So for my fictional route I am trying find a Ill/WI/IA/MI/MN carrier that had a heavyweight RPO/Combine car that I could reletter? Anyone know if either the SOO, MILW, or CNW ever ran one? thanks
Here’s a picture of a C&NW combine in later years. I expect that there are others in view of all the branch lines that those railroads operated.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=556650
Bill
Depends a little on what kind of “combine” you mean?? To most people a “combine” is a car that’s part baggage and part coach. Combination RPO/baggage-express cars were pretty common too. Some railroads had triple combines - baggage/RPO/coach - like NP used as the only car on their train from Superior WI across Minnesota to I think Fargo ND. It’s possible someone used an RPO/coach combine but it would be fairly rare I’d think.
Walthers / Rivarossi offered a 60’ Utility Combine based on a CNW design. It was offered in CNW yellow and in Pullman green. It’s a baggage - coach combine rather than an RPO - coach combine. They also made a 60’ RPO based on a CNW prototype. (They also made a 60’ Utility Coach and 60’ baggage car. All were based on real CNW cars and are not “shorties”.)
Yeah I’m after the RPO/Baggage/Passenger kind. Know of anyone that makes one? Or is this going to be one of those projects that is going to tax my limited car building skills?
What scale are you looking for? Somebody might make brass car sides to convert a suitable baggage car without too much trouble.
An RPO section can be pretty small, like 15’ so externally would only be a difference of having say one or two windows on each side of the car. Wouldn’t be that hard to add to a “regular” combine. For example a Budd RDC-3 had a section for passengers and baggage and small RPO section with I think just one window and a small side door for picking up and dropping off mail - generally RPO sections weren’t reachable from within the car, only from the outside.
BTW if your layout is 1950 or later, an RDC-3 would be a good choice rather than a combine and engine. Northern Pacific replaced their one-car local I mentioned earlier with an RDC-3.
Are you looking for a prototype on which to base your model, or are you merely looking for a suitable car with which to start?
The old Rivarossi combine is readily available and can be made into an RPO/baggage/coach-type combine without too much effort, if you don’t mind having the RPO section between the other two. The car shown below was modified with window sections from New England Rail Service, as the passenger section on the original car is only three windows long. I also added windows from an Athearn Pullman in the baggage area, as was common in the '30s.
You could leave the passenger area with three windows, then cut a new door and a couple of windows in the long, blank area between them and the baggage door. A new door can be easily fabricated from sheet styrene, and the windows can be framed with styrene strips or you could cut individual windows from a strip of suitably-sized NERS windows.
For a more prototypical car, with the RPO at the end, you’d need to section the car into three pieces: the baggage end (this should include the end and a few feet of the car’s sides, cut at a place suitable for your purposes), the baggage section, including all of the area between the doors and the chopped-off front end and most of the blank sides between the baggage door and the passenger windows. The third section would be the passenger area at the rear of the car. Turn the baggage section end-about, then cement the car back together. This should yield a car with the front end devoid of windows or doors until you reach the re-located baggage doors, which will now be much closer to the passenger windows. Cut your new RPO door and window openings, and finish them to suit. You’ll also need to re-work or replace the existing floor - the latter is easier. With careful work, you’ll be able to re-use the o