I am building a layout that will be modeled in the mid 40’s to mid 50’s era. I want some steam and some early diesel. I also want to have a small passenger train running from one depot to another. My problem is in trying to determine what is the smallest (oldest) style passenger car that could feasibly be running in that era. I am trying to keep the cars small so they look better on my 24" radius curves. I have been looking at the 50" Overland cars but don’t know how long they stayed in service. My railroad will be fictional but I would like to keep the timeframe intact.
Well, I’m modelling the mid- to late '30s, and my road has downgraded all of its Overland-style cars to MoW service. In this area of southern Ontario, there were wooden passenger cars still in service in the ‘50s, although they were generally used on mixed trains or on branchlines, and would have been similar to the 80’ MDC Pullman Palace-style cars, as pictured below:
If you want to use the Overland cars, use the version with the full-length clerestory roof, like this one:
The same cars are also available with a duckbill-style roof, like the one below, but this is an older style:
The Athearn heavyweights would be a reasonable choice for your curves, as they’re shortened (72’) versions of 80’ prototypes. They have nice proportions and are reasonably priced. I have some in service, but they’ve been modified into wooden baggage cars, so not much point in posting a picture. [swg]
Another possibility could be the MDC Harriman-style steel lightweight cars, which date from 1906. These are even shorter at about 60’. I have a baggage car in mail storage service, but no actual Harriman passenger cars. Here’s a LINK to some coach pictures.
A wood sided car of any type would have been something of a rarity in the 1940s-50s, particularly if it carried passengers rather than baggage, and yes I know there were exceptions: the general goal is to model the typical, not the eyebrow raising. Unless you model a road such as the Boston & Maine which kept some wood cars in service, I would look elsewhere.
There are many nice full length cars available, and some of them could actually run on 24" radius curves but I think the appearance would tend to highlight, rather than mask, the unprototypical tightness of the curve. So shorter cars should be explored. Maybe it is just me, but I always found “shorty” standard passenger cars to look more realistic than “shorty” streamlined cars, and standard steel cars would have been quite common in the 40s and into the 50s.
One possiblity, and these are realistic cars, are the 60 foot standard passenger cars from Rivarossi which are I believe C&NW prototypes used in commuter service – at least the coach and combine were – at this length. They are short but not shortened, if you get my point. The Walthers catalog says they are available in packs too.
My own suggestion would be to seek out the old Athearn blue box standard passenger cars, which were shortened to I think 73’ or so. They are still seen at swap meets. They were made for curves like you have.
I would second the Athearn heavyweights. Real heavyweight RPO, Baggage and Coach cars were normally not 80’ long; the Athearn ones are “full size”. The coach is 70’ or 72’ feet, the head end cars are a little shorter I believe. MDC 60’ Harriman cars are nice cars. I think Model Power makes similar cars (with interiors) but I haven’t tried them. The Harriman cars are similar to the “Al Capone” cars that lasted on the Rock Island in commuter service well into the diesel era. You might find the old AHM/Rivarossi cars at a flea market or online, they were quite good. (Don’t confuse them with IHC cars though.)
The Rivarossi 60’ RPO, Baggage, Coach and Combine are as noted earlier full-size versions of short passenger cars. I have a couple and like them, but with their body-mounted couplers I find that they derail on some sharp curves (say 22"R) that a larger car with talgo (truck mounted) couplers will take.
The PRR had MP54s (MU cars) and P54s (locomotive hauled cars) and MPB54s and PB54s (passenger baggage combines). IINM the Boston & Maine acquired some P54s and PB54s from the PRR and was running them in the late 1940s-early 1950s. The P54s were about 65 feet long over all, so they might be a good choice on model curves. A Google search of “PRR MP54” , “PRR P54”, and “PRR PB54” will bring up a lot of info.
