I grew up in Norwood, PA across the street from the Pennsylvania Railroad. I am going to try to replicate several of the trains that were part of my childhhod in the 1950s. I have several B&W photos I took of a GGI pulling passenger cars, and the “local” MU MP54 my Dad took to work in Philly every day.
I’m trying to identify the coaches pulled by the GG1 - The Congressional/The Senator?, and determine which are good models to buy in HO.
I have no idea how to attach the photos, but could scan them to anyone who would be interested.
Clockers used P70 coachs for the most part. The only one available is the Bachman that has been out of production for some time but can be had on E Bay. It has oversized rivets and need to have the goofy coupler system modified to carbody mounted kaydees. The Congo was new in the 1952 range and was all Budd stainless cars. Walthers produced them for the most part correctly although there are some errors and fantasy cars. Check Keystone Crossings web site under passemger operations for a list of all PRR produced passenger car models and which are correctly modeled. Concor is coming out with the MP54 commuter cars very shortly. The first run is probably sold out but check with a hobby shop. The only other choice is an F&C resin kit.
From the old photo I took, it appears the cars are aluminum, with a dark stripe over the windows. They also appear to be corrugated. I was able to count nine plus windows. If I knew how, I would post the photo here.
Thanks very much! I responded earlier, but it seems it did not go through.
The old photo I took in the 50s, shows that it appears to be aluminum, corragated, with a dark stripe over the windows (tuscan?). I counted at least nine windows. If I knew how to post the photo, I’d do it.
Not aluminum. They are stainless steel with a tuscan stripe for the “Pennsylvania” in yellow. The baggage car and observation are wrong by Walthers. The PRR did not have a baggage car in stainless and the obs had a square end not pointed. Nobody makes it in HO or any other scale. Train was hauled to DC from New York and not turned. The cars were hauled backwardsand turned on the loop at Sunnyside and back to DC on the next trip where they were then in the right order for two trips in the right order. Most of the cars are covered in the Budd ad in the 1953 Car Builders Cyclopedia if you can find one in a library somewhere. There are about twenty pages including photos and floor plans. A second train was the Senator with identical cars that went on to Boston and returned. There are slight variations in the Observation cars for the Congo and Senator. All cars were named for early Patriots like George Washington and others many of whom signed the Declaration of Independence. Five GG1s were painted tuscan to pull them. One for each train and one spare. Four trains total. Original G’s were silver but the pantographs got them dirty too quickly so they were changed to Tuscan. very few pictures of the silver G’s exist. Rivarossi (IHC) also made some Congo cars but they are incorrect but look great.
The photo I took shows four coaches, no baggage or observation cars. It is heading “south” - away from Philly toward DC. The GG1 is dark colored -tuscan, and the cars are light- stainless. If you have an e-mail, I can forward the photo to you. I have a second one, blurry, taken at a different time, with a competely different make up. The two cars that are visible are competely different from each other.