Miller Alco switcher and Sylvania passenger cars

Here's some snaps (I may have posted these before) of page 9 of the 1950 Nimco catalog:

...close ups of same:

This same page would appear in the 1952 catalog; in 1954, it was pretty much the same, except the kit box picture was replaced with a close up of a powered truck. Unfortunately, that catalog was printed in blue ink, so the picture is hard to see and doesn't photograph well at all...

Mark in Oregon

PS: as usual, great stuff, Carey!

Those sprung trucks look great - Flyer's diecast passenger trucks don't look as accurate to me as the trucks under those Sylvania passenger cars. The observation's "boat tail" looks kinda long, but overall they look sharp. They look like they may be longer than Flyer's cars - are they different lengths?

An O gauge parallel would be AMT's O gauge extruded aluminum passenger cars being on the market for several years before Lionel woke up and made their corrugated cars available, albeit with with just a coach, vista dome, observation and baggage car compared to AMT's full compliment of cars including baggage, combine, RPO, coach, diner, roomette (with several differently named cars), vista dome and observation cars. Once the titan of 3 rail trains entered the market AMT/Auburn saw the writing on the wall and fortunately found a winning buyer for their line by Kusan/KMT in Franklin, Tennessee. The passenger cars continued for a few more years before the Kusan folks stopped production of their O gauge trains.

Sylvania/Midgage offered these passenger cars in 2 lengths, 67' and 80'. The 67' cars are same length as flyer.  MIdgage models held the patent for them. Here's a link to the patent docs -- https://patents.google.com/patent/US2599138. The construction is nearly identical to Gilbert's aluminum cars.  I have several of these that I am in process of restoring. I will be away from my computer for a few days but will be happy to post images next week if anyone is interested.

PHM   

A copy of Midgage Modes catalog can be found here: https://www.s164.com/p/s-scale-library-catalogs.html. See pages 10 and 11.

@phm0 posted:

A copy of Midgage Modes catalog can be found here: https://www.s164.com/p/s-scale-library-catalogs.html. See pages 10 and 11.

Thanks for that. I bought some incomplete midgage passenger car kits this summer. Hopefully the ends from AF aluminum passenger cars can be used to complete these kits. Still need to find some more skirts.

RoyBoy, Looks like AF passenger car ends may work.  They are the same profile as the Midgage cars. However the mounting tabs on the AF ends will not match so they will need to be removed and new mounts devised.  I am going to attempt making new skirts from aluminum angle.  I will let you know how it goes.

PHM

@phm0 posted:

I am going to attempt making new skirts from aluminum angle.  I will let you know how it goes.

PHM

Please do. The skirts I have are in poor condition and I don't have enough of them.

@RoyBoy posted:

Thanks for that. I bought some incomplete midgage passenger car kits this summer. Hopefully the ends from AF aluminum passenger cars can be used to complete these kits. Still need to find some more skirts.

Roy   you can also mold one end  ( if you have one) in Dow red high temp silicone rubber and cast them in pewter.

Thanks Dave, but I have no ends at all for these cars, nor have I ever seen any. All I have are three 80' bodies and two sets of skirts. No trucks, no floors, no ends, no window material, no couplers.

Found a few rough AF cars on eBay for the trucks and the ends. The ends will have to be modified and the couplers probably lengthened on the trucks. Windows will come from excess translucent material purchased for a run of Kasiner O gauge shorties that I finished last winter.

Will have to make the floors out of something. It would be nice to know how thick the original floors were and what material was used.

Not enough skirts for three cars though, and none of the cars I have are observation cars.

Had never heard of Midgage models before this time, but am hoping to find a few more and get a train of these cars on the tracks.

I love to kit bash!

Roy, I have one 80 foot car and six 67' cars including an observation. The floors are 1/8 " wood, looks like clear pine with the edges thinned down to about 3/32" I've been thinking of using 3/32 aluminum although it is heavier than the wood floor.  AF floors from the plastic body cars are 1/32" and will slip into the Midgage bodies.

Typical car ends and underside detail on 80 foot body.

@RoyBoy posted:

Thanks Dave, but I have no ends at all for these cars, nor have I ever seen any. All I have are three 80' bodies and two sets of skirts. No trucks, no floors, no ends, no window material, no couplers.

Found a few rough AF cars on eBay for the trucks and the ends. The ends will have to be modified and the couplers probably lengthened on the trucks. Windows will come from excess translucent material purchased for a run of Kasiner O gauge shorties that I finished last winter.

Will have to make the floors out of something. It would be nice to know how thick the original floors were and what material was used.

Not enough skirts for three cars though, and none of the cars I have are observation cars.

Had never heard of Midgage models before this time, but am hoping to find a few more and get a train of these cars on the tracks.

I love to kit bash!

I do the same, sounds like a great kit bash  . you may find  Bass  wood  a good choice for the floors

@phm0 posted:

Sylvania/Midgage offered these passenger cars in 2 lengths, 67' and 80'. The 67' cars are same length as flyer.  MIdgage models held the patent for them. Here's a link to the patent docs -- https://patents.google.com/patent/US2599138. The construction is nearly identical to Gilbert's aluminum cars.  I have several of these that I am in process of restoring. I will be away from my computer for a few days but will be happy to post images next week if anyone is interested.

PHM   

AMT's initial runs of corrugated aluminum O gauge passenger cars were thick, 1 piece extrusions with a smooth/polished roof, a separately cast aluminum chassis and aluminum car ends; the thick aluminum body style was changed to a thinner 1 piece extrusion (my guess is this was done during the Korean War to save on the use of aluminum) - diagrams I have show a Michigan address for the contraxtor who extruded the bodies. The cars were later changed to a 3 piece assembly of 2 sides and either a smooth, polished roof or unpolished corrugated roof (the corrugated roof cars were less expensive since the roof was not polished, saving on labor costs). The window inserts were fairly thick vinyl strips that slid into 2 channels to hold them in place.  Interesting how these cars and their S gauge counterparts have some similarities in construction.

@phm0 posted:

  I am going to attempt making new skirts from aluminum angle.  I will let you know how it goes.

PHM

@phm0,   how did it go? How did the skirts turn out?

Still working on a way to shape the curved conture and  I've had to put it aside until after the holidays. I will keep you posted. Thanks for asking.