Available this week.... Monon Equipment Pack II - BONUS

[rfranzosa]

In support of Rick Berg's excellent Monon 2 route version 10, Gaetan and I are proud to release our BLW/ZT Monon Equipment Pack II - Bonus. This set is available free of charge to anyone who has purchased the BLW/ZT Monon Equipment Pack II.

OK, on to some screen shots:

Rick Berg and I had discussed the possibility of adding more passenger equipment as a bonus. The bonus would have been three or four cars. However, BLW/ZT customer David Velthauser posted screen shots of re-skins that he had done of the original paint schemes of the Monon F3s, as delivered from EMD. With David's permission, we added those to the bonus as well, starting with black and gold F3 A-B-A set #51A-61C-51B. Note the red logo on the nose, the large script "Hoosier Line" on the flanks, and the original corporate acronym "CIL" - Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville. The photos are on Rick's Monon 2 Version 9 at Bloomington, IN.







David also supplied us with the original passenger F3 scheme, with gold pin striping and light gray roof. F3 A-A #81A, 84A. These shots are also on the Monon 2 Version 9, this time in Chicago, heading up the "Thoroughbred" to Lousiville.







.... more to come .....

[rfranzosa]

Continuing on,

If we were going to include David Velthauser's F3s, I thought it best to add RS2s in their early paint scheme as well. Here are #25 & 26 at Orleans on Rick Berg's Monon 2 version 9:







The original intent of this bonus was to supply the "Sir Henry W Thornton", a 10 section, 1 drawing room, 2 bedroom (10-1-2) heavyweight sleeper that the Monon puchased from Pullman in the 1940s for service between Chicago/Louisville and the spas at French Lick, IN.

As I researched this car, I discovered that the Monon purchased FOUR 10-1-2 sleepers. Well, four was as easy as one (I thought), so this set includes the quartet, the Thornton (which was painted in Monon red/white/gray), and the three Pullman Green 10-1-2s; Camp Dix, Camp Meigs and Fort Canby. The hardest part of this exercise was the creation of the passenger view interior shapes, I hope you like them.

Sir Henry W Thornton



Camp Meigs



Camp Dix



Fort Canby







... more to come ....

[rfranzosa]

Last but not least...

In the late 1940s, President John W. Barriger of the Monon wanted to totally rebuild their passenger service. They major car builders (Pullman, ACF and Budd) were swamped with orders for post war streamliners, and the Monon was on a tight budget, so what Barriger did was to buy 28 US Army Hospital cars (built by ACF) and have the Monon shops in Lafayette, IN rebuild them into coaches, RPOs, diners, etc. Two pair of observation cars were built; #71 & 72 Parlor-Observation cars for the Chicago-Indianapolis "Hoosier" and #58-59 Diner-Parlor-Observation cars for the Chicago-Louisville "Thoroughbred".

The original BLW/ZT Monon Equipment Pack II included #71 for the Hoosier, so at Rick Berg's request, this bonus includes #58 for the Thoroughbred. In addition, new drumhead shapes and textures are provided for both #58 & #71. Here is #58 at the tail end of the Thoroughbred in Chicago.





Finally, one last request from Rick for one last car. In 1953, Monon President Warren Brown was in the market for a new business car to supplement car #1. They purchased Pullman observation car "Great Spirit" and had the shops in Lafayette rebuild it to match the current Monon passenger fleet. It was given the #2 and named "Lynne" after Brown's granddaughter.

When Rick Berg approached me on this, his idea was to slightly modify one of my freeware NS observation cars to a 'close enough' Lynne. Instead, I used blueprints and photographs of the actual Lynne to create one from scratch. I even copied in Rick Berg, seated in the rear of the car where he can forever enjoy watching his route roll by.











FINAL NOTES:

I grew up a fan of the New Haven and Boston & Maine. A year ago, I knew next to nothing about the Monon. Thanks to Rick Berg, I have a new favorite to add to my list. This was a very unique railroad that survived and thrived competing with all of the big guys in the midwest. Rick Berg has done an excellent job capturing the feel of this road and I hope my rolling stock helps enhance everyone's experience on the Hoosier Line!

RGF