Kato Southern E-8 & new Intermountain Pasenger Cars

[Bob Bufkin]

Believe it or not, just saw an ad for a Kato Southern E-8.  Maybe their finally realizing that railroads existed East of the Mississippi.  Also saw som new Intermountain passenger cars which looked great - an AT&SF 6-6-4 Shadow Line car, a b&O 10-5 in  Blue and Gray and a C&NW "Northern Series" sleeper which is a different looking cars, kind of looks like the PRR 12-5 Brook series cars.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Bob
Kato did the Green Tuxedo Es a while back, are those what the ad was for?

I know they haven't set the world on fire for them, so they may still have some sitting around that they're trying to move.

I'm tempted to grab one and get a couple of coaches for it (I know, I know...). Did the Southern Es ever wear the black scheme?

[wcfn100]

I'm not sure these were ever unavailable.  Kato has a lot of stuff still in inventory that you don't see advertised anymore.  FWIW, it's the same road number that was released in 2000 (based on what 4nscale has posted).

Jason

[Bob Bufkin]

Saw the ad in 4NScale.com (Rio Grande Hobbies).  Advertised as now in stock. 

[Bob Bufkin]

Ed:
According to the Yahoo Southern group I belong to, yes they at one time were painted black.  There is some confusion on when they were painted black.  Some say 1957 and others say early 60's.  Were repainted in the green color in the 70's.  Doing Southern E's could drive you crazy.  Different nose headllights (one of two) , air tanks on roof at different time periods, etc.
Bob

[Bob Bufkin]

Ed:
Just read you post over on the other forum concerning short late Southern passenger trains.  The Piedmond, I think they were train number 5&6.  FP-7's with 1 to 5 cars.  Most of the time it ran with 3 cars including a snackbar coach which had some fine food.  This train would sometimes pick up piggyback flats in southern Alexander and carried them on the rear of the train.  Used to ride this train on weekends.  The crews of this train were the senior people out of Wash, DC.  They ran every other day and were home every night.  I have a conductors hat one of the crew gave me.  One more think.  One day after picking up the piggyback flats I asked the conductor what was in the trailers.  He told me that they were all carrying thread for delivery to the Caroline clothing mills.
Bob

[Ed Kapuscinski]

So they were green - 1960ish - black - 1979ish - green?

Grr. I was really hoping for some black in the 70s. I'm really thinking about doing some "passenger service in decline" stuff. I also have thought about doing the FEC state-mandated train: 1 E8 & two cars & three paying passengers.

[3rdrail]

The Southern E's were painted black from the late 1950's through the mid-1970's I lived in Atlanta from 1973-1978 and only recall seeing black E-units on SOU trains. I think Graham Claytor started repainting them green sometime in the 1970's. SOU stayed out of Amtrak for a long time.

[David Leonard]

An Official Guide from the last year of Southern passenger operations (when was that--1978?) ought to give you a good idea of what was going on. The only Guides I have from the seventies are 71/72, and they aren't much help. I'm assuming that after Amtrak the Guides still gave schedules for Southern, RI, DRG&W and whatever other roads didn't join Amtrak. In early 1972 at least some of the E's were repainted green and designated for service on the Crescent. I have 1971 pictures showing black E's on #1 and relatively short trains (south of Atlanta), so some of the E's were still in black in the early 70's.

Bear in mind that the 1972 green repaint scheme was not exactly the same as the original 40's/50's version, which I believe is the version Kato has been offering.

[Mark5]

So they were green - 1960ish - black - 1979ish - green?s.

Claytor had the entire fleet of E8s repainted green in early 1972.

http://southern.railfan.net/ties/1972/72-7/cres.html

[Mark5]

Saw the ad in 4NScale.com (Rio Grande Hobbies).  Advertised as now in stock. 

This is old stock. Not a new run. If you check Kato's in stock list it's there. 2925 right?

I noticed this last year and ordered one through MBK.

Cheers.

[Nato]

   As a closet Chicago & Northwestern modeler & fan(just 1 of several roads I like) it is great to see some accurate C .& N .W.  passenger car models out there. The Northern series sleepers were built by Pullman and contained 1 Compartment,3 Double Bedrooms,and 16 Duplex Roomettes. These cars were used on the famous Northwestern Limited which became partially streamlined when these cars were added to consists, the cars also served on several other routes. These Intermountain Northwestern cars were first offered as kits from Des Plaines Hobbies. The Santa Fe car with the Cool-Looking "Shadow Line" paint scheme was also offered by KATO on their some what nicer looking version of the 6-4-4 sleeper(six open sections,four roomettes, four double bedrooms). To make a nice Southern passenger train to run behind an E unit consider looking for the recient run of the Rivarossi Corrugated cars in Southern from Con Cor. These were in 5 car sets, the dome car does not match any SR cars, but the coaches, baggage dorm car ,and obs car look enough like pre-war cars that ran on the Tennesian train which was originally pulled by an E-6 or sometimes E-6 A-B loco the train also ran on the N&W for part of its trip pulled by streamlined N&W power and  on the final part of it's trip on the Southern by a rebuilt streamlined PS4 Pacific loco painted like the incorrect wheel arrangement Southern Bullet Nose Con Cor streamlined Hudson locomotive.                                                                                                               Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.