Switching to Walthers Heavyweights

Posted Apr 14, 2024
Updated Jun 16, 2024

A year ago, I was souring on Athearn heavyweight passenger cars, and I put the brakes on acquiring and/or detailing more of them. This year, I bought my first four Walthers heavyweights (a coach and three sleepers), and soon decided to completely abandon the Athearn heavyweights, in favor of Walthers. They have a good level of detail and none of the problems of the Athearn cars. I bought two more sleepers in April.

After reviewing the B&O’s 1949 passenger train consists again, I updated my list of cars needed for the eight trains I’m modeling, using Walthers cars instead of Athearn. I also created a wish list on Trainz.com and saved searches on eBay for the cars I need. In total, there are 46 cars needed (I have 7 of them so far), including heavyweight and streamlined lightweight, but not including the elusive streamlined heavyweights of the Capitol Limited.

The Walthers cars don’t come from the factory with interior lights, but they make LED lighting kits for them. I don’t think I want to use those, because there’s no way to turn them off while they’re on powered track, and I don’t think there’s a capacitor built in, so they’d …

Continue Reading →

Souring on Athearn Heavyweights

Posted Mar 05, 2023
Updated Mar 18, 2023

Running my Athearn heavyweight passenger cars on Karl’s layout a week ago showed that they’re worse off than previously thought. My BLI Pacific, which is a pretty strong puller, slipped significantly on a couple of inclines, the steepest of which was about 2%. I knew the cars are overweight, and I knew my homemade phosphor bronze power pickups were causing drag, but I was still disappointed to see how hard it was to pull them up grades. My test runs used a consist simulating the Washingtonian (five or six cars), with a coach filling in for the combine. Two of the cars had the newer “floating brass” pickups, which I think have less drag than the others with phosphor bronze wire. The test run confirmed that I have to try loosening the wire to reduce drag.

The Bachmann Spectrum cars were just some of the good deals I got at the UNW show.

Earlier that day, I found a good deal on four B&O heavyweight cars made by Bachmann Spectrum (in the late 90s, I think). It was two coaches, a combine and an observation car for $40. The cars are in great condition, but the lighting sucks and they …

Continue Reading →

The Shortcomings of Athearn Heavyweights

Posted Sep 11, 2022

In the year or more that I’ve been planning for a roster, using the B&O’s October 1949 consist book as a guide, my intention has been to use old Athearn cars for the heavyweights (spruced up with paint, new wheels, interior detail and lighting), and more modern models for the streamlined lightweight cars, which are only needed for two of the seven B&O trains through Pittsburgh. However, I’m now thinking I’ll use the Athearn cars only for the two B&O trains in the daytime operating session (and probably the P&LE/NYC commuter trains), and will go with modern models for all five of the night session trains, both lightweight and heavyweight.

The Shortness is Only Acceptable in Isolation

The shift in thought came when I purchased two modern models of heavyweight combines to use with the Athearn heavyweights, since Athearn didn’t make coach/baggage combines. The fact that the Athearn models are about an inch too short becomes very apparent next the the modern cars, which are the correct 72 scale feet long. My reason for wanting to use Athearn heavyweights in the first place was so that I could incorporate the seven that my dad built from kits in the …

Continue Reading →

Interesting Joint Service

Posted Sep 10, 2022
Updated Sep 11, 2022

From an operations perspective, the most interesting passenger service at the P&LE Pittsburgh terminal in 1949 was the joint operation of the B&O’s Washingtonian and the P&LE’s Steel King, running between Baltimore and Cleveland in two hours and forty minutes, the fastest option at the time. The Steel King operated on the segment west of Pittsburgh, and the Washingtonian operated on the segment east of Pittsburgh. When arriving in Pittsburgh, incoming trains would hand off their last two cars (an Erie coach and a B&O parlor-dining-lounge car) to the counterpart train for the rest of the run, with about 30-40 minutes between the arrival of the inbound and the departure of the outbound.

Engineer David Budd (with glasses) and Fireman Phillip J. Hagerty (on ladder) posing with four steel company secretaries in front of the Steel King. May 1, 1950. Photo from Historic Pittsburgh.

The Steel King was itself a joint operation with the Erie Railroad, which contributed half the motive power and one coach. The train was pulled on alternating days by either Erie or P&LE locomotives, while the other was serviced in Youngstown between runs. Since the morning arrival and evening departure in Pittsburgh both occur …

Continue Reading →

Planning for a Roster

Posted Sep 16, 2021
Updated Apr 13, 2024

In January of this year, I took my first steps toward building a roster (or at least the start of a plan for one). Using information in timetables from the B&O and P&LE, I compiled a spreadsheet listing the passenger and commuter trains using the P&LE terminal in 1949, including their scheduled times, direction, origination, destination and train numbers. With this information gathered in one place, I determined that the 40 daily arrivals and departures could be simulated with just 14 model trains, like actors playing multiple parts in a play. I was also able to identify how many storage tracks would be needed in the terminal scene and in the east and west staging yards, if all trains were to be modeled. I also decided to plan for two types of operating sessions: a day session for terminal arrivals and departures between 6:00 am and 5:30 pm and a night session for arrivals and departures between 8:30 pm and 4:00 am (there were no trains scheduled between 4 and 6 am). With a 3:1 fast clock, the 11.5-hour, 24-train day session would take about 4 hours, and the 7.5-hour, 16-train night session would take 2.5 hours.

Visualizing Train Movements

…

Continue Reading →

February Progress

Posted Feb 28, 2020
Updated Oct 01, 2022

Sat Feb 1: Began BN SD9 DCC conversion.
Sun Feb 2: Continued SD9 conversion. Decoder was interfering with gears.
Sun Feb 9: On Building 2, painted contrasting brick colors on two sides, plus all window sills and window headers.

Sun Feb 16: Continued SD9 conversion. To make more room for the decoder and speaker, I removed weights that had been installed in the top of the shell. During testing, I noticed that the tiny incandescent lights in the front and rear were getting way too hot. The resistors I chose were based on getting a light intensity that looked about right, but I never tested for heat. Upon discovering this, I decided to replace them with LEDs so that (hopefully) I won’t have to tear this apart to replace bulbs in the future.

Sat Feb 22: UNW Train Show in Monroe. Picked up some 3/32″ heat-shrink tubing for the SD9 conversion, a used book titled “Guide to North American Steam Locomotives” (which includes railroad-by-railroad histories and rosters, which should be a great resource for planning what equipment to use), an old Athearn blue box B&O hopper car kit, an Accurail P&LE hopper kit, a P&LE/NYC caboose (which turns …

Continue Reading →

B&O Color Notes

Posted Jan 14, 2019
Updated Oct 01, 2022

From the Yahoo! B&O Group:

Here is a thumbnail B&O passenger car timeline:

  • In Civil War times into the 1880’s, mention is made of B&O passenger cars painted brown.  Photos suggest head end cars might be yellow. 
  • At some point, the olive coach green was adopted, it is close enough to Pullman Green for most modelers.
  • During 1900-1906 or so, passenger cars on the New York – Washington Royal Blue route were painted blue.  Discontinued due to durability problems.
  • B&O introduced the famous blue and gray with the new Capitol Limited train sets in 1937.  This scheme was restricted to name train matched sets and their substitute cars until 1953.   All other cars remained olive coach green until 1947, including head end cars.
  • In early 1947, B&O replaced olive coach green with Bando blue with an imitation gold stripe, for most cars including head end cars.   Wagontop express cars did not have the gold stripe, name train car sets remained blue and gray.
  • In early 1953 the blue and gray scheme was extended to most cars.  Exceptions were express cars, which remained blue.  There was a 1953 B&O memo that non-air conditioned cars would remain blue too, yet this was
…

Continue Reading →