Question about SRR RPOs and Express Cars

Southern PRO cars and Express cars are pretty much in the same realm as Unicorns and Fairies. They don't exist in the 3 rail world when it comes to Lionel and MTH. Now if you can find an undecorated Atlas O Trainman RPO and have it re-lettered for Southern  then your half way there. I haven't been able to find an undec Atlas RPO to save my life!! As for the Express Reefer I've only seen one picture and it was only half the car in the image but it was a Southern "Milk" car. on the head end with a Ps-4 pulling the train. Your come out better just going with the standard Railway Express rolling stock. It what I had to do or you can use other roads express car to be use on the head end of your trains. This was also a prototypical practice.

Sean,

Thank you.  That explains why I could not find anything with Southern on it.  Right now I have two REA cars I will run with this set.  Since the Southern and PRR interchanged cars, I guess I can also use my PRR head-in cars.

Ron

Ron,

I feel the pain of no accurate Southern steam era cars as well.  Had to make my own. Just as Sean said,  started with an Atlas Trainman RPO.  Replaced ends with Keil line.  Trucks from PSC.  Detail parts from everywhere. Hardest part was finding pre-1948 style decals.  Block style after 1948 should be easier to do. Definitely worth it to dress up a train.  Funny thing is I also have PRR head end cars to dress up my Southern passenger trains.

Had to find a pic of the one I did.

The PRR B60b cars were sort of ubiquitous on railroads in their heyday. The PRR  had a large fleet and many of these cars were handled on trains of other railroads which the PRR handled on the Northeast corridor or in trains that were jointly operated with the PRR.There were some Seaboard trains from NY that had a lot of PRR cars , head end as well as coaches in the consist .

Long distance Mail and express trains that operated both on and off the PRR had PRR B60's in the consist. You could find them in trains like the Santa Fe's Fast Mail from Chicago and St Louis to Los Angeles, San  Fransisco and San Diego. There were cases where PRR B60s operated cross country but never being on a PRR rail during the journey.

Some trains might have had a seasonal demand variation such that at times of the year when a railroad like the Southern might have been short of equipment, they may have leased cars from other roads . Since the PRR had a large fleet of head end equipment, its likely equipment short roads might have turned to the PRR for lease of these cars to meet a seasonal demand.

So put a PRR B60 or two in your Southern Train and enjoy it . It probably occurred in the prototype.

Jeff

That is a great looking RPO. Thanks for sharing with us

When the Atlas Trainman passenger cars first came out I got an undecorated RPO and baggage car and lettered them for Southern.

Neal Jeter