What I need is some real info about shorty passenger cars, who had them and what type and what models are out there. There is alot of opinions out there on various cars but few facts I can find, yes the overton type were rare and somewhat based on a partial prototype but there were others that are a little longer but I am having trouble finding info ( I know they existed as I have seen photos in train lash-ups and by knowing the typical length of the loco, I can figure out they were shorter than typical but cannot find any details.
Well, for a start, Rivarossi made some 60’ heavyweight cars. Walthers has carried them from time to time, and has some of them listed right now. There is/was a coach, a baggage, a combine, and an RPO (I believe). Walthers is showing the coach and baggage.
As for who had them, C&NW did.
Southern Car & Foundry makes some 60’, 69’ and 70’ head end Harriman cars. They’re good for SP and/or UP.
Ed
Good start although I thought the Rivarossi cars followed no proto type, also thinking of older cars. Also I thought that on the C&NW as others that only some of the cars like the baggage were around 60’ but the coaches and such were much longer?
Yeah, I thought you might be after older cars; but you asked.
Keep in mind that not ALL of CNW’s cars were shorties; but, yes, they had some 60’ cars in all those styles.
Just remembered: ConCor has some neat little short cars. They’re doing PRR MP54 cars–coach, baggage-mail, and combine. They, too, are heavyweight steel cars. I got one of the coaches 'cause SP&S bought some and turned them into kitchen cars for their work crews. Nice models. And they are indeed Pennsy cars. Concor also sells them lettered for N&W, B&M, ATSF, Long Island, ERIE, and PRSL; and I think those are all correct, too. Pretty cool.
You might also check out LaBelle passenger car kits. I built one of their paired window combines, once. It’s a real beauty, though you’ll be spending more than a few minutes putting them together. They are “older” cars–they’re truss rod woodies, but they’ve got closed vestibules. I don’t have mine handy, but I think it’s a 60 footer.
Ed
Clean forgot about La Belle, nice when finished but I am sure a lot of work, I restore old wood cars but have not done any passenger (probably because they are more fragile so don’t last and or the were put together so poorly they can’t be fixed seen a lot of freight cars like that too).
Funaro & Camerlengo made kits of Maryland & Pennslyvania passenger equipment. Kit #4001 was for a wood coach and is about a scale 55’ long. The also made the rather iconic MA & PA mail/baggage car #35. These are resin kits. I have the “first release” of these, and some work was required to square up all of the parts, but good models came out of the process. I’m not sure if they are still available.
I guess more information might be needed as to what constitutes a “shorty” passenger car.
Bill
Didn’t know about the resin kits, will cheak it out, as far as shorty goes anything 60’ and below to me, the pics I talked about seem to measure between around 45’ to 55’.
I guess it depends on terminology…generally in model railroading “shorty” passenger cars are cars that were really say 80’ long, but the manufacturer made them shorter (say around 70’) so they could be used on tight curves like HO 18" radius curves. For example, Athearn’s streamlined HO cars, and some of their heavyweight cars, are shorter than the real cars.
I suspect what you’re actually talking about is just models of prototype cars that were fairly short - like the CNW “utility” coach and combine mentioned earlier. The old MDC/Roundhouse woodside passenger cars aren’t too bad, the 50’ cars are fairly accurate (or at least some of them are) to Pullman cars built in the 1870s-80s. They’re pretty close to what many railroads had during that time.
In the Athearn Roundhouse line, there are three groups of passenger cars: Overland, Overton, and Pullman Pallace. They are 50’, 34’ and 85’ cars, respectively. I have the IMPRESSION that some or all of the Overton cars have a real prototype–say, the Sierra Railroad, maybe. The others, dunno. Also, Model Power had (note had) a line of old-timey 50 footers in the style of Barney and Smith cars. I’ve got a project where I’m using three of them to make models of 60’ cars. There might still be some around.
All of the above are variations on the old wood cars.
Unless you need a lot of them, I’d suggest “biting the bullet” and buying the LaBelle cars as kits. You DEFINITELY should use sanding sealer, as you want the wood grain gone. I suppose after building a “few”, the fun might drain out. Or not. If you’re going with shorties, your railroad is likely pretty small, so short trains are pretty much it. A combine and two coaches would look pretty adequate. They even have RPO’s and obs’s.
Ed
Actually the layout I am building is fairly large like 30’x20 but it is made of module two feet deep so some of the curves are 18" even though I tried to stay above 20". It is a walk around layout.
OK. Regarding the passenger car situation:
Does the layout have a particular era? Location? Railroad(s)?
You know your project limitations/definitions much more than I (hey, you’re THERE), but I’m in a free-mo group that specifies, sort of, a module width of 24". I am planning on building two 24" wide modules with 84" radius curves. I’m not seeing any problems with mine.
Ed
Specifying an era and service will answer your question, since many of the “shorty” cars are inappropriate for many eras or services.
Depression era, short line traffic.
A short line of the time would, I think, not be in a position to buy equipment new. I doubt there was a lot of surplus steel cars. Thus I would lean towards wood cars with truss rods. If I were to go plastic, I think I’d choose the Athearn Overland line. They’re not the most stunning models I’ve ever seen, but I can’t think of anything else out there. That’s short. You might be able to fix them up a bit.
The other option is the LaBelle line. I think.
Ed