thread title contained the name of the train and the era you want to model, there’s at least a chance someone who knows something about it will spot the thread.
It is true that the title is somewhat misleading,I realize that indeed.I have obtained the specific magazine on the Portland Rose from the UPHS and it is by far the most complete information one can get on the subject.I already have a very good idea of how many and what types of cars were in the consists at different stages of it’s route,since the article is that complete.An outstanding article with a great consist flowchart,no one can ask for better info.
My only problem is that even if I know what made the consists,I can identify only a few.There are plenty of photos with the article that unfortunately were taken from some distance with the trains at angles that allow only the expert eye to identify what car types made the consists,in wich order and so on.I don’t think that color photography existed at that time either so I don’t expect finding any color photos anywhere either.
There were different types of sleepers,for instance,and I haven’t been able to find pictures showing the differences in their external looks,so I’ll probably settle for one type that I’ll find without really knowing wich one it is.It is most probable that there aren’t more than one or two types that were ever made by model manufacturers anyway,specially in N scale.On the other hand,what I’d really like to find is their color,wich seems to be gray,with the exception of an occasional Pullman Green car.The Portland Rose had pretty much it’s own assigned cars with interiors decorated to specific standards.
Your info says you’re in Quebec City. Too bad you didn’t write this last week, I was on vacation in Beaupré, and made it into the city several times.
The trick is, you’re going to need multiple references. Each of the sleeper designs ended up having mostly-unique window arrangements (yes, I qualify that “mostly”- there are some troublemakers out there.) IF you can get pictures of the train you’re interested in (such as the Portland Rose), then you can start counting the windows… and spacing of them. With that, you can start making good guestimates of what cars you’re looking for.
Many of them may not have been manufactured complete, but you’ve got the “Core Kit” manufacturers like Brass Car Sides (shameless plug- he was one of my physics professors[;)]) which let you assemble just the right car for what you need.
Email me if you’ve got questions- I’m mostly modelling the '50s, but I’ve got enough materials to at least guide you in the right direction.
Quick suggestion- you can get a good starting list of sources from the Utah Rails site, maintained by Don Strack. He has a whole page JUST on sources for data:
Again, there are multiple books, a set that might be a good (albeit not UP-specific) starting place could be the Passenger Cars, Vols 1-3, by Hal Carstens. They have good pictures and floor diagrams.
Finally, if you’re going to model the UP, I would also suggest joining the UP Historical Society.