MTH Premier 70' Penn Central Passenger Cars?

Mike.......this is my own personal preference.......but since the PennCentral was such a mess, ran out of money, put things off, etc........I run any of my Pennsy, New York Central or New Haven streamline coaches with PennCentral locos.

Peter

They are a perfect match for the scale GG1. I have the 60footers made a couple years ago and pull them with my WBB scale GG1. I let the dome car go into the bay since they never used them. 

I just looked at pictures of them. Sure, they're fine to run with your G. Just stay away from those darn dome cars. Like Peter, I tend to run more of a mixed bag when I'm doing something with Penn Central. My PC modeling is in N scale. Below is a four car set Kato released. I combine the cars from this set with other PC equipment I have to recreate typical consists of the era.

Bob

Yeah I love the cars...and my GG1...just need a baggage car to throw on the end.  So why did they never use an observation (no dome car in the set)?  Did the Broadway never have one?   I assume none of the NYC namesake trains ever entered the PRR portion of the NEC.

Nice pic above.  Was the triangular catanery replaced with the Metro North upgrade?

Mike - to answer your question about packaging, I have a MTH Premier 70' passenger car set. They come 5 in 1 master carton. 

Mike:

Below is a link to a Metro-North document which outlines the replacement of catenary and bridges as part of the modernization of its former New Haven territory. It makes for fascinating reading.

http://www.ct.gov/dot/lib/dot/...Final-Webversion.pdf 

With regard to Penn Central consists, the new railroad made quick adjustments in how it configured its passenger trains. For example, in its earliest Penn Central form, the Broadway Limited consisted of a B60 Baggage, up to seven sleepers of assorted types, the twin unit dining car and a coach lounge along with three or four regular coaches. Of course, this varied on a consistent basis but this should give you a general idea of what the train would have looked like. The twin unit diner lasted only a few years before PC eliminated it.

In answer to your question regarding New York Central name trains operating via the PRR New York-Washington mainline, you are correct in your assumption that they did not. New York Central equipment, however, did appear on the Pennsy mainline for the annual Army-Navy game in Philadelphia. Trains consisting of NYC equipment would operate from West Point via the West Shore Division to a connection with PRR in Jersey City at which point the Central's diesels would be exchanged for G for the balance of the trip to Philly with the process reversed on the homeward journey.

Bob

Mike - I've attached 2 pictures of my set (one is currently out of the box on a test track) so you can see how they come.  

Thanks for the info guys!  The presentiation from MTA is very interesting.  I assume these upgrades mean that Amtrak trains can now reach full speed between NH and NYC...rather than 80 or whatever it was.  

The Eastern roads like Pennsy, New York Central, New Haven etc never used Domes but did have Observation cars. The Railking Cars come with a dome but I believe the Premiere cars don't. 

I would like to model the hodge podge PC passenger trains as they raced and bounced across jointed track through Indiana and Ohio.  So had boxcars mixed in etc.  I always wonder what it looked like onboard these trains in the later years 55-69?  Were they dirty and unstaffed or business as usual?

Also, why has Amtrak never embraced  using modern observation cars?  It would be a fun touch.  Maybe as a first class lounger.  

quote:

Also, why has Amtrak never embraced  using modern observation cars?  It would be a fun touch.  Maybe as a first class lounger.  

They consider the Sightseer lounge cars an "observation" car. Even before amtrak, a lot of observation cars were converted to mid-train lounges. Amtrak inherited a lot of these cars. Its just more convenient to do it this way as its shorter for everyone to reach. It also divides coach from the sleepers. 

Using a non-vestibule end observation just doesnt make sense for Amtrak. It makes the train set "one way", so the whole train would have to be turned (this sometimes happens anyways, but not always). 

The auto-train used to have a Sleeper only ("first class") lounge car, but they ditched it in favor of putting another 104 fare paying butts in a coach car.

Your PC GG-1 also carries over into the Amtrak era. Only 6 GG-1s were ever repainted into the red, silver and blue scheme... most of them were black, and there are tons of pictures of GG1s, still in full PC paint and logos, hauling Amtrak trains. 

Yeah it would be cool to mix some Amtrak into it..maybe some NH.  If I had doubles I would weather one to give it that worn out 1969-75 era look.

I read somewhere...maybe here...that Lionel made less than 300 of the PC JLC GG1s.

Its funny...PC was a mess...but at the same time they were business as usual moving lots of people and even more freight.