O Scale Models: Chooch #674 Pullman Flat Car – Ultra Scale line of resin cars.
Wiseman Model Services appears to be producing a similar kit.
The History:
The American Association of Railroads (AAR) Committee on Car Construction established a standard for 53’ 6” flat cars based upon a 1941 Pullman-Standard Company design. The earliest users of this design were the Chicago Great Western, Monon, Soo and UP. The design established a new standard for deck height of 42” which was lower than previous car designs. This feature would permit taller loads without exceeding established clearance limits. It also had a much wider deck extending beyond the fishbelly sides. Twenty railroads built 2532 cars to this basic design.
The car spanned a long period of operation ranging from 1941 to the 1980’s. Some roads converted these cars into piggyback carriers or fitted them with bulkheads for building materials. Many of the cars ended up in maintenance of way service after a long revenue life.
Pullman Standard introduced its PS-1 boxcar in the late 1947. There are a number of articles about the PS-1’s in the Hobby press. I’m not going to restate everything that has been written about this design of cars.
Ed Hawkins and Ted Culotta compiled a list of all the PS-1’s built. The complete list of Pullman PS-1 boxcars can be found on the Steam Era Freight Car Website.
Below is a modified version of their information sorted by the build-date of the cars built before my modeling period, the Summer of 1952.
Pullman Standard built a total of 77,570 cars, but by 7/52 only 46,847 had been built. These are the only cars that existed and could have been seen by my modeling period, so this is a list of the only cars that can be on the layout. Now I don’t plan to build every one of these, but the four or five I do plan to build are on this list.
This will also give me other other information then just what details are on the car and which road. By knowing if the car is less than one year old it means it should look close to brand new. Or if it’s one of the LV car built in 1947 it should look like it has been in service for five years.
Lionel and Weaver both make version of this car in O scale. The Lionel car is available with a 6ft, 7ft and 8ft door. The Weaver is only available with an 8ft door. Protocraft makes a number of decals for these cars, I’ve linked the reporting mark (first column) to the decal pages with photos of the cars.
Bert Pennypacker speaks about the Reading Mallets 2-8-8-2 in his Mainline Modeler article on the K1’s. They were built by Baldwin beginning with six locomotives received in 1917. Two additional orders brought the fleet up to 31 locomotives by 1919 and were classes N1-sa/b/c. They were numbered 1800-1830, with 55.5 inch drivers and 98,400 lbs of tractive force.
The mallets were distributed in different parts of the system, 11 were running between Hagerstown-Rutherford-Allentown, two were assigned to Reading as Temple Hill pushers, and the rest were were distributed through the coal regions, West Cressona, St.Clair, Tamaqua, Gordon and Shamokin. The locomotives assigned to pusher duties were given small capacity tenders, 8,000 gallons and12.8 tons of coal. While the road mallets were given larger tenders with 11,000 gallon and 18 ton capacity. Wages were cheap and pusher runs were short, no need for big tenders.
It was said of the Mallets that they could pull anything slowly. The Reading most not have been totally happy with the speed of the N1’s in road service. Beginning in 1927, locomotives #1800-1810 (11) were rebuilt into the K1 2-10-2 locomotives. They were only ten years old at the start of the project. Their boilers were reused and most of their parts in the rebuilding project.
Reading N1 drawing from Locomotive Cyclopedia
Then in 1930 the railroad began converting the mallets from compound to single expansion cylinders. They were re-classed as N1-sd. The big delivery pipes on the side of the smoke box are an indication of the converted locomotives. All the N1’s were converted by 1945. They also had their trailing trucks removed between 1940-1944.
Reading N1-sd moving a train in coal country.
In the late 1940’s ten N1-sd’s received new smoke boxes and cross-compound air pumps relocated onto the smoke box front. The locomotive that had the forward mounted air pumps were numbered; 1811, 1812, 1817, 1820, 1822, 1823, 1826, 1828, 1829 and 1830.
Reading N1-sd sporting air pumps on the smoke box
Reading 1814 N1-sd on the move.
Nice to have both sides of Reading1814 here at Tamaqua, PA.
References: Mainline Modeler, May/June 1981 – “Reading 2-10-2 It should have been a Texas” by Bert Pennypacker Reading Steam Pictorial
Photograph’s from George Losse Collection scanned from prints and/or original negatives.
I had to meet up with a couple of the members of the Cherry Valley Model Railroad Club in Merchantville, NJ. So it was a good chance to take a look at the club layout. They continue making improvements as always.
John Dunn sitting at the main control panel.
A Nice Junction scene on the lower level
Close up view of the Junction scene
You know I like to look at hopper cars. Here is a nice old cast car done very nicely.
View from the end of the passenger station (that wasn’t there)
Tom Mapes recently replaced the bench work on the loop. Looks like they are planning to cover this. I sure hope so.
Just when I thought I got away from paint color debates by not modeling the PRR…….
This morning I had the pleasure of testing some greens from Scalecoat 2. The Scalecoat made for plastics.
I tested six new greens.
Scalecoat 2 samples
Top Row: Pullman Green, Great Northern Empire Builder Green, Northern Pacific Dark Green
Bottom Row: Erie Green, New Haven Hunter Green, Coach Olive
This time instead of trying to match scans on the computer I went back to a technique from art school to match color. I had my samples above and cut a square in the paint sample. Then I placed the samples over different photographs.
My results so far:
For a locomotive within the first couple of years from being delivered Tru-Color New Haven 401 Green or Scalecoat 2 Erie Green were the closest.
For a locomotive 5-10 years from being delivered Polyscale Pullman Green.
Next step put some paint on the models and see what they look like.
My brother sent the title as a title to an email a few days ago along with his interpretation of Reading Pullman Green.
Well I have calmed down from my frustration of last week. Now I just want to know what color first generation road switchers are to be painted for 1952? Simple answer, Pullman Green. But what is Pullman Green? It seems everybody has a different idea of just what that is.
After finding out that the Scalecoat 1 Pullman Green is some strange form of crappy brown, I realized I will have to test some paints.I first went out to the LHS and picked up some Polyscale greens. Then I used the testing as an excuse to try Tru-Color Paint. I ordered it online from P&D Hobby Shop and it arrived yesterday during a thunder storm. The box was soaked, glad the decals that I ordered did not ship in that box.
Top Row Tru-Color paint, Bottom row left two Polyscale, right Scalecoat 1
The Tru-Color paint is nice. Their Pullman Green is much better than Scalecoat’s Pullman Brown, but to my eye it still does not look like what is on the locomotives. The Great Northern Empire Builder Green next to it looks better.
Well I thought about it and decided to open the scans up in Photoshop and let something other than my eye look at it.
PhotoShop says that the Tru-Color Pullman Green is the closest to the two scans. My eyes still do not believe it.
I have to paint something now to prove it to myself.
The Reading received their first 1000 HP. switcher form EMD in the form of an NW2 #90, on September 5, 1940. This missed out being the first 1000 HP. switcher on the Reading by three weeks to #80 a Baldwind VO-1000.
NW2’s numbered #91-92 arrived in early October of 1941. After World War 2 was over the Reading added five more NW2’s to the roster numbers #100-104.The second series of NW2’s differed slightly from the first three by having louvers in the engine compartment doors.
The First three were originally assigned to the Shamokin Division. Eventually, they migrated to other parts of the railroad.
All the locomotives were delievered in the Pullman Green scheme. None were repainted into the green and Yellow scheme. One locomotive #104 was repainted into the last solid green scheme. Not all switcher received the rain gutters, #91 was photographed in 1963 without gutters.
References:
Diesel Era – 1996 March/April – Reading’s Repowered Switchers.
Diesel Era – 1998 March/April – Reading’s First-Generation Diesels by by Paul K. Withers
Reading Diesels Volume 1 The First Generation – by Dale Woodland Photograph’s from George Losse Collection scaned from negatives.
Having modeled the PRR for a number of years, I have to say that I have heard all the modeling “Truths” about modeling the PRR. Belpairs being too short or having the wrong slope, the wrong pimple board being used on walkways or I1 airtanks being undersized.
I thought my shift in primary modeling focus to the Reading Company would free me of those types of truths. I was wrong. I fell into one of those yesterday.
Reading first generation road switchers are painted Pullman Green.
It says so in every article you read about first generation locomotives. It says so in every modeling article you read about Reading road switchers.
In this image you see a printed reproduction of a photograph of a Reading AS-16 less than a year old. This is what I needed my model to look like. The Scalecoat Pullman Brown crap that I sprayed on the model did not please me.
Now it’s time to buy some different GREEN paint and start testing to find MY Pullman Green.
So much for trusting the work and word of other modelers. The Reading Modeler website even goes so far as to say:
Pullman Green Scheme: Floquil, Polly-Scale, or Scalecoat Pullman Green. Floquil seems to yield a lighter shade than the other two – this would be useful for painting first-generation diesels that have faded due to weathering and age. For newer models, Polly-Scale or Scalecoat would work best.
I am modeling the Summer of 1952. The Baldwin AS-16 I’m modeling would have been less than one year old, so it should be clean, shinny and in close to new condition. Scalecoat Pullman Green sounded like the right choice.
So much for trusting the work and word of other modelers.
Purchasing this ORER was one of the first steps in focusing my modeling efforts. For those that do not know about these, they list all the revenue freight cars for every railroad at the time of their publishing, Every one.
I used to refer to this as the “Bible for Modeling.”
When I was modeling the Elmira Branch in the late Spring of 1956, a car had to be listed in here or it did not belong on the railroad.
The information here is different then just knowing a railroad had the car, it tells you haw many they had on the roster at that time. That is very important information for trying to get the right proportions of cars modeled.
ORER – October 1953
When I made the switch to model the Reading I researched what locomotives I wanted to model and found the point in time that had the most of them on the roster at the same time. This turned out to be the middle of 1953. So I needed a “New Bible.”
This ORER for October 1953 shows different cars on the roster than the April 1956 ORER does. Just three yaears difference and there is a big difference in the cars which were retired by 1956 and the classes that were being built to replace them.
ORER – January 1952
This is now the “Bible” for my railroad. If it’s listed in here than I can have it on the railroad.
It’s also is the heart of the “By the Number” idea for modeling freight car fleets. It more important to know how many cars of a particular design a railroad owned as of Jan 1952, then just know that they owned them.
