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What kinds of passenger car consists did the C&O Hudson #490 actually pull? I am not having any luck finding a set of Rail King 027 streamline cars, so I am wondering if:

1. Did this Hudson pull C&O heavyweight (AKA Madison) cars?

2. Did this Hudson pull consists of B&O cars?

 

Pictures of the real cars would help.

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I have the second Railking release of the Yellowbelly, from circa 2006 with PS2. Nice engine. It was cataloged with stainless cars with a Yellow stripe as, from what I understand, it would have pulled if the "Chessie" did infact run. The engine was a Christmas gift and I didn't buy the passenger cars until a few years later. Regardless, I did not purchase the cataloged cars. I purchased the MTH Railking 4 car Chesapeake & Ohio Blue with Yellow stripe cars. Not sure if they are prototypical but I like them a bit more than the stainless cars. The Blue cars are not 0-27. I would say, roughly, they are 16 - 17 inches long and look nice with the engine. 

 

Below are two photos taken a number of years ago with my engine. The first is the engine with Scale sized MTH Premier cars from the C&O M1 Turbine Passenger Set. 

 

Second photo is the engine with the Railking Blue/Yellow cars. I sometimes add a C&O boxcar in between the tender and baggage car. 

 

DSC03213

DSC03323

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I've seen photos of it pulling C&O heavyweights, particularly head-end cars as well as the streamlined cars. You could also take a "modern view," and mimic the cars the B&O Railroad Museum attached to it in the 1990's. This photo is from that time period. The baggage car is the one used to carry Eisenhower's casket from Washington, DC to burial in Kansas. The next car is a C&O streamlined coach. The third, of all things, appears to be an RDC.

 

For comparison, here's the Lionel version of 490, seen at the Boy Scout Train Show, Dale City, VA, 3/10/12.

 

B&OBill

cohudsonborrm

cohudsonborrm

c0hudson490 3-10-2012 9-47-02 AM

Last edited by BANDOB

In its original orange color, the 490 - 494 would have pulled the streamlined Chessie cars on the connecting routes to the main Washington - Cincinnati Chessie route. Of course since the Chessie never ran, that didn't happen. From the late 40's to about late 1950 it would have pulled standard Pullman green heavyweights. In late 1950 the new tri-color streamlined cars came on line so from then until its end of service it pulled a mixture of tri-color streamlined, tri-color heavyweight, and green heavyweight cars. When the tri-color cars arrived supposedly some of the Hudsons were repainted yellow.

Ken

Steve,

 

The Lionel version from the 1990s was scale. The Railking is not scale nor is it an Imperial line engine but it is a very nice engine and looks good with Scale and Non-Scale cars. It is not ridiculously compressed IMO.  The original Railking version was PS1 and the 2006 version PS2. Having compared my 2006 Railking version with the prototype, I can say it is spot on with the exception of the running gear and a few minor detail parts. 

Lionel called the C&O Hudson semi-scale. This was probably due to Lionel using their NYC Hudson based frame and drivers. The NYC Hudson drivers are larger than those used on the actual C&O engine so that probably threw off some of the dimensions on the C&O model.

 

I had the RailKing version at one time and I think its just too short to look right. Ran a lot better than the Lionel version though.

 

Given Lionel's present trend of reissues and aversion to new tooling, it seems like this would be an obvious candidate for a reissue. Lionel just redid the NYC Hudson, so it seems most of the needed upgrade of the drive has been done. Also, there is a ton of room under the C&O Hudson boiler for additional smoke units for whistle steam and steam cylinder blowdown. If Lionel does reissue them someday, they need to do an original orange version as well as the more commonly known yellow.

 

Ken

Originally Posted by RLHarner:

Wasn't the yellow belly originally a F-19 pacific?

Yes, they were rebuilt from the F-19 class Pacifics.

 

Here's a picture of my Lionel version with some improved details to better match the prototype - front truck, tender steps, tender underframe, coupler lift bar, window frames, ashpan, stairs, and boiler walkways painted gray. Added the blue stripe around the headlight, painted the nose screens black as in most all the pictures they appear black due to road grime. Engine has a Frank Timko can motor,TAS EOB with an N&W J soundset, operating marker lights, and chuff sync'd turbosmoke.

 

490-front

 

 

 

Ken

490

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