Some time ago I acquired a Fujiyama/PFM brass set of 5 wood sided passenger cars in HO scale. They were tarnished and corroded, but cheap, and they cleaned up beautifully. Unfortunately, they had no trucks. Up to this point my modeling efforts have been confined to freight cars, so I could use some help. Would wood side cars have been in service as late as 1932? What kind of trucks would be correct at that era on these cars ? The set consists of two 80’ coaches, one 80’ open platform observation car, one 60’ baggage, and one 60’ RPO (I think…). I freelance but try to follow prototype practices for the 1932 era I model. Thanks!
Those cars would certainly still be in use! And I think you’re looking for Commonwealth trucks, though I don’t know if you’d want the 4 wheel or the 6 wheeled variety (probably the 6). Maybe someone else can help with that.
Wooden passenger cars were still in service well into the ‘50s in Canada, although mostly on branchlines and/or mixed trains. Your 80’ cars would most likely have 6-wheel trucks, very similar to those found under heavyweights of the same era, while the head-end cars could have either 4- or 6-wheel trucks. Most of the ones of which I’ve seen photos had 6-wheel trucks.
These kitbashed head-end cars were built using photos as a guide, so are reasonably accurate:
These cars are MDC/Roundhouse Pullman Palace cars, but they’re very similar to cars operated by the CNR:
And a couple of kitbashed free-lance cars:
Wayne
And there you have it!
You could look into getting the MDC/Roundhouse trucks as used on the Pullman Palace cars Dr.Wayne shows above. Not sure if they’re still available separately still now, but they were available separately for many years, and I suspect you could find them at the LHS or on ebay or a flea market. Heck, the car kits only sold for about $10 so if worst came to worst you could just buy the cars if you find them. They originally came with plastic wheels, later had metal, but you could retrofit metal wheelsets quite easily.
In the photos posted above, the first two and last two cars shown are former Athearn “shorty” Pullmans, while the Horse Express car was formerly a Rivarossi coach.
Wayne
On some railroads wood sided head end cars lasted longer than coaches and other passenger cars, for safety reasons. On other railroads they ran wood coaches well into the transition era. And WWII brought some wood cars out of semi retirement.
The concern was more over wood frames and floors rather than sides. It was hazardous to have a pusher behind a wood car for example. Some wood cars were retrofitted with steel frames, yet some of them kept the truss rods
I can recall seeing wood sided cars in Soo Line work train service in the early 1980s. In fact I think they finally burned those cars just a few years ago.
Dave Nelson
Both of the CNR cars with truss rods, shown in the photos above, were re-built with steel underframes, but retained their trussrods. Many of the horse express cars, when retired from express service, had the bodies cut down, and continued to run in work trains into the '90s.
Wayne
Thanks everyone! I really like these cars and can now put them into service knowing that the first passenger train enthusiast who sees them won’t recoil in horror!