I have a model UP Challenger loco in the two tone grey with yellow striping, can anyone tell me what passenger cars it may have pulled in the late 40’s, style of car and paint scheme?
Did they pull any named trains?
Thanks in advance.
Jim
This might help:
Hi Jim,
The two-tone-gray Challengers were assigned to passenger service in the Pacific Northwest, between Green River, Wyo., and Portland, beginning in 1946. They worked regularly on most passenger trains in that territory except the City of Portland Streamliners, and the yellow lettering and striping was used so the steam engines would at least partially match the Streamliner cars in case they had to fill in for the Streamliner’s diesels in emergencies. The train that came closest to having a matching two-tone-gray consist on that line was the Portland Rose, which we’ve discussed in this forum on other threads.
However, the heavyweight and non-Streamliner lightweight cars painted two-tone gray had silver-gray lettering and striping, so they didn’t originally match the steam engines exactly. By 1949 the UP had enough diesel power to protect the Streamliner schedules without steam backups, and the two-tone gray engines were then repainted with the silver-gray lettering and striping. But in 1951 the two-tone gray steamers began to be re-assigned to freight service, at which point they were repainted black with aluminum (silver) lettering.
So long,
Andy