Lionel style heavyweight (Madison) cars or clones in Central RR of NJ.?

The Atlas Trainman cars would be more accurate for this, but can't be had in the right era CNJ paint...plus I really like the look of the Lionel cars.

Atlas O is offering the CNJ/ NJ dot Scheme on their trainman cars.

http://www.atlastrainman.com/F...o60passengercars.htm

A man by thename of Fred Rominski did a set for the former "Madison Central" layout back in the 1970's he was able to buy the set back from Bill Hopping's widow after bill passed.

By the time you repaint any williams/lionel/MTH madison cars - you would have paid doubled the price[or more] than purchasing the Trainman item.... not to mention the flaws that many painters do. And where does one get the NJ dot decals too?

Green like these ?

Green ...as in exactly like those !    Never knew such a set was made.   Any add ons available for it.   Probably safe to assume that the other three cars are Pullman type models.   Thanks for the input, any other options to consider?   

The set consists of two Pullmans, an observation, and a baggage car. Lionel never followed up on that set with additional cars. I purchased my set to run behind the green JC FM that they made. You might want to add one or two of these REA Reefers with the passenger car trucks to the head end to make a longer train. They are taller than the passenger cars so you may not think they look right. It's personal preference....

Those are some awesome Express reefers..I use them with scale type passenger equipment.  I also intend to use these cars ( the CNJ four car set) with the CNJ FM of 1986. I'll likely use the green Lionel PW REA express reefers, some of which were made (or re-made) with the bay window caboose / 2400 series trucks.   The open platform OBS was in use as late as mid 1969, IIRC, on the NY&LB trains we saw  on the Penn in Elizabeth, NJ. I also noticed that Mike has some Rail King 60' heavies in CNJ paint...but these are of an earlier period, and not as "exciting" as the Lionel Madison offering.  My only gripe is the window silhouettes, which I'm gonna replace with Lionel offerings of 1950.

Here are some photos of my CNJ passenger train.  The locomotive is of course from an earlier era, but the paint scheme on some of the cars didn't change extensively from the 50's into the 60's.  The cars are a custom run set of Williams cars.  They appear on eBay from time to time.  While Miss Liberty is not in the correct position, the lettering in the letter board is surprisingly accurate.  I also have both of the Lionel MPC era express boxcars that are based on actual express cars used by the CNJ.   I also use a Williams Trainmaster and a GP9 to pull the train depending on era. 

If you are looking for more scale options, Atlas made excellent express boxcars as a special run through AM Hobbies.  I have several in 2 rail.  Weaver also made a decent version based on their 40' PS1 tooling. 

The CNJ stopped running the open observation in 1975.  It served its last days pulling trains to Phillipsburg.  I saw it once after NJT made into their inspection car and so far all three former Blue Comet observations still exist around the state.  URHS has the former De Vico and it has been repainted into Blue Comet colors. 

The Atlas CNJ cars are NJ DOT paint...unless you would find the incredibly rare set they did for A&M, in the early post war green paint, with full name lettering.  Even if I could find the latter, it's really too early for my time period.   More inclined to go with the Lionel set, or maybe the Williams, when the time comes.

Jaygee, if you're open to cars that are a bit smaller than scale-size, MTH produced a really nice set of RailKing CNJ Madison-style passenger cars back around 1999-2000.  They first produced a 4-car set (Item #30-6258) that included two coaches, an observation and a baggage car.  Then the following year they produced a two-car add-on set (#30-6267) that included a combine and diner car.

They were painted/lettered in the "Jersey Central Lines" scheme that would have been typical for the 1950's-1960's...perfect for the time frame that the CNJ owned/operated the big FM's!

Click here to see the description of the 4-car set on the MTH website, and click here to see the 2-car add-on set.  Unfortunately, the website photos don't really do this set much justice.  I owned all six cars at one time and thought they looked really good! 

I don't think they would be too hard to find as I see them listed for sale periodically on eBay. 

If there is enough interest in accurate CNJ cars, perhaps in the range of 1000 cars total, there is a chance that GGD might do them accurately to scale.  These cars wore at least five paint schemes and other NE commuter roads used very similar cars.  Is there enough interest to get 250 orders for a four pack?   

No one has done an accurate mass produced CNJ style commuter car as far as I know unless you go back to the Walthers kits of the 1950's and they are very hard to find these days. 

Jonathan, great idea...I'm a huge CNJ fan and I would be very interested!  However, the BIG question is: with all the different paint schemes worn by these cars over the years, could we get enough of us to agree on one scheme?  For example, I mostly model the CNJ in the 1950's-1960's, so my first choice would be the deep green "Jersey Central Lines" paint/lettering scheme of that era.  This old Geep is looking for some passenger cars to pull...

If there was a commitment for about 1000 cars total, GGD can normally do as few at 40-60 cars in a paint scheme.  So in other words, why not offer all the major schemes.  I am thinking "Central Railroad of New Jersey" lettering of the 20's up through WWII, the post war "Jersey Central Lines" branding that lasted on some cars until the 70's, the 60's Pullman green scheme with the miss liberty logos on each end on the bottom panel next to the vestibule and the final NJDOT B&O inspired blue and yellow colors as Atlas did, but on the wrong car.  Of course there is another paint scheme they could be done in, but it would take tooling for a few other cars.  Get the coaches done first and perhaps that set could be done in the future.  I know I would be in for at least a dozen or more in two rail myself modeling the NY&LB circa 1954-1957.

WOW!  Those 50' CNJ MTH cars would be perfect for a ...Baby Train Master !  I see they also have some 60' cars as well, which would be more to my liking.  Too bad we can't talk Atlas into doing the Trainman coaches in a '50s/ '60s paint job.  For now I like the Lionel Madison CNJ set....even though I doubt they ever had a Pullman heavyweight lettered as such.    Now excuse me...all this Jerz has got me wanting to go run my big 2400 !

An accurate Blue Comet is a possibility. The combine and the observation are variations on the tooling for the coach so that is easy.  The challenge is the diner, Giacobini, which was a 19th century wood car remodeled to look like the rest of the train, but it retained its truss rod support system, wood floor and was the only 80' car in the consist.  For GGD to do the complete train, this would likely be a brass offering due to the number of orders falling around 100 cars at best.  Not impossible, but a pricey car.  For a purist like me, I'd pay for an accurate Giacoboni to complete the set properly.

As for an accurate G3, that might be a viable 3rd Rail / Sunset project as it could be built in the Philippines at a run of 100 units.  The question is with the flood of almost accurate Lionel and MTH product out there would the three rail community support another CNJ Pacific?  Two railers would probably consist of a majority of the orders.  The benefit of running 831-835 is that it could be done in BC paint, Queen of the Valley paint for 835 and The Bullet scheme for 832.  On top of that all of them could be painted for their later years in commuter service with Miss Liberty on the tender. 

I'd like to see an accurate Blue Comet done, but the question comes down to numbers of orders.  As to the other coach schemes, it would take at least 40-60 in one road name to get a scheme done.  The factory prefers at least 60 cars to do a specific paint scheme.

I agree. The MTH G3 is a pretty nice model, they just haven't nailed the paint yet (subjectively I think the Packard Blue isn't rich enough, and objectively they just haven't paid attention to the lettering changes made over the years and what they have released is somewhat of a hodge-podge of the schemes). 

I just have to think that given the legendary status of the train in the larger scales, a true O-scale rendition would sell very well... especially with the Giacobini. 

Money where my mouth is? Definitely. GGD announces the train and a research project to get it right, I will volunteer to help with the research and I will reserve one (with or without a new G3 to pull it). :-)

Rob

Found this topic while looking for what CNJ models were out there, definitely has my imagination going! I currently have some MTH Jersey Central cars as a stand in for better CNJ cars, but its not the same. If nothing else comes along I may modify them with correct/better trucks and other modifications so they are closer to accurate CNJ cars.

I am a  volunteer at the Black River Railroad Historical Trust and not long ago I had the upper half of my body up above in the area  above the vestibule above the CNJ car we are restoring cleaning out years of Camelback and Pacific soot so that it was safe to weld up a hold. The car we are restoring for service is number 1009!

What do you guys think is the best source of 4 wheeled trucks? I was thinking about the trucks MTH uses on the wooden cars they sell.