Penn Central Passenger Car Interiors

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I wanted to spend a few minutes between working on MPA stuff to spruce up my PC passenger cars.

I've got some balloon roofs (thanks @Lemosteam !!) but I also want to paint up the interiors.

Anyone have any idea what these things looked like inside?

[RRRover]

There are some interior shots on this site (new location for the site). Just scroll down to Penn Central.

http://passcarphotos.rypn.org/

[davefoxx]

If I remember correctly, some Penn Central passenger cars were not-so-affectionately-known as "Roach Coaches," so be creative!

DFF

[CodyO]

I wanted to spend a few minutes between working on MPA stuff to spruce up my PC passenger cars.

I've got some balloon roofs (thanks @Lemosteam !!) but I also want to paint up the interiors.

Anyone have any idea what these things looked like inside?

What @davefoxx said. Ugly gross and lacking the glory of its better days before it shot forced into a horrible relationship.

[brokemoto]

The paint was scratched, faded and often peeling.  Give it a thin wash of brown/yellow to simulate caked up cigaret smoke.  The walls and floors were dirty.  If they make N scale gum, stick some under the seats and on the walls near the floor.  Put some cigaret butts in the not dumped ashtrays.  Make sure that the upholstery is stained, dirty and patched.  Windows should have a dull coat on them from caked up cigaret smoke.  Throw a few items of trash under the seats and in the aisles.  If you want to make it smell genuine, have a mixture of disinfectant cake and urine.  Also, some stale tobacco flakes will give it the smell of hundreds of smokers.


............and this description is coming from someone who smoked during the whole existence of Penn Central...........................

[OldEastRR]

I think lightly fogged windows would be a neat touch. Sprayed with Dullcote on the inside of the window glass strips.

[nickelplate759]

I think lightly fogged windows would be a neat touch. Sprayed with Dullcote on the inside of the window glass strips.

Neat detailing idea - In the late 1980s I used to ride Metra into Chicago every day, and ONE car of each train had foggy windows - it was the smoking car.  The rest of the train was non-smoking with clear windows.

[Lemosteam]

Not to mention the windows were likely made of thick Plexiglass which yellowed as well, so maybe some Minwax spray, which WILL yellow over, almost right away.

@Ed Kapuscinski , since there may not be pics out there, I am imagining a dingy medium gray floor, walls and backs of seats, with a darker shade of PC green vinyl seat cushions.  Oh, and some dark grey PC logos over the doorways.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I like the gray idea. From the few photos I've found the seats actually look kinda blue when they were tuscan (anyone want to trade a green car or two for some red ones, btw??)

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Although these look tan.

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So maybe I'll do some of each. The goal is for it to be a mess.

And I love the foggy window idea too.

[wm3798]

Are you lighting the interiors?  Perhaps a yellow or orange highlighter will do the trick to dull a random selection of windows...  You don't want them all to look like they could afford to replace them all at once...
Lee

[Lemosteam]

Yeah @Ed Kapuscinski Are you lighting the interiors???   Actually you could skip one or two LED and look like burned out lights,

[learmoia]

The Green coach looks like a mixture of Red and tan seats or Red with some tan seat covers.
 Hard to tell..

[Virginia Atlantic]

If you can find images of the original NYC or PRR interiors, you'll probably have it, as I doubt PC reupholstered their fleet when they came to be. In point of fact, I'm not sure they ever changed the seat materials of the cars they inherited, so maybe look for old pics of their original roads.

This is a car at a museum, but I believe it's an old PRR car, and the interior sure looks like what I'd expect given your image above.

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https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g7644803-d8475919-i143100134-Southern_Prairie_Railway-Ogema_Saskatchewan.html for more pics of the car in question.