Weaver LV Bradley Pullmans

 Not sure what the prototype ran for cars. The cars Weaver offers are simply coaches. They are a full scale car about 21" in length. The only observation heavyweight with a platform that would match the length of these. Would be from Golden Gate Depot. Leave it as is and repaint it.

Why because Weaver TENDS to only model prototype equipment. Osgood Bradley, to the best of my knowledge, only manufactured streamlined cars (of the style you are referencing) in the form of coaches, cafe (grill) cars and baggage cars. They did not make end cars with a platform or closed parlor cars in this style. Weaver only followed the prototype.

A number of years ago i made a small fleet of less than scale length Osgood cars, and for an end car simply added red markers and a Tomar ("Merchants Ltd.") drum head in the doorway. I believe Tomar still offers a "John Wilkes" drum head for the LV.

Also FYI the LV only had  10 of these (all coaches), numbered 1510 - 1519.

jackson

The Lehigh Valley had a pair of heavyweight Pullman Co. Solariums which were used on the Black Diamond and John Wilkes. The cars were named " Black Diamond" and "White Diamond". When the Kuhler designed paint scheme was adopted , these cars received this scheme and had full skirting added to them as part of the Kuhler design. The Bradleys also had the full skirting. Not sure if weaver has supplied these cars with the skirting.

The cars used on the John Wilkes and the Black Diamond were a mixture of modified heavyweights as described above and Pullman-Bradley cars which were similar, but not identical, to the New Haven version that Weaver used as the prototype for its models. As far as I know, nobody has ever made authentic JW/BD cars in 3-rail 0 gauge. MTH made a set of generic 18" heavyweights to go with the original Weaver John Wilkes, and Golden Gate Depot did a very limited run of their heavyweight cars in the JW/BD color scheme. That and the Weaver Pullman-Bradley cars are what is available to go with the current Weaver Black Diamond locomotive.

Weaver scale Pullman-Bradley cars are terrific but few O gauge layouts have the room to run 21” cars. I wish someone would make 18’ versions. I wouldn’t mind seeing some 15” versions for smaller railroads.
Back in the mid ‘60s before Penn Central I was traveling through New Haven territory I remember seeing Bradley cars modernized with fluted stainless steel cladding on the letterboard and below the windows.

For anyone who wants shorter versions of the Pullman-Bradley cars, I'd suggest e-mailing Weaver with your suggestion. I know the people there well enough to know that they are responsive to customers, and the nature of aluminum extruded bodies is such that the additional tooling cost for a different length wouldn't be off the planet. Perhaps 16-17" would be a good compromise size to go with the existing 20" cars, rather than try to make both 18" and 15" cars. 

The car in the photo appears to be one of the full diners that were part of NH's postwar order from Pullman Standard for 220 cars of various types for use on trains like the Patriot, Yankee Clipper and Merchants Limited to name a few. The Bradleys I believe were not modified in this way adding the fluting. These cars were originally delivered with a green window band and lower full script herald boards , later changed to orange window bands and the McGiness NH lower herald boards as in the photo. MTH has offered their generic cars in both of these color schemes.

I am no expert on New Haven passenger cars, but can recall seeing a large number of Nre Haven Pullman-Standard streamlined cars with the rounded end edges like the one in the photo, and always believed that this unusual feature was specified by NYNH&H when the cars were constructed in the late 1940's.

Number 90, Most of these PS cars were built in the PS plant in Massachusetts where the Bradleys were built. They shared many features of the Bradley design including the rounded roofs and ends that you noted.