Anybody Model The Atlantic Coast Line?

No really, I did spot this car in the yard.........

 

My wife used to work for Sherwin Williams and said that they often steered people away from shades with red tint because reds and yellows, to some extent, fade quicker than other colors in the spectrum as they interact with with the sun's UV rays so they don't last as long. It's also one reason you don't see as many autos painted in red. 

Martin,

Had to put sunglasses on for that   That car would really stick out in a train full of freight car brown.  The ACL/SAL Historical Society mag "Lines South" had a nice article on the ventilated cars.  I can't imagine the labor involved in hand-loading a boxcar.

Since I model an earlier era than most, I do get to build & use a few brighter cars,

 

That's an All-Nation kit with dry transfers from Clover House.  I have 3 other ventilated cars - all different lines.  Fun cars but making that pair of grilled doors can test your mental stability!

Thanks! I grew up in Pinellas County, FL and saw SCL trains all the time running phosphate to the Gardinier Plant in Tampa (Gibsonton, actually). In 1978 I rode the Amtrak passenger train from St Pete to Washington and back and apparently unknowingly rode one of the final first class passenger trains on that route. 

"Purple Papa" who had the Conway, S.C. O-gauge Hobby Shop[near Myrtle Beach] was a knowledgeable Atlantic Coast Line fan. He closed the Shop several years ago, don't know if he still posts on the Forum.

 

 I have six Fruit Growers Express reefers[yellow] that are sub-lettered for the ACL. The ACL was an investor in the FGE joint-venture operation at Alexandria, Va. [near Washington] that built reefers for PRR, Southern,etc,etc.

Breezinup

 

THANK YOU for the information on ACL

 

When my then 5 year old got me back into this wonderful of Hobbies we BOTH fell in love with ACL, yes it was that purple scheme. I just love that rail line even though we really are into UP and Santa Fe.

 

I do have the WBB F-7's in ACL but I don't think they quite got the purple right but it still looks cool.

 

I did buy WBB's ACL black and yellow GP-30 and it looks really cool too!!

 

Anybody paint an engine into the ACL purple/aluminum?  Did you mask each color off or spray one over the entire body first, then mask, then spray the second color?  Which color should go first, aluminum?

No, but I may some day - I am always repainting the E-7 fleet, and fondly remember the ACL purple.

 

Here is what I would do - spray the entire thing with the appropriate yellow, then mask the outlines with fine line tape.  shoot silver over everything, then carefully mask the areas you wish to remain silver, and shoot the purple.  Then carefully unmask.

 

The secret is to not let the tape stay on too long, but not to attempt masking over paint that has not cured.  I use Scale Coat, and bake the first coat.  I have done B&O and NYC this way with moderate success.  If I was not always in a hurry with masking tape I could do professional work.

Thanks Bob, I hadn't thought of doing the yellow stripes in paint, just using decals.

 

It might be easier to do them with paint as you described.

Hay Bob

Fooling around on the e-net (the bay) I came across this Berk 4-8-4 WB. Another purple

I'm really thinking about buying the thing. I certainly got a lot of purple around here.

Larry

I always spray silver last.  My experience is silver tends to like to come up with the masking otherwise.

 

Rusty

WOW

 

when did WBB release that Berkshire?

 

The research I did was that the shade of purple WBB uses is more in line with faded purple after the trains had been out in the sun and elements for awhile.

 

I like stuff like that

 

Although the original deep royal fresh painted purple is really cool too

I grew up in Wilmington, NC as well, but after the ACL had left. Was a long time volunteer at the railroad museum there during the 80s and early 90s before I left for Southern territory. 

 

I have several ACL and SAL 3R models from Lionel, MTH and Atlas. I even have the SCL C628 as previously mentioned, but it will stay SCL. Atlas has done a great job in producing southeast freight cars, and I have several in my collection. Wish someone would make accurate ACL passenger cars for my MTH E-8s. 

 

I also have several HO scale ACL, SAL and SCL locomotives and freight cars as well. Much easier to find stuff in this scale. 

 

I just wish there were 3R clubs closer to me than Winston, Raleigh or Asheville. A little too far to drive for an operating session or club meetings.

 

Glad to see plenty of interest in the ACL, SAL and SCL!

Breezinup

 

Thanks for the history on ACL and Seaboard. I find it very interesting that Amtrak does not have a Chicago to Florida line anymore I really think it would do well.

 

I have grown tired of all the "stuff' with flying and all the difficulties. I now drive as often as I can have rediscovered the fun of train travel and do take extra time to do it and am finding out more folks are thinking that way.

 

While in Naples Florida last June I discovered the ACL and Seaboard train museam and preservered train station. Next month I will fly down with my 10 year old son to go through the museam. There is an extensive Lionel O-Gauge museam inside which I want to see.

 

Thanks again Breezin.

 

I love that Purple ACL!!!!

Glad to see plenty of interest in the ACL, SAL and SCL!

Now if we can get the manufacturers to pay attention we'll do alright!

 

I've just started paying attention to what ACL had, but SAL had a number of cars not owned by anyone else or very few owners.  I'd like to see some SAL Turtleback (round-roof) roof cars (single and doubel-door) instead of the B&O version painted in SAl livery.  Been done in S scale and I'm sure HO, but not in O.

I just emailed American Model Builders/Laserkit to inquire about them making O scale items, specifically ACL/SAL cabooses.

 

Their response was they had no plans at this time to pursue O scale rolling stock.  Maybe if enough of us emailed them to let them know maybe they'd change their minds.  They make some beautiful ACL/SAL cabs in HO.

Count on me

 

It seems ACL is a sell out when available especially when they use the Purple

Just found this thread. Add my name to the list of ACL followers. My main interest is O scale 2 rail and purple paint schemes- early diesels and passenger trains.
Leon

 

Has anyone ordered this book from Morning Sun Books? I hope to get one by Christmas. There is also a companion book for the Seaboard Air Line.

I was considering the book and would be interested to see a review on it.

No review on Amazon that I can find. I have the Seaboard Coast Line in Color, and the book is very good. It will be interesting to see the ratio between the purple and black paint, since it goes up to 1967. The black era (1958 - 1967) seems to be more prevalent in color images that I have seen. The cover photo dates from 1957-58 since loco has the larger side letters introduced in 1957. 

 

I may just order one in the next few weeks and post my own review here. Same with the SAL book. 

From a source I know down in Ft Lauderdale who's Dad worked on ACL. He told me the purple paint scheme was very hard to maintain. Everytime they ran the engines through the "Train Washes" the purple would be faded and sometimes have to be repainted. 

That is why you seem to see so many different shades.

 

Personally I like new looking paint BUT also like the faded looks too!!

 

Long live ACL.

 

In fact my son and I were running the trains last night and hooked up the ACL F-7's

I happen to pick up another purple thing from a member not long ago.

 

Larry

 

 

Anyone ever heard of Phoenix Railways Inc. making 18 inch passenger cars for the ACL and FEC? Picked up a set recently of these cars which included 6 cars split equally between these two railroads to run behind my recently acquired ACL E-6s. Makes a believable Champion from the late 40s. Just need to add some Pennsy baggage/express and ACL express boxcars and it will be complete.

 

What I need to find now are 18 inch lightweight sleepers to model the ACL County series, which were common on the Champion starting in 1949.

Larry,

 

I had to do some searching, but there was a topic on their cars back in 2013:

 

https://ogrforum.com/t...minum-passenger-cars

 

I looked on Google but didn't see any ACL stuff by them.  From what Marty Fitzhenry said they were good cars.  I did spot an L&N set on Google when I searched for Phoenix Rail Ways.

Bob,

 

I had seen the topic from 2013 on Phoenix cars when I discovered these cars. The L&N cars you reference were made in the blue scheme, with around 6 cars total. I have also seen a baggage, combo and coach lettered for Seaboard. I wonder if Phoenix made very small runs of cars to go with existing Lionel or MTH locomotives. In many ways the Phoenix cars mimic Lionel's postwar streamlines, just 3 inches longer. 

 

What I would really like to know are the exact years the company was in business. I figure they lasted into the early 90s, but not sure.

 

i will post pictures of my cars when I get a chance. 

Probably showing my ignorance here but I just picked up a 4 car WBB set of ACL72 streamline passenger cars from train world that I liked when I got them  , run on 042 look scale. I liked them a lot but I'm new at this! Just sayin!

Thought I would post these here. Had previously posted to the ACL/FEC Champion thread, but might useful to all ACL fans. Great to develop passenger trains for any era.

Thanks Larry!

 

Here's a photo of a Mullet River Southern Rwy caboose kit:

 

 

 

How close do you think it is to an ACL M3:

 

 

 

Price is a bit steep ($120+ shipping) for a kit, and does not come with trucks, brake details, or couplers.  Then add in paint, decals (if they can be found), going to bring this cab up to or pass $200 easily.

 

I meant to point out ACL had both woodside and smooth plywood-sided cabs.

Unfortunate. They could scale up everything into their laser cutter and do a custom run of several of the cabooses that they list in HO, and I think that they'd be able to sell them, too.

Bob,

 

I know Brother Love on this forum has made ACL M3 cabs lettered for ACL and subsidiaries that look very god and come complete with trucks and couplers. I would contact him to see about making one of these before trying to shorten one of the Southern cab kits. His are expensive too, but well worth the price. If I am able to save up enough money for 2-3 myself, I plan to have him make some for me.

Larry, I didn't realize the Southern cab is too long.

 

I have drawings of the ACL M3 that were in either Lines South or S-CL Modeler, I might give it a go myself!  2 of the 3 SAL cabs I have were either entirely scratchbuilt or heavily modified MTH cabs.

 

I need to finish the 3 or 4 other projects I have laying around first, if for no other reason than to free up some room

Bob,

The ACL M3 measures 38 feet 8 inches coupled, and 30 foot 6 inches inside measurement.  Not sure how that compares to a Southern wooden cab, but they look longer to me in photos. Can't find measurements for the Southern at the moment.

Larry,

 

Something you mentioned got me thinking.  In Bill Griffin's book "The Atlantic & Danville Railway Company" there's photos of the A&D wood-side cabooses, X100-X108, that were ex-Southern cabs.

 

Says they were 37 feet long, 30 feet inside.  Pretty close I think.  Still the Mullet River model is going to be close to $200 by the time trucks, paint, and decals are added, plus it needs to be assembled (does come with an interior).

 

One of our Southern Rwy guys should be able to confirm some dimensions if they're reading this.  Prince's book on the Southern doesn't have anything about the cabs.

 

Leaning more and more towards building my own.

I recieved this book as a late Xmas present 2 weeks ago, I am not a big ACL fan but I thought the book was well done a good mix of early and late colors. Not all pro grade pics [I guess I am spoiled by quality of todays digital shots] very little on Willmington, Florence and Charleston RR areas, the book highlights a few main hotspots. RonsBooks worth the money.JMO

Thanks for the review. Wilmington was really off-line, and Florence has been covered well in other publications. I plan to get a copy in the next few weeks.

Bob,

You could get the AMB HO M3 kit and double the measurements, and construct out of styrene, especially if you want the plywood version. Were did you find the decals?

Does anyone have or know where I can find O scale ACL RPO decals? I think the Atlas RPO should make a descent representation with the clerestory roof and 6-wheel trucks. I have found sources for the Champ P-118 ACL Passenger Car set, but don't think this covers RPOs. 

 

Has anyone made their own ACL passenger train decals?

 

Thanks,