I would like to model the UP Overland Limited in the time around 1910 to 1920. I know that the Overland Limite was still made up of the old wooden Palace cars, but I don´t know which year between 1910 and 1920 the change to all steel heavyweights took place. I think I saw once an old advertisement dating from 1915, where the text says about the Overland Limited that it is an all steel train, so could it be that the train was transformed from an old style Palace car train into an all steel heavyweight train in 1915?
Can anyone give me a consist of the Overland Limited during that time, maybe more specifically between 1910 and 1915?
And what pulling power do I need for the train? A 4-6-2 could be the right choice, but which class? I bet there are only brass models available from the Pacifics of that era, right?
Did it ever happen that an USRA engine ever pulled a complete wooden Palace car passenger train, or have these cars already been completely replaced by all steel heavyweights by the time the first USRA engines showed up?
Many 80’ wood passenger cars were built in the 1890’s and early 1900’s so they would still be in everyday use in the period you’re looking at, however I would guess it’s unlikely that by the time the USRA engines came along in 1919-20 that you’d still see a solid train of wood passenger cars on a “top of the line” passenger train like the Overland Ltd.
Here’s a pic of the 1906 version leaving Oakland on the Southern Pacific (the train was a joint SP/UP/CNW operation). Looks like a 4-4-2 on the point. I’m not a UP expert, but overall 4-6-2’s were just starting to come into general use around then, in the teens a 4-4-2 or 4-6-0 might be more common, even a 4-4-0 perhaps on a level mainline. Wood cars were a lot lighter than steel heavyweights…
The loco is SP 3017 a 4-4-2 Atlantic. The Overland would be pulled up to Port Costa and loaded on a ferry to Benicia. From there it would continue to Roseville. At Roseville the 4-4-2 would either be traded for heaver power over Donner or a helper added. In 1930 the ferry was discountinued when the Martinez-Benicia bridge was completed.
Actually 1910-1920 includes the period when the Overland was converted to steel equipment. That photo with the SP Atlantic in 1908 shows an all-wood train. A 1912 photo near Colfax, Calif., in Lucius Beebe’s The Overland Limited shows the train with a mixture of wood and steel Pullmans, but with arch-roof steel “Harriman” RPO, baggage-club, and dining cars on the head end. A 1916 photo on the SP in Nevada shows an all-steel consist, with what appear to be the same Harriman-style cars at the head end and early steel Pullmans making up the remainder of the train. Since the Overland was the premier train on its route, chances are that it was one of the first to receive new equipment when production of steel Pullmans began about 1910.
Don’t you hate it when historical fact intrudes on a good story? (I kind of enjoy it, but that’s just me.)
