I have a three ‘sets’ of passenger cars. One is about 58 scale feet HO, another is 80 scale feet and the third is about 34 feet. About what time period would each of these cars have been used in regular service?
The 34’ one - is it wood siding? I suspect it is 1870’s.
The 58’ one - steel or wood siding? If steel, 1910 to 1955
The 80’ one - if steel, about the same as the 58’ one. If wood siding, maybe 1880’s - 1890’s
Jim
That would be the MDC Overton cars, of which on two were ever made, both for the Sierra RR and they were in service from the 1890’s to the 1930’s or so when they went into movie prop service.
Or later. I was riding MP54’s (54 ft steel coaches) built in the 1920’s or 1930’s into the 1970’s and they were finally removed from service in the 1980’s. If wood, from the 1880’s depending on design up until about WW1.
If steel they lasted well into the Amtrak era, and many soldier on in excursion and business car service. If wood (MDC Pullman Palace cars), they would have served from the 1890’s into the Depression ( if rebuilt with a steel underframe.). Somewhere in there wood passenger cars were banned as fire hazards.
The length is no indicator of age or length of service. If all the cars you are asking about are wood, technically the shortest cars have the longest service since I believe that 100% of those cars built (both of them) still exist and are used in movies.
Thanks fellas for the replies. If I could rephrase the question that would be a help.
It has been my understanding, maybe erroneously, that as time went by passenger cars grew longer due to increased ridership. So, I guess I’m asking when did the 58’ and the 80’ cars first come into service? Is it a case where different railroads bought different sizes depending on where they were used? I wouldn’t think that cars used to service small towns in mostly rural areas (say in the '40s) would be the 80 footers. That if they had the smaller cars they would use them there instead, and use the longer cars on highly traveled main lines. Would that be generally correct?
Jarrell
The 58’ could actually be an Athearn shorty car which is 60’. These are not prototypical and were shortened to get around tight radius curves. There are corrugated, smooth side and heavyweight versions.
Passenger cars began being built to 80’ length in the 1890’s, with cars like the MDC (Athearn) Pullman Palace woodsided cars.
Many heavyweight RPO and Baggage cars were built in the 60-70’ range in the 1910’s-20’s, and many heavyweight coaches were around 70-72’ also. However most heavyweight diners, sleepers etc. were 80’. Athearn’s heavyweight cars are the correct length for the RPO, Baggage and Coach, but the other cars are shortened to 72’ or so to allow them to go around sharper curves.
Walthers/Rivarossi made 60’ cars that were models of actual heavyweight 60’ cars. Many roads had RPO and Baggage cars of that length, the combine and coach are based on C&NW “Utility Coach” and “Utility Combine” cars, which were also 60’.
Can’t answer all your questions - perhaps others can.
80ft wood passenger cars were being built in the 1890s, although most railroads didn’t have cars that long at that time. Wood was practical for long passenger cars because a full load of passengers is considerably lighter than a car full of freight.
What changed more with era in the 19th and early 20th Centuries than size were the roof styles. Knowing the roof style can almost pinpoint the decade the car was built. John White’s book on passenger cars is perhaps the best authority for 19th and early 20th Century practices.
The 34ft Sierra Railway cars (named Overton by MDC/Roundhose) were actually built around 1906, and were similar in construction to open platform wood passenger cars of the day. The Sierra Ry built the two cars (1 combine and 1 coach) for passenger service on the Angels Camp branch which featured some short switchback tails.
Steel construction generally started in the 1st decade of the 20th Century. The change to steel passenger cars - especially steel underframes - was much more rapid than with freight cars. Steel underframes offered a lot more protection from “telescoping” - a common cause of death in passenger car derailments. And the Post Office was demanding s
A lot of times, the branchlines got castoffs from mainline service. If an 80’ car was available, and there was a need for a new car on a little used branch, the 80’ car went off to the little used branch. And during the 1940s, anything that could roll was pressed into service due to wartime restrictions.
I seem to remember that a railroad in Georgia was still dragging around a 70’-80’ passenger car on a local train into the 1970s in order to fulfill the terms of the line’s 19th century charter requiring the line to offer passenger service.
Bachmann made these in N scale in the 1970s-1980s. I read somewhere that it is believed that the C&NW Utility Coaches and Combines were originally built with wood sides. They were used in commuter service into the 1950s.
Actually the standard coaches are prototypical, the RDG had lots of commuter coaches that were that length and the PRR’s commuter cars were even shorter.
The length isn’t really a measure of era, its more a measure of service. The longer the car the longer distance service it was intended for. Commuter cars tended to be shorter than long distance cars.
Lets back up a minute, by Athearn Shorty, do you mean the Ex-Bluebox kits or an older car from their Globe/Metal days that I’m not familiar with? If the former, those are 72sft, and are 5ft short of a 1937 Budd coach built for the ATSF.
Your 80ft car, are there windows in the bulkhead end, a la the Roundhouse Palace cars?
Mornin’, Guys;
As an aside, I can remember in-I believe it was around Sept-1967, a letter that got into MR’s railway post office by a one Charles (last name omitted out of respect-he may have passed on) decrying the (at the time) Westwood’s pullman palace car that had been categorized as a “shake the box” type of plastic kit, and how it really denegrated the hobby by adulterating it with this “easy” stuff. Actually, those kits did present a bit of a challenge, especially to someone just entering the hobby with no previous crafts esperience. I was one of those new guys, and had to chuckle to myself when I read it. I was stationed at Bunker Hill AFB in Indiana at the time.
Having moved a bit out along the line (hopefully) in my building ability, Letters like that are always good memories of MR; Gordy odegard, Linn westcott, and (then new) Russ Larson, etc., always put together a great mag. Oh, by the way, I still have that issue.
EF-3Yellowjacket
My favorite has always been the one in the middle. The MP54 which is 64 feet long and also available now from concor. [:-^]. It’s steel and was used until about 1980.
Open platform wooden coaches lasted in Boston & Maine commuter service into the early 1950’s. The train my father rode out to Wayland would have looked right at home on the set of any western movie.