Best scale passenger cars to go with a Tuscan red GG1?

GGD or 3rd Rail/Sunset coaches, 12-1s or 8-1-2s would look very nice behind your GG1.  John

In early1952 the Pennsylvania painted some GG1's tuscan to pull the 18 car Congressional and the 14 car Senator only. Later on tuscan GG1's were pulling other trains. Golden Gate Depot made all the Congressional and some Senator cars years ago.

The cars were correct for the Congressional and the coaches and parlor cars were correct for the Senator. The Senator had a slightly different observation than the Congressional. The Senator did not have the parlor car with the telephone in it as did the Congressional. The telephone was in the Senator's observation.

I'm thinking the GGD P70 coaches would work.    They are the most accurate non-brass scale PRR P70 coaches.   They are in the same paint scheme as the pullmans mentioned above

I pull my Congressional cars with my Tuscan GG-1, but my Congressional is only ten cars.

The suggestions above are the best cars for the 5 stripe Tuscan GG1s if you are looking for accurate scale cars.

A total of 10 GG1s got this paint scheme with some in 1952 and the rest in 1953.  PRR adopted the large single stripe scheme with 16" Roman letters in 1955 so arguably the most famous of the GG1 paint schemes was fairly short lived even though the fleet did not get completely repainted immediately.  Still a great paint scheme on a great locomotive. 

MTH cars are not accurate for Pennsylvania.  All steel Pullman heavyweights were 80' in length as was the large fleet of over 1000 P70 coaches the PRR constructed in the first quarter of the 20th century.  The D78 diner was also an 80' car and one of the more common heavyweight diners used by the PRR.  The  Budd built Congressional was built with the blunt end on the observation car.

K-Line also made a fairly decent stand-in for the Congressional that may ultimately be easier to find than the GGD set.   

I love the K-Line cars, but they are more brown than Tuscan.  If I ever get motivated, mine will get re-sprayed Scalecoat Tuscan.

without a doubt the GGD congressional cars--but they are impossible to find and super expensive if you do---hey Scott Mann how about another run? Pohattan Arrow too

@20centuryhudson posted:

without a doubt the GGD congressional cars--but they are impossible to find and super expensive if you do---hey Scott Mann how about another run? Pohattan Arrow too

Scott's having a tough sell on the Broadway Ltd. Set! I hope the Broadway doesn't get cancelled! I hope that you would be correct on the Congressional/Seanator sets if they would be done.

How do people feel about these cars from K- line? even if not perfectly accurate, would what they're trying to represent be suitable. I have similar LIRR metal cars from K-line that I really like and while not perfectly accurate, I think they do the job. Would these be appropriate to go with a Tuscan 5 stripe GG1?

@Billbarman posted:

How do people feel about these cars from K- line? even if not perfectly accurate, would what they're trying to represent be suitable. I have similar LIRR metal cars from K-line that I really like and while not perfectly accurate, I think they do the job. Would these be appropriate to go with a Tuscan 5 stripe GG1?

Not even close. PRR used the "Fleet of modernism" scheme from 1938-1947, and as such, most would have been paired with a K4. PRR didn't paint any GG1s tuscan until 1952, and even then only 10 units were painted that color (6 in 1952, and 4 more in 1953).

Lionel made a set of 18-inch aluminum Congressional cars and they are beautiful. They're hard to find, especially the station sounds diner, but there is a complete 7-car set on eBay right now.

Upon further inspection I notice those k-line cars are only 15 inches, which won't cut it and yeah, the font on them is the type I believe stopped being used on the GG1s in the early 40s, well before the Tuscan scheme.

I'm eyeing a 4 car set of modernized P70s from Golden Gate depot. Would those fit the bill? and if so, what other cars from any other manufacturer would fir into that kind of consist? Thanks again for the help.

Tuscan GG1s would have pulled the modernized P70faRs on the long-distance trains to Harrisburg and would be a nice fit for the Tuscan GG1.  I have a set of 2 rail P70faRs and they are very nice cars.  Add a Weaver (now Lionel) B60b and perhaps an MTH R50b express reefer to the front and you have a nice secondary train.

Often the P70faRs would run with streamlined equipment during the early 50's and could make for some pretty interesting trains where you have the heavyweight head end cars of the PRR and other roads with a mix of streamlined Tuscan cars such as the P85 streamlined coaches, diners, various configurations of sleepers, and Pullman Standard Heavyweight 12-1 and 8-1-2 sleepers.  Do an online search for PRR images and you will see these types of trains under wire.  While the majority of the GG1 fleet stayed in DGLE (green) colors, Tuscan GG1s would get the call to pull these trains as well.

The original GGD P70Rs are pretty nice also and would be accurate for Clocker service on the NY-DC runs.

One thing to keep in mind is that while the 10 GG1s that got 5 stripe Tuscan Red were originally painted to coincide with the introduction of the Congo cars, in reality, the first GG1 on the ready track at Sunnyside got the next train assignment so there are no hard and fast rules as to what GG1 pulled what train after the initial photographs for marketing. 

A little education please, Jonathan... what are “Congo cars”??? I’ve never heard that term before.

@Apples55 posted:

A little education please, Jonathan... what are “Congo cars”??? I’ve never heard that term before.

I believe that was what they called the "Congressional", i.e. "Congo".

@Hot Water posted:

I believe that was what they called the "Congressional", i.e. "Congo".

Yes.  Apologies.  That is the insider terminology for the Congressional cars.  Most went on to serve Amtrak in their era of Clocker service.

Thanks HW/Jonathan... learn something every day around here