Joe,
If you are reading this, you might want to research the USRA heritage of the car. Below is a response I recieved on the B&O Historical Society Yahoo group in reference to looking for drawings and info to offer up to MTL for the B&O variation of the car.
Posted by James Mischke who has helped many manufactures with various HO B&O projects.
Folklore alert:
There ... is ... no ... such ... thing ... as ... a ... USRA ... RPO.
This mainly comes from an article in Model Railroading (10/88) a
few years ago about "USRA RPO's". Their editor was of the sort
who puts things out half researched in hopes of shaking out
more. There was a complete retraction in a subsequent issue
(5/89, eight months later) but retractions only make editors
feel good about themselves. Until the next time.
The damage is done. Retractions get under 10% of the attention
of the original article. And Microtrains bit. Lesson: get it
right the first time.
A lie, well told, is immortal.
RPO design was the purview of the US Post Office, and the main
effort which we recognize as familiar was issued in 1913. When
Archduke Ferdinand was still alive; when a world war and a USRA
was unthinkable.
Tony H wrote:
>
> Too all interested, here is a link to a photo of the new Micro Trains tooling
in question.
>
>
http://www.micro-trains.com/cs-N_RPO.php>
> They are calling it a USRA RPO. It is a 60' car. My guess it could be bashed
into a close enough for a H-10 by moving a few windows? It matches a Great
Northern car and a few others fairly close. Joe from Micro Trains has already
stated that the tooling is modular and they plan to make different window
configurations in the future. They may also make a different roof available for
the car.
>
<snip>
