Pennsylvania RR scheme info for a non SPF

[Tom L]

Probably a really basic question, I know very little about the Pennsylvania RR. I bought a Fine N Scale resin 40' single door boxcar kit and the supplied decals indicate the Circle Keystone with "Pennsylvania" spelled out, through the early fifties and the large outline keystone with  PRR reporting marks for the 1960's and beyond.

My layout is set between 1957 to 1959, and online info indicates that the PRR began using the Shadow Keystone emblem about that time. Seems like Micro Scale 60-1201 fits the bill, if needed.

My Question is, how common would the early Circle Keystone Scheme be in my time frame? The latest photo I stumbled on online with a circle Keystone was about 1955.

 I would like to use the supplied early decals and weather it up a bit, if that was not uncommon in my timeframe

Thanks!
Tom L
Wellington CO

[Mark5]

Hi Tom,

This will give era that the schemes were "applied": https://jbritton.pennsyrr.com/index.php/tpm/149-freight-car-paint-schemes-banners-slogans

What that does not seem to reveal is how long you would see any given scheme after subsequent schemes were introduced. Hopefully some SPFs with photos or photo books can add to this.

Mark

[Tom L]

Hi Tom,

This will give era that the schemes were "applied": https://jbritton.pennsyrr.com/index.php/tpm/149-freight-car-paint-schemes-banners-slogans

What that does not seem to reveal is how long you would see any given scheme after subsequent schemes were introduced. Hopefully some SPFs with photos or photo books can add to this.

Mark

Thanks Mark, that's a really helpful link!

Tom L.

[Lemosteam]

Since you are discussing the Pennsy, it is viable that any older paint scheme survived into the late 50's, albiet very worn.

[prr7161]

The official circle-to-shadow keystone changeover came in 1954, but cars were repainted when shopped by and large.  This was supposed to be on a 5-year cycle, but as the financial condition of the railroad declined in the late '50s, so did its willingness to repaint freight cars.  Just in the PRR color Guide 1 there are shots of cars (albeit just a few, and beaten up) in circle-key paint during the Penn Central years.  In the '57-'59 timeframe, there would be significant numbers of circle keystone cars out and about, so they should definitely be well-represented in a late '50s fleet.

[OldEastRR]

I assume there is a caveat for wooden PRR keystone boxcars -- there may have been more in service in the early 50's than the late. I don't know when the 40 wooden boxcars were more or less completely purged from the system.

[nkalanaga]

I have no idea on the PRR, but in the Northwest, wood-sheathed boxcars lasted into the 70s.  These were basically AAR cars with wood instead of steel sheathing, what many modelers call the "War Emergency" cars, although the GN, at least, was building them before the war.

For older cars, such as the USRA-style, and even earlier all-wood bodies, they seem to have been mostly gone by the early 60s, except in company or captive service.  The pre-USRA cars probably wore out during WW II, and weren't worth repairing once the war traffic subsided.