I'm an English modeller with a keen interest in American Railroads. I am working on the design of an freelance N gauge layout unrestricted to region or date. I fell in love with a friend's Atlantic Coastline E6 locos and bought an A B set. I am now trying to find out what cars would make up the passenger consist of a train like the Champion. Currently Con-Cor are offering N gauge passenger cars but I don't know how many of which type would make up an authentic train. Any help with Web sites, drawings or text descriptions would be greatly appreciated.
Here is West Coast Champion consist Nov. 18 1944. All cars are heavyweight, sleepers are Pullman owned ACL 517 E6A ACL 754 E6B ACL 514 E6A ACL 506 express car ACL 2 RPO car ACL 1618 express car ACL 677 baggage-coach ACl 1116 coach ACL Albany diner ACL Virginia buffet lounge ACL 1129, 1044, 1127, 1128 coaches Cape Fortunas 10s-1DR-2cpt sleeper Commodor 6 Br sleeper-diner lounge Poplar Summit 6s-6DBR sleeper Winthrop College 10s-1cpt-2dbr sleeper ACL Charleston diner Puerto Rico 10s-1dr-2cpt Algonquin Park 8s-1dr-2cpt sleeper East Coast Champion Oct. 20 1954 at Ft. Lauderdale, all lightweight cars unless marked HW FEC 1013 E7A FEC 1009 E7A PRR 8555 Richelieu 5cpt-buffet lounge HW deadhead FEC 312 RPO HW ACL 2006 Baggage-Dorm ACF built FEC New Smirna Beach coach Budd built FEC Bahamian 10-6 sleeper PS built ACL Pass-A-Grille Beach 6dbr-buffet lounge ACF built FEC Fort San Marco diner Budd built FEC Chile 10-6 sleeper PS built SOU 3786 coach ACF built FEC Vero Beach coach Budd built FEC Hypoluxo coach PS built FEC Lantana coach PS built PRR 4049 coach Budd built FEC Hobe Sound tavern lounge observation Budd built ACL Clarendon County 10-6 sleeperPS built
error in list, East Coast Champion, the ACL Clarendon County 10-6 sleeper PS built should be between the FEC Bahamian 10-6 sleeper PS built and the ACL Pass-A-Grille Beach 6dbr-buffet lounge ACF built
Here is a more generic consist, in 1939 Budd built three identical train sets for the Champion, two for ACL and one for FEC. Each set was, in order: (first two numbers or names are ACL, last name is FEC) baggage-dorm-14 seat coach (100, 101, New Smirna) 60 seat coach (200, 201, Boca Raton) 52 seat coach with stewardess room (206, 207, Vero Beach) 48 seat dining car (New York, Philadelphia, Fort Pierce) 60 seat coach (202,203, Cocoa-Rockledge) 60 seat coach (204, 205, Pompano) tavern lounge round end observation (250, 251, Bay Biscayne) Initially this LW train did not carry sleepers. The West Coast Champion had sleepers added in 1947. The East Coast Champion got sleepers in 1949. Sleepers would have varied with demand and would have been supplied by Pullman, no lightweight sleepers were built for the Champion at this time so they would have been heavyweights. In 1950 thirty-six 10-6 lightweight sleepers were purchased, the number assigned to the Champion would have varied with seasons Timetables would provide best info on number of sleepers. The train also included thru coaches and sleepers from the other two participating RR's, PRR and RF&P. The consist in the earlier posting with 4 sleepers would probably be fairly typical, but I have a consist from 1963 that has 6 sleepers. Two excellent sources for info are: Atlantic Coast Line Passenger Service The Postwar Years by Larry Goolsby TLC Publishing and Atlantic Coast Line Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment by Paul Faulk Morning Sun Books
Thanks for your quick reply Larry. I assume the Pullman sleepers would be in the dark green as used by other railroads at the time while the Budd streamliners were in stainless steel with the purple stripe below the roofline. What colours were used for the heavyweight cars?
The heavyweights were generally Pullman green but some were painted purple except that the side from the top of windows to top of car was painted silver. They then had a purple name board within this silver stripe with the name in white. This included some of the HW sleepers which became ACL owned when Pullman monopoly was broken up in 1947. Also note that the PRR painted their LW run-thru cars to match the ACL paint scheme. I could not find any photos on the web of this scheme. The site below has links to many photos of ACL passenger cars but none of the purple heavyweights http://www.trainweb.org/passengercars/ Microtrains made an express refrigerator car #52040 in the purple and silver scheme (ACL 3042) in June 2001. It is beautiful. I bought one just because of that, and the fact that it could have appeared on the Frisco's Kansas City-Florida Special. I model the Frisco, and the above train had run thru equipmet with the ACL. Which is the reason I have any info on the ACL. There may be some still available somewhere. You might want to check with the ACL/SAL Historical Society for more info then I have, at http://www.aclsal.org/
I found this link while looking for similiar references to ACL. It's artwork, and doesn't answer any of the questions, but the paintings done of the Southern roads are several and very nicely represented. http://www.trainpaintings.com/index.html I model western roads, but I had to have those ACL E6s.
