Need Some SPF Help

[southernman]

 Thanks everybody for the help so far, I'm learning a great deal here.I  don't know much about the Pennsy for sure. I've also learned of some online retailers that I knew nothing about. More places to spend money,yipee.

As I mentioned before I'm trying to put together a reasonable representation of SOU/N&W train 17, the Birmingham Special, as it would have been in 1970.So far I have two REA express boxcars, a WOT SOU baggage car(need two more), Two N&W coaches that I can change out from time to time and a totally wrong SOU coach/ parlor car.This one will get a pass as it carries the name of my hometown. I may try to get a more accurate one later on.

This all started with an article in the fourth quarter '18 Ties magazine about the final days of train 17 written by Bill Schafer. After reading it I realized that this was in fact a doable project so i went for it.Still am it seems.

I too was puzzled by the amount of head end cars but the fact remains they were there.The article was very informative and included a list of the train's consist for August 6-7 1970.Just a few days before it was gone altogether, August 12th was the last run and there was still several head end cars that day too.

The consist for 8-7-1970 was as follows;
SOU E-8 2923
Sou F-3 4135
Sou 519 baggage express  out at Roanoke VA
PC 7566 baggage express  out at Knoxville TN
PREX 7619 box-express     out at Knoxville  (cant find ANYTHING about PREX)
REX  7496  box-express     out at Knoxville
SOU 553 baggage express  out at Chattanooga
SOU 538 baggage express
SOU 661 coach
N&W 534 coach
SOU 3309 dining car out at Monroe VA
SOU  710 baggage dorm  out at Monroe VA

I'll be modelling the part just east of Knoxville  so that gives me a pretty good idea of what I'll need and I'm almost there. I still can't believe the number of express cars on this train but it gives me some variety which i like.

Does anyone have any info on the PREX reporting marks? I'm coming up empty on this one

[southernman]

If you want the PC baggage car from their recent PC set I'd be happy to trade it to you for a PRR coach.

Sorry Ed, I would most definitely take you up on that but I have no PRR coach.

[eja]

E and W are one space apart on a keyboard ... perhaps PREX might actually be PRWX

Check out this link

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=PRWX

[wcfn100]

Does anyone have any info on the PREX reporting marks? I'm coming up empty on this one

Ex-troop sleepers purchased by Chicago Freight Car Leasing and converted to express box cars with in inside sliding door and leased to Railway Express Agency.  Other reporting marks were CRDX, OREX and SREX.

Jason

[Point353]

According to a forum post in following link, the PREX cars were leased to the Penn Central: http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/126624.aspx

[Mark5]

Great find on the consist!

PC 7566 might be a former PRR B60: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/pc/pc-b7551ags.jpg

Most recently produced by HellsGate as a resin kit. http://hgmtest.weebly.com/products.html

Mark

[Mark5]

The article was very informative and included a list of the train's consist for August 6-7 1970.Just a few days before it was gone altogether, August 12th was the last run and there was still several head end cars that day too.

Service South of Bristol ended then. After N&W joined Amtrak, service to Bristol ended, but service continued between Washington and Lynchburg, VA as SOUTHERN trains 7 and 8 until 1975.

http://ctr.trains.com/~/media/import/files/pdf/f/7/7/passenger_trains_operating_on_the_eve_of_amtrak.ashx

Mark

[brokemoto]

Micro-Trains made this HW PRR baggage car:  Supposedly it's a model of this car:

The door spacing on the prototype is somewhat different from the MT, and, the windows are different, but, other than that, it is not that far off the Penn car.

The MT is based on an Erie seventy foot car.  When MT was considering what to use as a basis for its HW baggage car, Joe came here to ask for suggestions for an eighty foot car.  Most of us jumped him on that to point out that most baggage cars were sixty or seventy feet.  Erie Chris suggested an Erie seventy foot car, which many agreed looked generic enough,  so MT took it.

MT's HW cars have a variety of sources.  The coach is based on a B&O car.  I read somewhere that the RPO is based on a CB&Q car,  I do not know about the other ones.

[brokemoto]

It could be that although announced in 1967, the cancellation of the mail contracts was phased in (or something like that).

The Post Office Department did not cancel all of the mail contracts, just most of them.  Washington-New York-Boston mail service persisted into the AMTRAK era on what was originally Penn/NYNH&H, then PC and finally AMTRAK.  There were a few other routes that the POD retained after 1967, but I forget where they were, now.  This could have been one of them.  In addition, many of those baggage cars could have been carrying express, as REA was sending packages by rail until its demise, although by the end, most of it was going by air or truck, as there were fewer trains on which to send it.

[thomasjmdavis]

That 1969 photo from the wiki has been bothering me. I'm thinking that it isn't really 1969 -here's why: the railroads lost the USPS mail contract in 1967 which was usually the reason for all the head end equipment.

Also odd to have the coaches in the middle (it's one thing to have a baggage or 2 tagging the end of a local to be dropped along the way, but looks like 5 or more after the passenger carrying cars).

I wonder if it could be a "second section" of the Birmingham train, transferring cars to storage (assuming the date is correct). 

After 1967, there were still shipments of mail in bulk, many railroads were moving these shipments in freight trains, some keeping it on passenger schedules if they could not meet the time requirements with their freight schedules.  I suppose it is plausible that it could be that.  But the expectation would be something more along the lines of a couple baggage cars mixed with a couple TOFC or COFC, followed by a coach or 2, not what shows in the photo.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Sorry Ed, I would most definitely take you up on that but I have no PRR coach.

I'm not married to the coach idea... I'm up for other interesting trades too!

[southernman]

Also odd to have the coaches in the middle (it's one thing to have a baggage or 2 tagging the end of a local to be dropped along the way, but looks like 5 or more after the passenger carrying cars).

I wonder if it could be a "second section" of the Birmingham train, transferring cars to storage (assuming the date is correct). 


After 1967, there were still shipments of mail in bulk, many railroads were moving these shipments in freight trains, some keeping it on passenger schedules if they could not meet the time requirements with their freight schedules.  I suppose it is plausible that it could be that.  But the expectation would be something more along the lines of a couple baggage cars mixed with a couple TOFC or COFC, followed by a coach or 2, not what shows in the photo.

You are correct sir! It's all a matter of timing.Train 17 left DC in the afternoon and could serve early dinner before it reached Monroe where the diner was left to be added to the southbound Crescent in time to serve breakfast. this provided a little extra revenue from a car that would otherwise be unused during that part of the trip

[southernman]

I'm not married to the coach idea... I'm up for other interesting trades too!

I’m listening

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I’m listening

You wouldn't happen to have one of the MDC Overland passenger cars, would you? Not the little 34' ones, but the larger ones.

[Blazeman]

During my misspent youth, Saturday mornings were often spent rail fanning at the PRR station in the hometown (we're talking early 60's boys) on the corridor with a bag of donuts and pint of milk to consume.  Recall seeing a train come through that now and then stopped at Chester to throw off some mail.  Noted how many of the cars were chalked for "BHM" among other points. Never looked at a timetable to see what train it was.  Perhaps I now know.