Will we ever see a heavyweight baggage/coach combine from MTL?

[Maletrain]

For clarification the cars involved were already baggage - dorm - lounge cars... B&O simply streamlined them to better match its trains.  Definitely some classy cars... wouldn't be a bad choice for MT to do the Pullman cars they were based on to fit with other Pullman cars...

I would certainly like that, too.  The only car that MTL currently has produced that looks like a transition era rebuild is the business car with the balloon roof.  And, that is really just the window treatment.  A series of rebuilt cars with the Thermopane windows would make me very happy, but, I am wondering if there was too much road-specific variation in the rebuilding process to make any particular design sell well in the model market.  To the extent that Pullman did the rebuilding (and then maybe was copied in-house with other rebuilds by different railroads' shops), maybe there is enough similarity to make a reasonable model market. Any thoughts on that, Jerry?

Making "turtle" roofs and "balloon" roofs that interchange with the clerestory roofs would provide a lot of opportunities to suit various prototypes.  B&O had all three in operation during the 1950s. And, add-on 'stream styling" skirts seem rather easy to produce as MTL items or by scratch building.

[thomasjmdavis]

"And, add-on 'stream styling" skirts seem rather easy to produce"

Actually, Des Plaines Models produced separate streamlined skirts as part of their line of passenger car kits. The skirts and some of the kits are still available.

http://www.desplaineshobbies.com/store/product/43510/N-PASSENGER-CAR-SKIRTS/

To fit a heavyweight, you would probably have to shorten them a bit, but that would be simple enough.

[thomasjmdavis]

We can't edit at the moment...I should have noted in the above that as of the time I posted, they listed 29 sets of skirts in stock and many of the kits.  So they should have some when you read this, assuming no one is out to do 29 cars right away.

[jmlaboda - RIP]

Any thoughts on that, Jerry?

No two roads' treatment of modernized cars resembled anything much of what other roads had.  Like most passenger equipment (light or heavy) the cars were pretty much specific to an individual road and even on given roads there were often variations within their ranks (the B&O having the most).  Erie used a rubber stamp when modernizing their cars, with all modernized coaches matching the same window pattern (and having a few diner - parlor cars that were nearly the same as the coaches as well).  It would be really hard to have something that would match for more than one road but this is really the way things have been since very early on in regards to passenger train equipment...