NEED SOME HELP, WITH PENNSY PASSENGER CARS

Alex:

They did a set of Trailblazers that are 18" cars several years ago. The set had 7 total cars with the Station Sounds Diner. I hope this helps.

Ditto on the Broadway Limited set, which I have.  Aside from the stick-on windows they are very nice cars.  Either set would work with the E8, but the Trailblazer set I believe goes with them best.

Oh man I just sold my Trailblazer set on Ebay   That is one beautiful set

On evilbait right now is a set of Kline Spirit Of St Louis six pack all 18" cars new in box pricey but way nicer than the Lionels

Perhaps some of the 18" MTH cars, plenty of options there.

Alex

The two Lionel car sets you mentioned are for the PRR day Train " The Senator" which operated between Boston and Washington DC. These cars are still in Lionels production scheduled for release sometime in 2015.

In the prototype, the cars would have operated with  a  GG1. While not protypically correct, with E8s it probably would look good. The Tuscan red Streamliners would have been the typw of cars handled by E8s  

Alex,

As they say, it’s your railroad so run what you like.  If you want to be somewhat correct, the engines you are looking at (6-39600) are painted in the Tuscan single stripe scheme, which did not show up on the Pennsy until very late 1955.  By then, I do not believe there were any passenger cars still painted in the Fleet of Modernization (FOM) scheme.  Both the Trail Blazer and Broadway Limited sets you listed have the FOM scheme, so they would not be “correct” for this diesel set.

The Senator set you listed or a Congressional set would work, although the Congressionals were pulled mainly by GG1s. I think you would like the K-Line version of the Congressional set as well as their Spirit of St. Louis set.  Both these sets can be found in 18” and 21”, although they will be hard to find.  I love the Congressional set, but it is after my time frame.

Added:  Noticed LIRR beat me to it.

Hi Guys,

I thank you all for the help, you all gave me the information I was looking for.

Thanks again,

Alex

Guy's

Would you say that this set from MTH goes with these diesels

Product Line: Premier

Roadname: Pennsylvania

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Shipping Date: Shipped

The gg1 ran in front of those cars Alex. They were used on the congressional. Don't really know if the E8's pulled them at anytime but I bet they did.

Can't seem to be able to find pictures of the E8's ever pulling the congressional. 

David

The Congressionals and The Senator were PRR day trains operating between NY and Washington DC ( The Congressional) and Boston and Washington DC ( The Senator). On the PRR these were essentially Northeast corridor trains and operated in electrified territory on the PRR. GG1s would be the customary power on these trains and the Northeast Corridor. The PRR E8s normally would handle PRR Blue Ribbon Fleet Trains on the PRR Harrisburg and West. Trains in this seervice would usually have the Tuscan Red cars and would include Sleepers as well.

I've got one of the Pennsy Power Books, which covers both Motive & Passenger Cars in the early to Mid 50's, and from what I have read, the E8's pulled the Broadway Limited from Harrisburg to Chicago.  And up till the Mid-50's, there were still Budd/ Pullman's with the FOM paint scheme, and thus the E8's did pull cars with the FOM paint.

I'm in the same dilemma.  Trying to correctly model which cars to put behind my E8's.

I have (5) of the 18" Lionel Congressional's and the GG-1, as I am trying to correctly model the right cars behind the correct locomotives.

Thanks guys for all the help

LIRR, I'm a bit lost here, which passenger cars would be best for the E8's to pull

Thanks,

Alex

LIRR Steamer, thank you for the information. Can always learn something here. 

Alex,

I think the Congressionals behind the E8s would look great, but if you want the correct cars you need to find one painted Tuscan with the stripes.  This is the car you want:

This is the FOM scheme that was pretty much gone by the mid-50s when the E8 in the Tuscan single stripe started showing up:

I do not believe Lionel has made any aluminum cars with the Tuscan/stripes scheme.  For 18" cars you will need to find the K-Line versions, which are really nice, or get one of the slightly shorter Premier sets in this scheme made by MTH.  For scale length cars (85' or 21") you have K-Line or GGD.  The K-line is on top.

ADDED:  Did a very quick check of MTH's site, and it looks like they preferred the FOM scheme too.  It looks like the only two MTH sets that would work are 20-65135 and 20-65213.  The K-Line 18" sets are the Spirit of St. Louis cars.  I know one set is K4680C.  I think other sets are K4680R, S and T.

I have pics of e8 pulling Budd stainless steel cars on the middle division. The pics are from PRR Calender's from Audio-Visual. The MTH pax sets are generic so yes you can run them behind E8's. BTW with many years of research done on the PRR I am convinced that most of the equipment funneled through the Juniata shops of the PRR which means at one time they had to traverse the Middle Division. I do not recall heavy repair work on PRR passenger cars at Sunnyside yard or Delaware.

For a ton less money than the K-Line cars, assuming you're happy with the 18" cars, the MTH cars look pretty good.

These come up pretty regularly.  I have the 20-6557 5-car set and the 20-6657 2-car add-on set, I got them for my K-Line E8's to pull.

Wow guys, thanks for all this great info.

Ron, John , and Prrhoorseshoecurve, I'm going to search for the MTH cars you suggested.

Thanks,

Alex

Alex,

   It is good to see that you are coming over to the Pennsy side of the tracks!

   I am not an expert on PRR passenger cars but the only advise I can give is stay away from sets with a dome car. I do not think the Pennsy ever had or ran a dome car. If someone can say I am wrong I will stand corrected.

   A friend of mine said he saw a set of PRR E8/9's at Hennings Trains, I stopped on my way down to see my daughter in Philly on Saturday but they were no longer in the store. Glad you got them. Post a video when you can.

JohnB

WHAT!!!!...Alex....you are coming over to the Pennsy side of the tracks!...WOW!!  By the way, those MTH cars that John mentions above will look great behind your E units.  I have those cars as well as the K-Line cars (scale length) and they both look fine.

Alan

Alex,

    Here is a picture from railpictures:

Alex,

    A few more pics:

"I do not think the Pennsy ever had or ran a dome car. If someone can say I am wrong I will stand corrected."

You are correct that they never HAD a dome car, but they did RUN a dome car for a time in winter season on the South Wind, Chicago-Miami. I think they were Northern Pacific cars from the North Coast Limited not needed in the less-travelled season. I have timetables at home with the car in the consist. Of course, winter was the more-travelled season on The South Wind. I believe it was in the 1960's.

The Pennsy did not buy dome cars as clearances on some of their trackage, especially into GCT and Penn Station, were too tight to allow their operation.  There were no clearance issues going between Chicago and Miami.

Hi Guy's

Yes I'm getting a bit into Pennsy Diesels. Especially the E8/E9's, they are very nice looking engines. I love the antenna's on the top. The set i purchased from Henning's isn't here yet

because I'm paying it off a little at a time. Bill and Harry are two great guys, they put the engines aside for me until i'm paid up. The great news is I'm just about there, so I should be receiving them in about a week or so. Can't wait !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also a BIG THANK YOU , to all of you great guys who helped me out with the all the great info and pictures. John I knew you would be happy about me getting into the Pennsy roads 

Alex

Well, I have mixed feelings.  Now you may want to keep PRR stuff and not sell it to me!

Alex

The E-8s first came to the PRR probably in 1950-51. They were 5 stripers at that time i believe, with the PRR going over to the single stripe in  the mid to later 1950s. These locomotives would be assigned to the best PRR long distance trains like the Broadway Limited, The General , Spirit of St Louis, etc. The cars in these trains would be the lightweight streamlined tuscan red cars and include diners, sleepers of various floor plans and observations. The Broadway Limited had a square end observation. Head end cars would be B60 style baggage and express and rpos. There were no domes operated in these trains. In later years, E8s could find themselves on secondary trains where there could be coaches either the lightweight streamlined cars of the P70s. By the early 1950s there were probably few cars remaining in the Fleet of Modernism scheme and it was unlikely that they would be assigned to the top trains since they did not match in appearance with the newer equipment.

So as for cars to use with your E 8 set, iy would depend if you had a specific train in mind. MTH has made at various times a 5 car 18 inch car set painted in the tuscan colors but it has a boattail observation . K Line has made similar sets and the K Line observation was a square end car. Golden Gate has done the Broadway in 21ich cars. They have also made P70s and heavyweight Pullmans in the 21 inch size. Weaver made the B60 style Baggage Mail cars in various configurations and with both round roof and clerestory roofs. MTH also had 18 in RPOs and baggage cars in heavy weight style.

If you were doing the South Wind, the prototype train was a joint venture of several railroads to offer Chicago to Florida service, so that train might contain aluminum fluted cars of other partner roads like Atlantic  Coast Line as ell as Tuscan red streamliners  I think the PRR took this train as far as Louisville and probably L&N took it from there. 

I wouldsay for your E-8s, I would stay with a K Line or MTH Tusca set and add to it either the Weaver or MTH head end cars . MTH also had the RB50 reefer which could aslso work in your train as well.

If you are wanting to do a Congressional or Senator, I would favor a GG1. For myself, I am waiting on the Senator set and hoping to use it with a Williams Scale Silver abd Red GG1. Should be a nice mid 50s PRR Northeast corridor Train.

Alex, if you're serious about running Pennsy power, you need to get some GG1's, if you don't have them already!!

FYI:  74 E8As were delivered between 1950 and 1952 (no Bs; the B in John's picture is an E7).  The majority of E8s were delivered in Brunswick Green (DGLE) with 5 stripes.  Those few delivered after August 1952 were delivered in Tuscan Red with 5 stripes. When the DGLE E8s were shopped after August 1952, they to were painted Tuscan Red. After November 1955 all PRR passenger engines were being painted Tuscan Red with one broad stripe when shopped.  That is why Alex's engine represents a time after 1955.

Since most articles I've read state that the FOM scheme was gone by the mid-1950s, I'll go off the deep end and bet there were never any FOM cars behind an E8 painted Tuscan Red with one stripe.

As LIRR mentioned, Weaver B60b baggage/mail and B60 RPO, MTH R50b (no green trucks), GGD baggage and RPO cars, and to a lessor extent Atlas X29 Express cars would all be good head end cars behind the E8s.

Have fun building this train!