PRR Senator consist help

[CodyO]

I really want one of those new Kato GG1s in silver with a red strip

Would the Kato Budd corrugated cars work to at least make a kinda correct consist for the 1952 senator?

[Frisco Larry]

Depends on how accurate you want to be.  The Kato Budd cars would certainly work as far as representing Budd cars, the problem is they are not close to Congressional/Senator car types.  The coach, diner and tail car are pre-war CB&Q cars. The cars needed are post-war coaches, diner, parlor cars and parlor/obs.  And the PRR paint scheme on the Kato cars is wrong for the Congressional/Senator, so they would need to be painted.  The Con-Cor Bud cars are somewhat closer, and they are painted correctly. The coach (preferably the ATSF prototype coach over the CB&Q prototype coach)  and parlor cars are reasonably close.  The diner is a stretch (model is a distinctive CB&Q style), but at least painted right.  The tail car looks a little closer than the Kato car (and there is no N scale model of the correct type of car).  It is a pre-war ATSF sleeper/obs with a round end, which comes a little closer to the actual PRR parlor/obs with a blunt end.  So, to model the Congressional/Senator, pick the level of accuracy you can stand.

[CodyO]

I`d like to just catch the look of it I can deal with ot not being totally correct
I figured they would have to be painted and that observation is a dead give away that its not right but I think I nwould be happy with the kato cars since adding lighting will be alot easier and there cars are nice
I never had any of the con-cor cars so I`m unsure of there quality vs Kato

[Bob Bufkin]

If you really want the proper cars, you could roll your own using these:

http://unionstationproducts.com/pennsylvania_railroad.html

There are also soe older Concor Budd fluted cars which could be used as standing.

[CodyO]

Not the easiest way but man that would look great
Looks like ill add this to the project folder

[bbussey]

You would use Con-Cor or Kato cars as a "core kit" by removing the existing plastic sides and adding the USP sides.  Not much more difficult than starting with an American Limited core kit.  If Budd roof parts were still available from Kato, you could have used the ALM core kit and substituted a Kato roof for the ALM roof.

[CodyO]

I've decided ill use Kato cars
With the car sides from union station
But Im still trying to find a consist so I know what cars I need to order,and how many

[pjm20]

Keystone Crossings has consist reports for the 50's and 60's.

[CodyO]

Thanks I forgot about the most obvious place to look...
 looks like Ill only need to make a few cars since I have some P85s
If only I could still get B60s from hell gate I could make a correct consist

Hopefully ill be able to tackle this project soon!!

[pjm20]

If only I could still get B60s from hell gate I could make a correct consist

Or you could badger Wheels of Time to make one, like I do every few months...

[bbussey]

Not for the Congressional or the Senator.  Budd fluted stainless steel equipment only.

[eric220]

looks like Ill only need to make a few cars since I have some P85s

What Bryan said.  The P85's that you have are actually P85b's, and smooth side coaches for long distance travel.  The P85's referenced for the Congo are Budd fluted stainless intercity coaches.

These:

http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?diag=p85.gif&sel=coa&sz=sm&fr=GS

Versus these:

http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?diag=P85b-E441609C.gif&sel=coa&sz=sm&fr=GS

[bbussey]

In addition, the two trains ran between Washington and Boston via New York on the NEC only - Pennsy and New Haven trackage via the NY Connecting RR over Hell Gate.  So if you're not modeling a section of the NEC, these two trains would be anomalies.

[eric220]

Maybe they're old products, but I can't find the Kato cars that Cody's referring to.

If it were me, I'd think really hard about using the Con Cor cars.  They might require truck or coupler swaps, but they come in Congo paint.  The coach and parlor (which make up the majority of the train) are pretty close, and the diner can stand in for the diner and tavern cars.  The only really glaring inaccuracy would be the boat-end observation car.  Unless this is going to be a signature train on the layout (and as Bryan pointed out it's a foobie for your modeled region) I'd find it hard to justify sinking the time and effort into building and painting 14 cars practically from scratch.

Just a thought.

[Bob Bufkin]

There was one heavyweight car assigned to these trains.  A diner painted in the shadowline scheme to match the other equipment and used when one of the regular diners was down for maintenance.  Would be cool to model that car but that shadowlining would be a real pain in the a$$.