WTF(oM)? Fleet of Modernism... Variations on a Theme from PRR

[peteski]

I have several of the Centralia cars.  Here is a photo  showing the difference between the earlier and later runs.  I had a hard time getting all the colors to show up as close as to seeing them in-person.  Photo was taken in natural sunny daylight, in a shade, with color balance set appropriately.



The top car (CCS6860-04) is the earlier run car. The shell was a a multi-piece assembly and it has the trucks with metal wheels.  The car is painted with nice flat sheen paint but the window area uses a much glossier paint (Tampo printed?) which was a bitch to photograph because it was reflecting the surroundings.  The colors are intense and the striping (along with the window frames) is done using a non-metallic imitation gold color.

The bottom (CCS7012-02) car is newer, single piece shell. Trucks are standard MTL trucks. All the paint has flat finish.  The colors are much duller looking. "Faded" would be a good description.  Stripes and lettering are done using a very dull/dark looking metallic gold color, which almost blends with the maroon color in dimmer light conditions.  Window frames are done in silver. Not very impressive looking and doesn't look good in a consist with the older cars. As mentioned, this was a premiere train which would be kept in pristine condition.

Both cars have that silly battery powered interior lighting, but since the older car is all glued together, how the heck does one take the batteries out?!

[Dave V]

Yeah, I'm not sure if I'll hold on to my Centralia FoM cars going forward. Your cars look like mine @peteski depending on the lighting. Honestly if I'm modeling late 40s early 50s I'm sort of out of the FoM era anyway, though FoM looks especially cool behind my equally anachronistic T1 (pulled from premiere passenger duty by 1949, completely out of service by 1952).

Might just keep the Bachmann foobie coaches because the color is much more correct.

[Lemosteam]

I hated them.  The couplers disassembled from the trucks randomly, and never rolled well. The other issue is that Al Cutmore proved that the screwed up the P85's by reflecting the windows when in fact they are not, according to images and plans.

[apudelek]

Are the newer-tooled cars easy to disassemble?  I'd like to remove the lighting.

Still, it's a shame that the only P85 coach tooling in N was completely lost...  I'm willing to accept the slight foobiness of the cars to at least have something that still screams PRR.  I got rid of the old-style trucks, which I found to be spotty at best in operation, and replaced with MTL's like the newer ones and body mounted the couplers.

While I haven't taken apart the sleepers, the P85 coaches gave me some difficulty putting the car body back on the base.  But weighing the cars down to NMRA standards immediately improved their performance.

Dave, if you change out the trucks to 2D-P5's on your Bachmann coaches, the might sorta look like a P70kR...  And they were still around for FOM, as the mods were done in the early 40s, per Mr. Britton's great research.  Maybe some new diaphragms as well.  The roofs are not balloon-style, I think because the cars were equipped with full-width diaphragms early on.  I wish these coaches had full skirts though.

I must sound like a spokesman for the P70 Modified coach lobby at this point lol...  But just a couple thoughts.

[Mark5]

Still, it's a shame that the only P85 coach tooling in N was completely lost...  I'm willing to accept the slight foobiness of the cars to at least have something that still screams PRR.

I was expecting IMR to fix the P85 tooling on future releases, so I sold the one PRR P85 that I had. The future releases never materialized. 

[dougnelson]

This set looks good but I believe this is an HO set.  The N scale brass set did not come with a B60b.  The Broadway Limited never carried a baggage car.  I will also note that the gold stripes look a bit too thick.  The five lower stripes were 1/4".

Brass model:

[Dave V]

That looks like a B70 to me. But yeah, the BM70M RPO is the more correct head-end choice…

[Point353]

This set looks good but I believe this is an HO set.  The N scale brass set did not come with a B60b.  The Broadway Limited never carried a baggage car.  I will also note that the gold stripes look a bit too thick.  The five lower stripes were 1/4".

Yes, that is an HO set.

The only N scale FOM brass set I recall was from Oriental Ltd.
The cars were factory painted in a lighter Tuscan base color.
The darker Tuscan window band, as well as the gold/tan/buff striping/lettering, was furnished in the form of decals to be applied by the customer.
I remember when these were first released and opted not to buy one because of the decals.

[OldEastRR]

I hated them.  The couplers disassembled from the trucks randomly, and never rolled well. The other issue is that Al Cutmore proved that the screwed up the P85's by reflecting the windows when in fact they are not, according to images and plans.

What do you mean "reflected the windows"?

[N Scale Train Boy]

What do you mean "reflected the windows"?

I understood that as the windows were mirrored across the centerline of the car, so if you look through a window straight on you see all the way through another window on the other side (assuming nothing else is blocking your view) and the model is not (?)

[Mark5]

The other issue is that Al Cutmore proved that the screwed up the P85's by reflecting the windows when in fact they are not, according to images and plans.

I remember that.

the P85 cars. They are particularity wrong in that the sides are supposed to be a mirror image not the same side on both sides. I forget where I found that out but it really peeved me when I realised it. I think i was in an old MR.

[Sokramiketes]

I have several of the Centralia cars.  Here is a photo  showing the difference between the earlier and later runs.  I had a hard time getting all the colors to show up as close as to seeing them in-person.  Photo was taken in natural sunny daylight, in a shade, with color balance set appropriately.



The top car (CCS6860-04) is the earlier run car. The shell was a a multi-piece assembly and it has the trucks with metal wheels.  The car is painted with nice flat sheen paint but the window area uses a much glossier paint (Tampo printed?) which was a bitch to photograph because it was reflecting the surroundings.  The colors are intense and the striping (along with the window frames) is done using a non-metallic imitation gold color.

The bottom (CCS7012-02) car is newer, single piece shell. Trucks are standard MTL trucks. All the paint has flat finish.  The colors are much duller looking. "Faded" would be a good description.  Stripes and lettering are done using a very dull/dark looking metallic gold color, which almost blends with the maroon color in dimmer light conditions.  Window frames are done in silver. Not very impressive looking and doesn't look good in a consist with the older cars. As mentioned, this was a premiere train which would be kept in pristine condition.

Both cars have that silly battery powered interior lighting, but since the older car is all glued together, how the heck does one take the batteries out?!

I'm confused by your top car.  The initial run did not have lighting (and as you note was built up core kits).  If that's what the top car is, then it was later placed in a box with a lighting wand.  Have you tried to light it up?

The lighting was added when the full carbodies were tooled, and separate grabs were added.  The roofs also got more details at this time. 

The worst part of the fully tooled cars was that the windows got inset so much.  On the built up core kits, the sides were tooled with pockets for the window glass, giving an OK appearance without needing to tool full plastic windows.  Unfortunantly this design element couldn't be reproduced on the full carbody tooling, so they ended up with ConCor era deep windows.  I always wondered if the laser cut glass option, as American Model Builders offered in HO scale, would work.  But never prosued it.

The whole line should be retooled in the style of RailSmith now.  To bring one up to standards really involves an old set of car sides added to a newly tooled car (roof, ends, floor) and repainted.  That's OK for some cars, but not a trains worth. 

[Sokramiketes]

How'd you get from that very good looking scheme to two-tone pink in production?

Good question.  I thought the first run matched the colors of the sample, but will have to pull them out and compare side to side to confirm.  Perhaps there was a run in between that turned pink, which would have been a game-of-telephone situation through Intermountain...

[OldEastRR]

I understood that as the windows were mirrored across the centerline of the car, so if you look through a window straight on you see all the way through another window on the other side (assuming nothing else is blocking your view) and the model is not (?)

i bought one of those in its box and didn't see the mistake until days after the swap meet i bought it at closed. i did a vain attempt to remodel the wrong side but it looks terrible. these first run cars had no interiors, no lights and were all glued together.