Anyone know if Chesapeake & Ohio ever had any famous named passenger trains similar to the PRR Broadway limited, or the NYC 20th Century limited?? I googled Chesapeake & Ohio RW but didn’t see anything, thanks. Also, who makes decent passenger equipment for the C&O ? Thanks
I think I can help out here! The George Washington; The FFV - otherwise known as The Fast Flying Virginian; The Sportsman; The Pere Marquettes - the First Post War Streamliners; and the one train that was the last of the great streamliners - The Chessie. The Chessie was going to be a magnificent streamliner pulled by streamlined Hudsons or a new engine - the M-1 steam-turbine-electric. C&O launched a huge PR campaign, and ordered the new engines, new cars from Budd including dome-observation cars, built streamlined Art Deco style coal towers - even a new prototype station at Prince West Virginia. But Robert R. Young's dream ended because of financial difficulties due to upgrades to the system to accommodate the Chessie, coal mine strikes, and more people traveling by airplane and automobile.
To answer the second part of the question - N scale: Rivarossi made great stuff - heavyweights; Con-Cor offered really nice 85' streamliners. HO scale: Walthers has some nice heavyweights and Pullman-Standard 52-seat coaches; Rivarossi made some nice heavyweights; Branchline Trains has some nice heavyweight kits; Con-Cor had nice 72' streamline cars (nice for smaller layouts); IHC has heavyweights, corrugated-side streamliners, and they have cars for The Chessie. These are examples that I have in my collection - there are probably more manufacturers out there offering C&O stuff.
Oldrk - I need some of those! Sometimes I wonder if manufacturers/importers monitor web sites like this - and if they do, I sure think we need more C&O passenger equipment in N scale! EDIT: And B&O, too!
set Tim, I got mine on ebay. Took me a long time to get the set of three. The coach is the tough one to find. If I ever see any I will let you know. I have been thinking of painting some myself.B mann has done a complete set in HO.
Thanks for all your answers, exactly the information I was looking for. Now that I know some train names, I should be able to Google them with more success. In regards to the available C&O passenger equipment, I see that Intermountain will be coming out with some Corrugated Coaches in N in august. Does anyone have any prototype info for these coaches? More specifically, when where these cars built?
Passenger trains Dave, If you look at the bottom of Tim's posts you will see a link to COHS.ORG. That will take you to the C&O historical website. Lots of info there. Good luck.
I posted this on the N scale forum, also: I just looked on the Intermountain web site - they have an illustration of C&O #1646. This was one of 67 Pullman-Standard built 52-seat coaches that C&O ordered in 1946. C&O actually only took delivery of 59 of them, numbers 1610 through 1668. The fluted siding that the cars were delivered with is why they are called "corrugated". The siding had a bad habit of trapping water and the acid used in cleaning the cars, which led to early corrosion. Most of the cars had the siding removed, and the area repainted gray.
The Spring 2007 issue of Classic Trains magazine has an article on The George Washington. Also, I have several images of C&O passenger trains on my Railimages site. Mikado
Mikado - I looked through some of your images and saw a "B&O" Mikado #4501 heading back from a movie shoot. Wonder if that movie was Fool's Parade which was released in 1971 - this movie had Jimmy Stewart in it and took place in the 1930's in West Virginia - it had a B&O engine in it...
