Just found the website. Modeling (for many years) the SP. An imagined line in HO, (Indio Central) operating in California’s Imperial Valley, interchanging with the the SP Yuma sub (and UP & SF) in the 1958 time period. Nothing too specific. Dad was a brakeman on the Pennsy, uncle was a SP freight conductor (El Paso to Lordsburg) when the ACs were king and the F-7s wore black paint. However, a question. Athearn produced a silver SP boxcar marked “Overnight Service”. Did these run in dedicated freights or did they have the running gear to be part of passenger trains?
welcome to Trainboard.com. The Overnight Freight was just that, from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and was a solid block of those silver cars
Hi Stu, welcome, glad that you found us. Can't answer your question, but there's a passel of folks here who can.
Welcome Aboard Stu, Black Overnights 40's to 50's LA to San Francisco including Oakland. Then Silver Overnights took over in 60's. LTL's I think?
The black overnight cars started in 1935, ended for WWII, restarted in 1946, and the fleet of cars became silver in 1958. The black cars were NOT mixed with the silver cars. The black cars used a 60' coach as a caboose, and the silver train (cars and trailers) had a a few silver copula caboose with high speed trucks and steel wheels.