Back to Work - IC City of New Orleans

[rfranzosa]

Haven't forgotten, Jeremy!

[Kazareh]

Looking great! Hadn't figured you forgot though, know you're busy!

[rfranzosa]

After a bit more work to spiff it up

[rfranzosa]

Back to the thread.... Head end cars for the 1948 CofNO

Baggage Express RPO #403

Baggage Crew Dormitory #1903

[Kazareh]

Heeeey lookin REAL good there!

[uli]

Beautiful!

[rfranzosa]

Most of the rest of the cars are nearing completion. Need additional detail, some text fixes and interior changes....

All cars have '3D' windows like Gaetan's recent Budd RDC cars, windows, glass and shades/blinds are all individual parts.

48 seat 'day-night' coaches (2 per train)




56 seat coach (8 per train)




36 seat diner (1 per train)




Lunch-Buffet-Lounge (1 per train)

Interior not installed yet!



Still to come, tavern-lounge-observation

[rfranzosa]

The, ummm, Tavern-Lounge-Observation

[rfranzosa]

Update:

The BLW/ZT City of New Orleans pack will be sent to testing in the next week or two. The set will consist of complete consists for the CoNO from 1948, 1958 and 1968.

Both the locomotives and cars will have specific modifications to paint scheme and details to match the different decades.

Questions for IC experts out in trainsim land.

In 1948, all coaches, diners, lounges, obs had both numbers and names. By 1968, the names had been removed. Were they there in 1958?

From photos, the skirting on the passenger cars was removed and the drop steps were welded open. Same question, before or after 1958?

I have a specific 13 car consist for the CoNO or 1948. I can create my own for 1958 and 1968, but if someone has access to actual consists, that would be great.

THANKS!

Rick

[dcarleton]

I'm trying to hunt down the answer to your question but keep coming up with sources where the photos are not dated! In general, however, the answer appears to be "before 1960". I'll keep looking.

[rfranzosa]

Hi David,

Thanks, I got a definitive answer from an IC fan. Skirts removed 'almost immediately' - early 50's. Names removed from all but observation cars in the early/mid 50's and from the observation cars in the 60s. The skirts/steps matches what I have seen with the New Haven (mid 50s), so I'm confident enough to move forward.

Additional information:

Motive power complete, OR and MSTS compatible:

1948 - E6A - 2, E7A - 2, E7B - 1 - Steam era lower headlight and upper mars light. Brown and orange, green and white diamond on nose, double yellow stripes above the orange band, yellow lettering between grills at top of carbody



1958 - E7A - 2, E8A - 2, E9A - 2, E8B - 1, E9B - 1 twin sealed beam lower headlight and upper mars light. Brown and orange, green, yellow and black diamond on nose, black lettering on the orange band (E7Bs off the roster before 1958)



1968 - E7A - 2, E8A - 2, E9A - 2, E8B - 1, E9B - 1 twin sealed beam lower and upper headlight. Brown and orange, IC Rail logo on nose, large black lettering on the orange band



Just need to 'version' the coaches, diners, and obs, get everything tested and release to you all.

[dcarleton]

Interesting, and on second thought not surprising.

Didn't the cars cancelled off of the massive C&O order arrive in 1950? Those didn't have full skirts. Since skirts could be a nuisance anyway, it would not be surprising if the thought was to make everything uniform by removing the skirts at that time.

Regarding neat details such as car names, these things tended to go away when the "golden glow" of post-war prosperity began to recede. The tipping point came at different years for different companies, but the IC was beginning to combine trains, etc., by 1958.

At the same time it should not be surprising if the observation cars, or more precisely the parlor cars, continued to carry names. Wasn't parlor car service on the IC staffed by the Pullman company? I remember meeting an elderly former Pullman porter in Winter Park Florida who had held down a Pullman Parlor Car assignment on the IC well into the sixties. I was very specific in asking, and he really did mean Pullman (not railroad) Parlor Car (not sleeping car), on the IC, into the mid sixties. Perhaps the Parlor cars retained their names, for a while, in deference to The Pullman Company.

[rfranzosa]

Very interesting, David. The one last question I am trying to chase down is whether the venetian blinds in the 56 seat coaches and diners were eventually replaced with window shades and if so when.

The set is ballooning!

Thanks

Rick

[dcarleton]

That's a tough one. Even companies with bad financials like the PRR kept the blinds in their feature cars right down to the end.
The shades would roll up into a recess above the windows. If the cars were not built with that, perhaps they would be too expensive to retrofit?

Will continue looking.

[rfranzosa]

Hi David,

Thanks, it's not critical. I'm just a day or two away from sending this out for testing. Ran into issues with the obs interior.

Rick