I know that Con-Cor has made Southern Heavyweight Passenger cars over the years (I am talking about the two tone green cars - they usually have Crescent Limited printed on them, but NOT the smooth-side or streamlined cars). If I could find a nice set of Southern Heavyweights from Con-Cor that might just work (I think they use to make them in 6 car sets). But I want to know if anyone has any knowledge of any other manufacturer that is making these cars now? Micro Trains has some extremely nice heavyweights available but I don't believe they have done any in the Southern line, unless I just haven't seen them out there. This leads me to my questions: 1. Anyone making, or going to make, any of these cars in the near future? 2. Does anyone have a nice set of gently used Southern Heavyweights that they might like to "pass along" for a fair price? Hopefully I can find a fairly full consist. I'd like to have a baggage, RPO, diner, observation, a Pullman or two, and a couple of coaches or some type of mix of these that works. Then, all of this leads me to my last question... 3. What is the availability a 4-6-2 Pacific in Virginia Green to pull the above consist? Again, I have seen the older Con-Cor versions and that may be what I have to find. Anyone making these in a newer more DCC friendly version?? Is the old Con-Cor 4-6-2 a conversion candidate for DCC?? Thanks in advance! Dean
Wheels of Time sells a HW, round roof, baggage car in Southern. Model Power sold its PRR cars in Southern. It was a Crescent paint scheme, but I do not know how close to the prototype it was. MP sold a coach, RPO-baggage-passenger combine and an 'open deck observation' car. The last is really the coach with an observation deck grafted to one end. The cars are based on PRR prototypes. Some Southern modellers have bought C-C cars, stripped them, painted them Pullman green, bought Microscale's SP passenger decal sets and cut the 'Southern' out of 'Southern Pacific' to put on the letterboard. Some have evne bought round roof castings to replace the C-C/Rivarossi clerestory roof. The C-C/RR HWs look nothing like the Southern HWs that I remember seeing at Washington's Union Station in the early 1970s. For one, those that I remember seeing all had round roofs. HWs similar to the RRs, and, with clerestory roofs may have operated elsewhere on the Southern, butI can not recall seeing any Southern clerestory roof HWs in Washington. I do not use DCC, so I can not tell you much about it. The C-C/RR paciifc is based on a USRA heavy pacific. It and the RR USRA heavy mikado use the same shell. I forget if the shell is closer to the prototyp,e 2-8-2 or 4-6-2, but the two had simialr boilers and cabs. There were some differences between the two, other than wheel arrangement. I seem to recall that Charlie Vlk knows the answer, but I can not be sure. Southern did have a class of pacifics that were basically copies of the USRA heavy design. Some did have the Virignia Green paint scheme. Some authorities on the Southern have stated that eachlocomotive had variations to it, often based on the preferences of the crews usually assigned to them. I do not know if that is the reason for the variations, but some authorities on the Southern hav stated that.
You might consider the Arnold 4-6-2 Heavy Pacific. Very old design like the Con-Cor, but if you find a good one they run well and pull stumps, mine can pull nine old Atlas heavy weights up a 2% slope with out wheel slipping. They are also easy to convert to DCC. Have fun, Mark
Well, thanks so far for the tips and info. I guess I will have to keep looking. The Con-Cor cars seem to come up on eBay once in a while, sometimes single and sometimes in packs. I found an original runner pack today from Arnold Rivarossi that was still in its original red box and never opened. Contains a dining car, coach and a full baggage car. Evidently there were more of these 3 packs with different cars available at one time. Had an item # of O532 on the box. The store owner has two more packs... I was thinking about buying them all but they were all the same cars. Needless to say I snatched one of them up. Wasn't Rivarossi and Con-Cor and Arnold the same thing more or less? I do want the cars, once I find them, to "match up", so to speak. Dean
I cant help much with the individual cars, but the locomotive that you are looking for is a PS4. It is an in-between model of the heavy and light pacifics. There was an excellent discussion of the differences on the Southern Railway yahoo group. They know this stuff forwards and backwards. They could probably help with the varnish as well. There is artwork available for individual use for all of the later varnish that one of the members has. I am not a passenger fan so I only skimmed the material but what plastic models were available that made the easiest starting points for a PS4 was discussed as well. I think you can read the archives on yahoo without joining. Look about a month ago. But I highly reccommend joining.
