Excursion Trains

You could always claim you were modeling the early 70's Amtrak. There were often mixed paint schemes, ribbed stainless and smooth side as well as different car builders all in the same train.

Ahhh yes the rainbow trains....I say go for it.

What would a good 70's Amtrak engine be to pull this consist?

A Penn Central GG1 or an F or E unit depending where you were.

While we didn't get it pulled-off this year, I had suggest that each modular club member bring one passenger car representing their favorite rail road. We would then assemble a rail fan excursion train. I still think this would be fun and perhaps other clubs might agree and give it a try.

 

Gilly

Rainbow train?

 

Really early rainbow era was pretty much a free for all. Anything of the era is somewhat feasible. As the months went by, the pool of what Amtrak deemed acceptable to keep got smaller and things started getting patch painted before being actually painted (IMO, the patch jobs are the most interesting part, no 2 were alike). GG1s on the corridor (PC black, and a few single stripes that PC patched made it to Amtrak with the stripe intact), E-8s and 9s, and a few F/FP-7s were kept. SDP40Fs began arriving in 1974.

 

An excursion train can be a total free for all. Steam engine, diesel, both, any car from any era....

Thanks guys.

 

Nice video Boilermaker. That is what I was asking about. Are you a member of the Trackers? I recognize Joe and candy factory event. Was that your consist?

Yes, Its my train and yes I'm a tracker. I'll be at york. See you there.

Justin

Make your train a model of an AAPRCO (American Association of Private Car Owners) Convention Train!  Here's some photos of past ones.

 

Excursion trains today are a mix of cars that are readily available.

 

One limiting factor is that the road names should be from the general area. But, as BANDOB posted, there are exceptions.

 

It would be fun to make up a story that explains how cars from different roads in different parts of the country wound up in one excursion train.

Here's my prototypical consist that the Santa Fe Southern Railroad would have run ten years ago.  The engine has a custom painted shell that was on an inexpensive MPC engine.  I adapted the shell to a MTHDCS PS2 chassis.  SFSRR used their caboose for passengers and they hauled private varnish into Santa Fe with freight from the BNSF main line at Lamy, NM.

 

 

I would like to make an excursion train with different road name passenger cars.That is what I have seen behind most of the steam fan trips I have been on or watched go by.I still haven't seen a full O scale version of an excursion train yet.A helper diesel behind the engine would add to the realistic look of an O scale excursion train.If anyone has done this in O scale already,I would like to see a video of it.

Dan

 

 

I am too much of a model train purist when it comes to mixing road names. Prototypical, absolutely, but not on our railroad.

About 10 years ago I bought Weaver's Milwaukee Road S-3 (Northern) #261.  This is a replica, of course, of the same engine number owned up in Minneapolis by a group called "The Friends of the 261".  I also had a set of K-Line 21" Milwaukee Road passenger cars including the famous Skytop Lounge "Cedar Rapids" and the Superdome full length dome car.  There are also a couple of coaches, a diner and a baggage car.  Pretty much the same consist that the real locomotive pulls.  So this is my "Excursion Train" and it sees regular use on my layout and occasionally on friends layouts and at public shows.  And like the real excursion train which often has consists of cars from foreign roads, my excursion train invites the joining of other cars in it's consist.  The Weaver S-3 can handle 15 to 18 21" aluminum cars on level track.  On my own layout with severe curves and pretty strong grades, I limit the train to about 8 cars.

 

As such, this train is the only "modern day" train on my layout.  The setting for my layout is 1950 and there weren't excursion trains as such in those days.  But all the equipment is from that era so it doesn't really look out of place.

 

Paul Fischer

Susan, very colorful engine and caboose.  Did you custom paint them?  And what is "private varnish"..........?

 

Steve, Lady and Tex

Steve, Lady and Tex,
Roger Alt, from New Mexico, painted the engine and cabooses that were prizes when they hosted the 1996 TTOS Convention.
The engine he painted was a Lionel MPC GP7 (EMD).

Private Varnish is the name for privately owned passenger cars.  
Sterling Rail in Austin is a dealer for Amtrak Ready private varnish.

The private varnish in my Santa Fe Southern consist still needs converting for private use.

The American Association of Private Railroad Car Ownerspublishes  Private Varnish magazine and the charter guide is fun to drool over.  You can occasionally ride the cars as a paying passenger when they're repositioning cars from one city to the next.

Love your hot salsa tank car Susan! 

 

I mix road names all the time.  One of my trains I sometimes run at my club is the "City of Everywhere".  It consists of Stainless NYC, PRR, Santa Fe & SP Daylight cars, steel Pullman Standard cars in Amtrak and some ACF Tuscan PRR cars.  Motive power varies based on train length.  Right now I'm running a PC era passenger train with NYC and PRR equipment pulled by a PC FL9.  Fun!