Conrail "Office Car Special Set" - EMD E8A's (4020, 4021, 4022) and (8) matching cars

Donald, I watched the video and enjoyed it.  I agree the lack of people inside cars so large seems like a glaring omission. 

I have to say, your layout is amazing.  That is the type of display/play space I think most of us aspire to but will never achieve. 

I have my own memory of the OCS theater car.  When I was a lad growing up in Reading we used to ride the Blue Mountain and Reading regularly.  My mother also knew that for just some cheap entertainment it was okay by me to just drive by the facility during the week and see what was parked there.  During one such visit the OCS came through.  I don't really remember if it was the entire ocs. Honestly I think it was a conrail freight with some of the ocs cars tacked onto the rear, but I very clearly remember the theater car on the end and the men in those seats watching things as they rolled through.  It was so different from anything else I had seen or heard about that for years I questioned if I just remembered it wrong.  When Lionel rolled out the theater car in the catalog that memory came roaring back.

I am glad you have those memories of you and your father.  Have a great day

John Z.

Hey John. Thanks for the kind words. I also enjoyed your story about the "OCS".

Even though the Theater Car has the camera, I have not tried to use it! Maybe someday.

Take care.

Donald

Donald,

First thanks for sharing the video!

Second, that is some VERY nice camera work and video editing.

Third, love the CR OCS subject. Good looking train, and I agree with your comments: People should have been added, especially in the Theatre  and Dome cars with the large windows.

Lastly, love the layout! Excellent work! Please tell us a little about how you did the backdrop buildings above the arches. I noticed you have lights in all the windows.

Chris

LVHR

Beautiful set.  Would love to have one if I had the room.

Gorgeous train and layout.

Am not familiar with the prototype train at all. Did they run all three E units together or keep one in reserve or perhaps on occasion, actually run two separate trains?  Seems like overkill.

Although NS had their 4 unit F9s...

I'm sure that all three operated together at some point, but #4022 was the original OCS power for Conrail but after #4020 and #4021 were acquired from Amtrak, they became the primary power.

@c.sam

From looking at the section of photographs of the OCS E8's on the Conrail Historical Society website, I came across a photo from March 1999 that had all three E8's on the OCS train. So I would say that on occasion that all three E8's were used together. But looking at the other photos, normally two or one of the E8's would pull the OCS train.

@lehighline posted:

Donald,

First thanks for sharing the video!

Second, that is some VERY nice camera work and video editing.

Third, love the CR OCS subject. Good looking train, and I agree with your comments: People should have been added, especially in the Theatre  and Dome cars with the large windows.

Lastly, love the layout! Excellent work! Please tell us a little about how you did the backdrop buildings above the arches. I noticed you have lights in all the windows.

Thanks for all the kind words, Chris. Much appreciated.

Yes, that train invokes special memories for me and will always be one of my favorites.

Lionel still puts passengers in their 18" heavyweight cars, not sure why not the 21" variety. I do not have the desire to populate them myself, too many other projects.

Those background buildings are a combination of "Ameritown Flats" (OGR) and shadow boxes. The Ameritown flats are attached directly to the wall. I shine one of my track light spots on the windows to get a reflection and mimics lights in the windows. The "shadow boxes" are either kits or "built ups" made by "East Coast Enterprises", a forum sponsor. They all have LED strips inside that can be turned on and off as required. I just usually keep them all turned on.

Thanks again for the comments.

Donald

@TRAINMANTIM posted:

@c.sam

From looking at the section of photographs of the OCS E8's on the Conrail Historical Society website, I came across a photo from March 1999 that had all three E8's on the OCS train. So I would say that on occasion that all three E8's were used together. But looking at the other photos, normally two or one of the E8's would pull the OCS train.

Thank you for this information. It is very much appreciated. I run all three locomotives because the train really needs (2) powered units to pull all of those cars. The 3rd one is a dummy, so it just tags along instead of getting lonely on the shelf.

Thanks again.

Donald

I’m a big fan of the Conrail Office train history and this Lionel collection in particular. A few years back I saw and recorded a set at a show in Oaks, PA. Even without passengers' it made quite an impression. I don’t have the extra engine set, but the rest of this is unopened upstairs in a guest BR closet awaiting that perfect layout. Thank you for sharing this video. I really enjoyed this. And it was nice to see the Texas Special on display too. My compliments to you for adding the historical footnotes to the ultimate fate of these locomotives.

Donald,

Great video, awesome looking layout.

This was the inspiration for my Conrail Office pursuit. Thank you again for sharing your magical video.

Donald,

I have a friend who, shall we say, has an eye for detail and is quite talented. (He will tell you that's an over statement, but I'll let his work do the talking.) Back in 2009 he started kitbashing a CR OCS, as an O gauge model did not exist, and he wanted one. It took him about 2 years to make the whole train. Most of the cars are very heavily modified MTH cars, and the engines are K-Line E8s. He milled the sides off the cars and cut new ones with the correct window arrangement for each particular car. I've attached a few shots of his efforts. Enjoy!

Chris

LVHR

@WRW posted:

This was the inspiration for my Conrail Office pursuit. Thank you again for sharing your magical video.

Thanks WRW for your kind words. As I noted above, this set is also special to me. Keep looking for those 2 extra locomotives!

Donald

@lehighline posted:

Donald,

I have a friend who, shall we say, has an eye for detail and is quite talented. (He will tell you that's an over statement, but I'll let his work do the talking.) Back in 2009 he started kitbashing a CR OCS, as an O gauge model did not exist, and he wanted one. It took him about 2 years to make the whole train. Most of the cars are very heavily modified MTH cars, and the engines are K-Line E8s. He milled the sides off the cars and cut new ones with the correct window arrangement for each particular car. I've attached a few shots of his efforts. Enjoy!

Chris

LVHR

Wow. Now there is a man with some talent. I can build and paint and scratch build buildings.  I do not have those special kinds of skills to replicate motive power and rolling stock. Thanks for sharing.

Donald

Hi Don,

I came upon a very cool image of a Conrail Office Observation car in Conrail Blue before it was painted it’s distinctive variation of a Pullman Green. The the photo was taken by Tom Beckett on 7/29/1979 at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. Abiding by forum rules I’ve only attached the link to the 9/9/2012 contribution upload to rrpicturearchives.net. I don’t recall ever seeing one in blue but given the date and the location, I probably saw it as a young me and didn’t realize what I was seeing.

http://rrpicturearchives.net/s...ture.aspx?id=3185180

Yeah the 4022 and the initial business car fleet were painted blue.  The shift to green happened under Stanley Crane in early 1983 around the time that 4020 and 4021 were acquired.

On a related note, highly recommend the book "Conrail Business and Research Trains" by Brock Kerchner and Wes Reminder for anybody who wants to learn more.

I second that book as well. With the price of those Lionel E8's I decided to convert some Weaver E8's bought used instead since to make the locos more detailed and correct, there are some mods that have to be done that would otherwise cringe the Lionel purist. As Forumite Leighline shown in his pics, the shaving off the rooftop EMD Steam generator exhaust is the least of the mods that have to be done to make the ex PRR E8's more into the Conrail Executive E's.

A lot of interesting history. Thanks guys, appreciate the help.

Don

Awesome as always.  I like in particular the engine sounds as the train is about to enter into view. I had to skim over the posts with the river counter complaints.  Don’t care for all that.  So very cool.

@William 1 posted:

@William 1 posted:

Awesome as always.  I like in particular the engine sounds as the train is about to enter into view. I had to skim over the posts with the river counter complaints.  Don’t care for all that.  So very cool.

thank you William. Appreciate the positive comments.

DK