Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines Coaches, 8/21/2020

It looks great. And best of luck with your loved ones.

Nice work, Randy. Looking forward to seeing more!

How many of those cars are you going to customize?

Cool, they'd go good with my PRSL Atlantic.

@Traindiesel posted:

Nice work, Randy. Looking forward to seeing more!

How many of those cars are you going to customize?

Brian:

It is great to see you here on the forum. I trust that you and Lynnley (forgive my spelling) are doing well. I am going to do 3 coaches. That is about the average size of a PRSL consist.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Cool, they'd go good with my PRSL Atlantic.

John:

That is the plan for these coaches. I got a conventional Lionel PRSL Atlantic and exchanged inner workings with a Lionel Legacy Santa Fe Atlantic so that the PRSL would operate by remote. The only problem is that the PRSL Atlantic gives Santa Fe passenger announcements. Is there a software from Lionel available with PRSL announcements?

Fantastic job Randy!!  Graphics and paint look incredible! 

@Randy Harrison posted:

Brian:

It is great to see you here on the forum. I trust that you and Lynnley (forgive my spelling) are doing well. I am going to do 3 coaches. That is about the average size of a PRSL consist.

Good to know, as I’ll have a train to deliver travelers to my future beach scene!

Lynley and I have been enjoying the beautiful summer weather and taking care of our moms. But I check in here every day!

@Randy Harrison posted:

Is there a software from Lionel available with PRSL announcements?

There is a the Lionel 6-84945 PRSL Atlantic E6 from 2017, what year was the Legacy Atlantic you swapped in?  If it's from later than around 2011, the sound board should be a drop-in replacement.  I have no idea how specific the announcements in the version I found.

With some good ideas from members of the PRSL Historical Society (PRSLHS), further progress has been made on my O-27 PRSL coach. Below is my first attempt with the window striping (3/16") too wide.

 Here is the exterior and an interior of a coach that I am trying to simulate.

 Below are photos of my coach with 1/16" window striping. It is still a bit wide but not quite as over-powering.

 Several members of the PRSLHS, of which I am an original member, brought to my attention that the road numbers are too close to the doors and that what I mistook for an extra PRSL herald at the far end of the coach in the prototype photo is, in fact. a round, frosted glass window for the lavatory. I will try to correct those two details on this and future coaches. Thank you all for keeping me honest.

 Below is my partially complete interior for the coach based on the prototype photo. More interior detailing has yet to be completed.

 This has been a fun project.

Randy,   Congratulations you are busy about the most important things.  As life goes on, a dozen years or more forward, your reflections back to 2020 quite possibly will not be a model RR passenger car but rather the care and interactions with your aunt and uncle.

I just wish that when I was in a similar family situation  twenty years ago that  I had  just parked my trains and spent all my time with my family.   I would give up all my trains to have that time back for a do over.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Cool, they'd go good with my PRSL Atlantic.

No, they'd look good with my PRSL Atlantic! 

@Tom Tee posted:

Randy,   Congratulations you are busy about the most important things.  As life goes on, a dozen years or more forward, your reflections back to 2020 quite possibly will not be a model RR passenger car but rather the care and interactions with your aunt and uncle.

I just wish that when I was in a similar family situation  twenty years ago that  I had  just parked my trains and spent all my time with my family.   I would give up all my trains to have that time back for a do over.

Tom:

Thank you for the kind and comforting words. Small projects like the passenger coaches occasionally help me relax a bit.

@Tuscan Jim posted:

No, they'd look good with my PRSL Atlantic! 

Not nearly as nice as behind mine.

I love those coaches and I would love to be able to add something like them to my roster; along with the Atlantic. My soon to be built layout will feature Reading and PRR equipment. They would make a great addition.

It also takes me back to my childhood and beginning our vacation journey to Cape May at the PRR North Philadelphia station. We then transferred to a PRSL consist in, I believe, Haddonfield NJ. Later on the RDCs arrived for the remainder of the trip. It was a unique time.

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

I love those coaches and I would love to be able to add something like them to my roster; along with the Atlantic. My soon to be built layout will feature Reading and PRR equipment. They would make a great addition.

It also takes me back to my childhood and beginning our vacation journey to Cape May at the PRR North Philadelphia station. We then transferred to a PRSL consist in, I believe, Haddonfield NJ. Later on the RDCs arrived for the remainder of the trip. It was a unique time.

Jay:

You should consider joining our Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines Historical Society.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Not nearly as nice as behind mine.

Easy guys. Don't fight.

@Tranquil Hollow RR posted:

I love those coaches and I would love to be able to add something like them to my roster; along with the Atlantic. My soon to be built layout will feature Reading and PRR equipment. They would make a great addition.

It also takes me back to my childhood and beginning our vacation journey to Cape May at the PRR North Philadelphia station. We then transferred to a PRSL consist in, I believe, Haddonfield NJ. Later on the RDCs arrived for the remainder of the trip. It was a unique time.

Our family did the same thing except our destination was Wildwood.  The train from North Philadelphia was also a PRSL train but bound for Atlantic City.  Haddonfield was the transfer point as that was right after the junction (Vernon tower) where the line from Philadelphia (over the Delair Bridge) joined the line from Camden.  The train for Ocean City, Wildwood, and Cape May came from Camden.  There were a few trains direct from Philadelphia to OC, WW, and CM but most of them originated in Camden.  Vernon Tower was also where the PRR track stopped and the train got back onto PRSL rails.   

PGentieu, that’s great information as I had no idea of all the excellent background information. Thank you 

Randy, I did look at the PRSL Historical Society website and I didn’t see any recent activity. However, I will consider doing so.

The PRSL  was a big part of my childhood in OC.  In my mind I can still see the tops of the trains skimming across the tall grass as they bring my dad down to the 14th  street  station each Saturday morning as I watched from our front porch. 

Today the PRSL RDCs and coaches have special places around the house and on the layout.

The High Line of PRRT&HS  Vol 13 # 3 & 4 had some interesting articles and photos of rail service to OC over the years.  Counting the RR owned boat service there were four RR companies serving Peck's Island.  The three rail lines all converged at 8th street.  The boat service came in at 2nd and the bay.

What a great memory for you Tom Tee. Your post gave me the inspiration to take a couple of recently acquired RDCs, that need work, and figure out a way to put Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines on the sides. I don’t have Randy’s skill level to refurbish the cars.

 Thank you 

While I realize, Randy, that you're doing these cars for your own use, I have no doubt if you also did ones to sell that you'd be swamped with orders from folks who love running them behind their Seashore Reading Lines engine. I know I'd buy a set. 

@Tom Tee posted:

 Here is the exterior............of a coach that I am trying to simulate.

   

Randy, where and when was this photo shot?  It looks like just above Northeast Philly.

Tom:

I have no definite date or location. It was from a google search for photos of PRSL P-70 Coaches.

@ogaugeguy posted:

While I realize, Randy, that you're doing these cars for your own use, I have no doubt if you also did ones to sell that you'd be swamped with orders from folks who love running them behind their Seashore Reading Lines engine. I know I'd buy a set. 

@ogaugeguy

The thought of selling these coaches did briefly cross my mind, but, the cost of these coaches would be extremely high. I am using MTH Rugged Rails, O-27 heavyweight coaches that I dismantle completely, repaint, install LED strip lighting, and custom made decals. The interior is hand painted. I have about 3 1/2 hours into the one, incomplete coach that I have been using in this thread to share my progress. There is much more to do on this coach. So far, this project has been fun because I have no deadline to meet. I don't want a fun activity to become a job.

For anyone who wants to try it themselves, I will gladly share a .pdf of the decal artwork with them and they can contact Highball Graphics to have a sheet of decals made for them. Contact me by E-Mail if you want a copy of the artwork. My E-Mail address is in my profile. The paint I am using for the main car body is Scale Coat, caboose red from Minuteman Models. The roof is Krylon flat black. The blue for the interior is a Testors spray paint of light blue. The red on the seats is from a small bottle of Testors dark red paint. The ceiling of the coach (the reverse side of the roof) is a flat white to maximize the the illumination from the LED strip lighting. The interface between the track power and the LED strips is a device designed by our esteemed Forum member, gunrunnerjohn and can be purchased from Henning's Trains in Eastern Pennsylvania. I also can give guidance as needed by phone (I DON'T do text messages!!!) to anyone interested so they can learn from my many mistakes I had to rectify 

Thank you for your kind words and vote of confidence in my work, to date.

Side note: Sunset did a run of RDC-1s and P70 coaches both lettered PRSL awhile ago.   I was able to secure some of them when introduced.  A Wanted post may show if any are available.

For an impact visual I have a G scale PRSL RDC-1mounted high in the family dining room.