Does anyone out there know where I can find a photograph of this Pullman car taken sometime between 1949 and 1957? While it ran on a rarely photographed train in those years, I am hoping that there might be one out there somewhere. Failing the photograph, does anyone know how it was lettered? Did the PULLMAN persist on the letterboard with OTTAWA below the window line in Railroad Roman capitals? Did it have READING COMPANY on the letterboard with OTTAWA in its usual place and smaller all capitals PULLMAN by the doors (something that many railroads did with the cars after that court decision)? I am in N scale, so my decal options are limited. I have two of the Microscale Reading passenger sets, which, oddly enough, do not have OTTAWA on them, even though that was the only sleeper that Reading ever had. Trying to put it together out of lettering sets might be my only option. That is a daunting task, but I have had to "Man Up" more than once in this hobby. OTTAWA is not in any of the Pullman name sets that I have seen out there. The car itself is not that big a deal, as everything that I have read about it indicates that it was a 12-1 sleeper which is what the Rivarossi car is. In fact, that might be the only real car in the consist--everything else is going to have to be a "close enough foobie". This is for a fictitious once-a-week southern extension of the Interstate Express that will be running on my non-historic railroad. The RR baggage is the best that I can find for a CNJ 390-436 baggage. Tom's Trains of New Jersey sells both the block and Railroad Roman decals in N for coaches. Sadly, there are no decals for RPOs or baggage in either of the sets, so it will have to do without the BAGGAGE lettering. Southern's later lettering was similar, but I have yet to find an N scale set with Southern head end car lettering, either. Wheels of Time sells a round roof baggage lettered for DL&W. Rivarossi has the DLW head end cars. I have all of those. The MT baggage/mail is close enough to some of the three window RPO section of the Western Maryland 183, 184 and 185 RPOs. The lettering on the Microscale Fireball hood diesel set is the best that I can do for passenger car lettering for WM. The UNITED STATES MAIL RAILWAY POST OFFICE lettering on the Microscale NYCS head end car set as well as that on the PRR set is the same color. The PRR lettering looks "too PENN", so it is going to be the one from the NYCS set. WM did not run USRA light pacifics, but that one is the best that I can do, as well. I do need to get rid of the fireball herald on the B-mann SPECTRUM tender, though, as I have never seen a photograph of a WM pacific with it. I suppose that an eraser followed by some DULLCOTE might address the problem. If anyone knows where to find the photographs of OTTAWA during that period, or even knows what it looked like, that would help. If anyone knows of a source for more CNJ or WM passenger car lettering, that would be an additional help. Thank you in advance for your kind assistance. NOTE TO MODERATORS-The prefix did not allow me a choice of RDG, so I chose "OTHER". If you can change it to RDG, that might help. Thank you in advance.
For a photo of the prototype Ottawa car, you could try pursuing some of the suggestions offered here: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=99&t=32649 If you trust the info from the Bethlehem Car Works site, it's a 12-1 type car with the 2410 floorplan and mechanical A/C: http://bethlehemcarworks.com/Products/Craftsman_Kit_Cars/index.html http://bethlehemcarworks.com/Products/Craftsman_Kit_Cars/images/Kit_2410-2410A_web.jpg It'd be helpful to know if K-Line had a photo of the prototype to work from when they made this car: https://www.proxibid.com/aspr/K-81-...EW-IN-BOX/31660516/LotDetail.asp?lid=31660516 Apparently the Ottawa only ran until 6/53: http://www.railfan.net/lists/erielack-digest/200612/msg00024.html
Thanks for the reply and links. I have seen the railroaddotnet discussion. The link to the "bad" photograph is broken. I have seen the Bethlehem Car Works photograph as well. I am assuming that it had that paint scheme before the Court decision in the late 1940s against Pullman. I never did see the K-Line car, but I have seen photographs of other tin plate Reading cars with the green stripe. The only prototype/service photographs that I ever have seen of Reading Company cars with the green stripe are the modernised coaches, The Microscale sheet gives you enough lettering to do four cars, but only enough striping for one with a little left over. Those modernised cars look much like the Osgood-Bradley "American Flyer" cars, except that the "american Flyer" cars are smooth sides and have one more large window. I never did see the railfandotnet discussion that you provided. The story in that one differs from the article in RMC in several details. The RMC article states that there is no record to verify that the swap out for the DL&W or Reading car ever was made. The HW 12-1 did get withdrawn and replaced with a lightweight in 1957, according to the RMC article. George Elwood's site has a Reading passenger car roster for 1954. It shows OTTAWA.
A Lackawanna timetable from 1954 lists the sleeping car on the Interstate Express as an 8-section/5-bedroom type, which is the same type as the NYC Orchard Lake and Orchard Farm cars - and which were rebuilt from 12-1 cars. http://viewoftheblue.com/photography/timetables/DLW042554.pdf http://lists.railfan.net/erielack-digest/200611/msg00339.html
The timetable would be the ultimate authority in a case such as this, as photographs of this train seem to be the proverbial hen's teeth. I note a typographical error in my second post. The RMC article reads 1956 instead of 1957 as the year for the lightweight sleepers, although the Clover cars cited in the second link were HWs. Some were rebuilt, but they were still clearly HWs. I do wonder why the RMC article suggests that there is no record of a swap for Raymilton (the DL&W car) and Ottawa (the Reading car), as the Lackawanna timetable that you cite clearly states that in 1954 the 8-5 cars were working that train. Likely they were the rebuilt NYCS Orchard cars. There may be no specific record of the car swaps by name, but clearly the 12-1s were no longer working the train by 1954. It is possible that the 12-1s might have been used as backups, as the roster for the Reading on Georrge Elwood's site shows that in 1954, Ottawa was still on the roster Funny, too, the Lackawanna timetable that you provided suggests a B&O connexion, while the RMC article reads that the B&O discontinued the connecting train (at Wayne Jct., Penna.) in 1950. Was the sleeper switched from the train at Reading Terminal to the B&O station on Chestnut St. in Philadelphia by 1954? What I am trying to do is get something that at least resembles something that the Reading actually had in that era for the fictitious once a week southern extension of the train. As it is, I am running it with a USRA light pacific lettered for the WM, a WOT DL&W baggage, a Lima car lettered for Reading that is actually a Penn PBM-70 (If Reading actually had a passenger-baggage-RPO, I have yet to see a photograph of it--at any rate, it would not have had a clerestory roof, rather a flattened round roof), a B-mann four axle coach lettered for Ma and Pa another baggage for whatever and two express box cars. I have the MT RPO/baggage ready for its WM lettering and the RR baggage ready for its CNJ lettering, a 12-1 RR Pullman ready for lettering. The passenger traffic on that train would not have justified two sleepers out of Syracuse, one to be cut out at Allentown for the fictitious southern extension. In fact, after 1948, coach service was cut at various points on the train's route. I have read in other places that the railroads actually would sell the through coach tickets to anyone willing to pay, but the conductors would simply have the coach passengers sit in the sleeper until a coach was cut back into the train at a subsequent stop. In addition, the unsold sleeper space also accommodated the crew. From what I have read, usually there were only one or two sleeper reservations on the train after 1950, or so, thus there would have been room to accomodate the few coach passengers. Thank you for the links and thoughtful replies.
Perhaps you've seen this already, but this thread mentions that the Reading T&HS publication Bee Line has an article on the Interstate Express. http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20624 The Bethlehem branch is covered by several articles in the issues from 1990, and issue 4 would seem to be most relevant. Although those issues are listed as "sold out", maybe you can still find used copies or someone who has them and could copy or scan the pages. Also, check with your local library to see if some other library - even out-of-state - has issues of the Bee Line in their holdings and can do an inter-library exchange or provide copies. http://www.readingrailroad.org/reference/ref_beeline.shtml
What's the possibility that this could be the Interstate Express? http://www.american-rails.com/images/CNJMasterCMT.jpg The photo comes from this page: http://www.american-rails.com/central-railroad-of-new-jersey.html If you hover over the photo, the caption says that it's a commuter train on the Reading in the '50s or '60s. But why would it have a CNJ Trainmaster for power and what appears to be a DL&W baggage car (plus an express boxcar) in the consist? It would have to be inbound to Philadelphia during late June or early July for there to be any daylight. Still doesn't answer your question about the pullman car, though.
The possibility is slim. First, you have too many passenger carrying cars and only two head end cars. I am guessing early 1960s for this photograph. Interstate Express stopped running in 1963 when Reading Company ceased all mail operations system-wide. (I find it curious that B&O, which controlled the Reading, approved of this). Even in its last days, the Interstate Express carried mostly head end cars and had more than six cars total. By the late 1950s, the train carried revenue passengers over only a portion of its route. This was not always advertised in the public timetables. In addition, several things that I have read suggested that if you were willing to pay for a ticket, the railroads that ran it would sell you one to anyplace that it stopped. The train carried a rider coach for the crew, often a DL&W coach. Paying passengers sat in that, along with the crew. Several people who stated that they rode it during that period reported that cleaning was done only on occasion and it was quite a smoky ride. After the Second World War, the train carried at the most, two cars for passengers: a coach and a Pullman. There may have been more added during peak travel times of if one of the railroads were aware of a demand, but, as a rule, it carried only two for paying passengers. The Pullman came off in 1957 or 1958. In addition, DL&W supposedly discontinued revenue passenger service to Syracuse in 1958 or 1959, but the train still carried mail to an from there. In addition, there was that rider coach and the stories that the railroad would sell you a ticket if you were willing to pay. The train in the photographs has four cars for passengers; far more than the train ever carried routinely, at least, even in the late 1940s. Head end cars on commuter trains are nothing unusual, although by the 1960s it might have been. Perhaps that particular train still carried headend cars even that late. There were some CNJ trains that ran from Jersey City (and later Newark) that ran into Philadelphia. They ran on the Raritan Line (I had an aunt in Somerville, which is on that line, so I rode those trains from time to time. By the time that I was riding them, though, I doubt that there was any head end traffic left on them). Some of the SP SF Peninsula commuter trains were still carrying head end cars into the very early 1960s. One even had an RPO that late. By the time that I was riding those trains, though, the head end traffic was gone. Train #112 was often called the "Schoolbus on rails) as students of Bellarmine, in San Jose and St. Francis, in Mountain View, often rode it to school. If you had to be at school early, you rode #110, which by that time was down to a single Harriman sub and the most broken down passenger equipped locomotive that SP could find (Often an ex-SSW FP-7, but I seem to recall and FM cab unit, as well. SP had no FM cab units that it bought new, but it might have bought something used from somewhere. I do recall the FL builder's plate). ........but I stray.......... The RMC article stated that in the diesel era, CNJ operated Interstate Express with a pair of passenger RS-3s, as a rule, although FMs did pull it if there were no ALCo s available. I was not aware that any of CNJ's FM power was equipped for passenger work.
It's hard to tell much about the lettering, particularly from the thumbnail. But this is supposed to be the car in question... http://rrmuseumpa.andornot.com/list?q=reading+pullman+ottawa&p=1&ps=20 If you're near Strasburg, PA on a weekend, you can make an appointment to view the original. Some of their collection is available for sale as prints. I don't think this is the route of the Interstate Express. George School is near Newtown, which is closer to Trenton than Lansdale...
Thank you for the link to the photograph. It appears to be a 12-1 sleeper. In addition, although the photograph is hard to view, even if you do blow up the thumbnail, it appears that it reads READING COMPANY on the letterboard. I held up a magnifying glass to it. Still, I could see nothing clearly, but the outlines that I could discern suggest READING COMPANY over PULLMAN. It does not appear that there is PULLMAN near the doors. After the court decision, many roads put their name on the letterboard, but PULLMAN near the doors to reflect that Pullman Company was still operating the sleepers, but the given railroad owned them. The decision was handed down in 1943, while the war was still going on. I have read that the railroads and Pullman Company began to implement it in 1944. I do suspect, however, that implementation was slow until 1946, or so, due to wartime exigencies. The photograph was taken in 1947. The train is not the Interstate Express if for no other reason than, similar to the photograph with the FM, thar' ain't enough cars in it. The RMC article stated that Ottawa was on the train in 1948 or '49 (I forget which, now). The DL&W car, Raymilton, was assigned at the same time. The RMC article noted that around that time, DL&W bought several lightweight sleepers for its other trains, but not for Interstate Express. Supposedly, Pullman Company (as the railroads had leased back the sleepers to it to operate) was going to assign some Clover cars from the NYCS to the train, but the RMC article states that there is no verification that it ever occurred. Thus, it does appear that the letterboard read READING COMPANY, but, still, I can not be sure. It does not appear that the green stripe is on it, as it is on the tinplate car. I do not know when I will get to that part of Pennsylvania. Still, thank you everyone for the replies and links. Perhaps someone will add to this who might have seen the photograph provided by acptulsa or who has seen another photograph of this car.
You mention the WM. What is the ultimate destination for this "fictitious once-a-week southern extension of the Interstate Express" and what sort of routing do you envision for it?
The concept of my pike is actually two railroads. One is the non-historic Short Creek and Nopedale, which generates a good amount of freight traffic, mostly from a bicycle factory and small engine factory. In addition, the fictitious town of Short Creek, Maryland is home to a number of mail order houses, thus generating large amounts of mail and express. The other railroad was known as Four Capitals or "Capitals" (Washington, Harrisburg, Annapolis, Dover--WHAD). Think Annapolis, Baltimore and Washington, but a steam instead of electric road and extended to Harrisburg and Dover. It was mismanaged, falling apart and was taken over, by court order, in 1940 by the B&O, WM and Penn. Those roads, as well as the Reading and P&LE (through B&O) were recipients of much of the mail and express traffic from SC&N and did not want to lose it (nor did SC&N want to lose its only outlet to the world). WHAD's equipment was mostly too decrepit to use and most of its employees had quit, so the operating roads were using their equipment and crews to run it. B&O and WM are running the Washington-Baltimore line and use it to run mail trains (and one commuter roundtrip Mon-Fri) service the local businesses, pick up mail, express and freight traffic from SC&N as well as a "safety valve" to run extra freights if B&O Metropolitan Sub and Penn Washington-Baltimore lines are too busy. Penn runs the line from its Washington-Baltimore line mostly to deliver/pick up freight to/from the SC&N (there is little freight traffic to Annapolis) as well as one night passenger train that is there mostly for the mail and express traffic from the SC&N. The ultimate destination is Washington, over the WHAD that the three prototypes are "operating". It carries three or four head end cars, two express boxcars and one car for passengers. It is supposedly split from the Interstate Express at Allentown, the Reading runs it to Harrisburg, then to Shippensburg where the WM takes over, runs it to Hagerstown, then Baltimore where it goes onto WHAD tracks for the trip to Washington. From Allentown to Washington it serves as an accommodation train, which means that it stops everywhere, has long layovers in larger towns and cities and takes forever to get to Washington. The idea is that a WM Pacific picks it up in Shippensburg, but sometimes the Reading FP-7s will run all the way through. (once I get my order into Skytop for the late phase RS-3 shell and to Piperguy for the short hood on the WM hammerhead, that will add more power to the mix). The function of this train on my pike is the same as that of the four day per week B&O mail train to Dover, once per week B&O Baltimore-Washington mail and once per week Washington-Cleveland mail train (which, in theory, is a southern extension of the Steel King-but running over P&LE tracks until it gets to Connellsville, where it switches to the B&O then the WHAD in Baltimore. It runs with P&LE power, a New York Central RPO, a P&LE baggage, a B&O baggage and an Erie coach which is why I want the Stillwell that someone is going to print on Shapeways) as well as two express boxcars). It drops and picks up an express car at Short Creek Junction on the evening southbound trip and on the morning northbound trip picks up and drops off a baggage car. There are some breaks with history other than what I mentioned. B&O had eliminated all steam East of Cumberland, Maryland by 1954, or so. In order to operate WHAD, though, it retains steam even in 1955, as the number of diesels would not have been adequate. B&O diesels do appear, though. WM had gotten rid of its steam by 1953, or so, but, in order to operate on the WHAD, it retains some. Union Station in Washington had been trying for some time to get steam out of its property. It finally did ban it, but I do not think that the final ban came until 1962, or so. This is one reason why to-day, when NS runs its steam trips (which it has recently revived) out of Washington, the dirtiest, most beat up diesels that NS can find pull the train out of Washington and into Virginia where the steam engine takes over. Steam locomotives are not allowed on WTC property. I use only diesels for Penn trains. Penn had electrified this area in the 1930s, so steam simply would not have been there by 1955. I read somewhere that Penn purchased its first road diesel in 1948, an RS-1 "for Baltimore commuter service". I wonder where Penn ran the thing, unless it was on the Northern Central, which was not electrified until Maryland Department of Transportation did so when it put the Baltimore trolley on that line. Passenger service run by the Penn (and maybe PC) persisted on the Northern Central into the 1960s, but I do not know how long into the 1960s it was. ....probably more than you wanted to know.
Consider this possibility for the once-a-week sleeper/extension to DC of the Interstate Express: You don't really need the Ottawa, since that car would have remained on the Interstate Express through to Philadelphia. Suppose that there was a US congressional representative from the Syracuse area that liked to return home to upstate NY on weekends. This individual preferred a one car/room ride, rather than having to change trains between the B&O and the RDG at Philadelphia. Hence, that once-a-week sleeper/extension over the WHAD route departed DC on Friday evenings and returned from Syracuse on Sunday evenings. Furthermore, the DL&W was sufficiently motivated to curry favor with that representative that they were willing to supply the sleeping car. What car, then? The RDG used to handle a pair of sleepers to/from Philadelphia, which were interchanged with the LV at Bethlehem. One went to Toronto on the Maple Leaf while the other went to Buffalo on the Star. Both cars were of the 10-1-2 type from the Scenic series. The DL&W also had four Scenic series cars: - Falls, - Slope, - Trail and - Valley. http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/pax/scfallsg.jpg That would give you up to three private sleeper room accommodations while the open sections could be sold simply as coach seats for anywhere between Bethlehem and DC. Sound plausible?
Ottawa was pulled in 1953 or 1954 and replaced with NYCS cars, so I could actually keep it and use it for the purpose that you suggested. What I am trying to do is have one car from each of the roads that ran the train, plus the WM car as its contribution to the pool. The RPO/baggage would make the most sense for WM car, as RPOs did not often stray from the owning road. On the Interstate Express, however, they did. Usually CNJ furnished the RPO/baggage. If one was not available, the train would run a Reading of Lackawanna RPO/baggage. As this is an extension, the one actual RPO on the train would, of course, remain with it all the way between Syracuse and Philadelphia. The WM RPO would be cut out of the Northbound at Allentown and wait for the train to return for its next run south. As that would be a Sunday, the RPO part would not be staffed, but the baggage section could be used as a "working baggage" which is something that an accommodation train always has. The thing could sit in Washington until Friday. By 1955 WM was not running too many passenger trains, so it would not worry too much about a RPO/baggage sitting somewhere off the property. If it did need it, one of the trains working the WHAD could pick it up and take it to Baltimore or a B&O passenger train could take it to Cumberland. The Lackawanna car in my train is a Wheels of Time round roof baggage that looks enough like a DL&W baggage car. WOT sold it with DL&W lettering and the square window baggage cars that the prototype had. WOT has modified several of its baggage cars to look like other roads. Most of the WOT offerings are based on Harriman cars, but, if you change the roof and a few easy details (such as baggage doors), you get a "close enough". When they did the B&O in three numbers, they disappeared from the shelves before the dealers could put them onto them. I still need the one that ends in -94. I lettered a RR baggage for CNJ. It is missing the "BAGGAGE" lettering, though, as the decal sheets that Tom's Trains sell have lettering and numbering only for coaches, Pullmans and club cars. The leter Southern lettering is close enough, but, sadly, no one sells those sheets, either. This leaves the Reading car. Lima sold a foobie Penn PBM-70 lettered for Reading. If it sold the coach and the "observation" (really the coach with one vestibule removed and an open deck added-similar to the B-mann shorty C&NW standards). I have it, but that would put two RPOs on the train. Further, the car has a clerestory roof and never have I seen a photograph of a Reading combine with anything other than that flattened round roof. In addition, never have I seen a photograph of a Reading combine other than baggage/passenger or baggage/mail. Never have I seen one with passenger/RPO or passenger/baggage/RPO. I did letter an RR open deck observation for a fictitious Pullman sold to Reading and called it "Elm Glen". I lettered it READING COMPANY on the letterboard, and PULLMAN either end. The use of an open deck observation (the prototype on which the RR car is based actually did have a drawing room and two roomettes) might fit with the Congressman or Senator. Biden used to ride AMTRAK back and forth between Washington and Delaware. In my younger days, when I was riding those trains frequently, I talked to him in the bar car a few times. Thus, your suggestion about the Congressman or Senator is not without precendent. Use of a DL&W sleeper would be good if I could get a flat, rounded roof for one of the baggage cars, thus I could have all the railroads that ran the train if I had a Reading baggage and the DL&W sleeper. I have the RR DL&W passenger sets. The sleeper simply has a number. I could look to see if someone sells a DL&W passenger decal set, erase the numbers, apply coating and add a name. Then, there is the possibility of simply painting the car Pullman green, if someone sells a gold DL&W passenger set. DL&W passenger cars had both schemes in the 1950s. In fact, I would not be surprised if there were still some head end cars that were Pullman green into the 1960s. The Microscale Reading set lacks baggage and RPO lettering, as do the CNJ sets that Tom's Trains sells. For the WM baggage/mail, I used the Microscale Fireball hood unit lettering. It is not quite correct, but the funny thing is that it fits between the RPO windows and the baggage doors. The only photographs that I have seen of WM RPo/baggages are those with the four window RPO compartments. On those, the lettering starts (or ends) over the RPO windows. WM did have three RPO/baggage with three RPO windows (the MT car has three). There is no room over the windows on the MT car for any lettering. I used REA and RPO lettering from the Pennsylvania sheet that had some older style lettering that is not quite in the font that Penn used. I was going to use the lettering from the NYCS sheet, but the Penn sheet lettering fit better. The funny thing about all of this is that once MT comes out with its single window coach, what do you want to bet that all of these new passenger sheets start to appear? Currently, N scale has no single window coach, WM ran single window coaches as did CNJ and Reading (but then there are those roofs on the Reading). The MT is supposed to be based on a NYCS prototype. Microscale already sells sheets for NYCS passenger cars and even has lettering for NYCS subsidiaries. If MT does not issue a P&LE, I have decals for them!! At any rate, that is a good idea about the Syracuse sleeper.
So, you have a consist with some variation of mail/baggage/express car from each of the DL&W, CNJ, RDG and WM. Plus, there's an excuse to run a DL&W sleeper. Given the relatively short run on the RDG - and that the northbound run to Allentown would likely have ended before midnight, while the southbound run would have begun about 4AM, it's not exactly overnight in either direction - the case for an RDG sleeper seems a bit more difficult to justify. You mentioned an observation car. Supposing that the RDG also needed to accommodate a certain VIP, an observation car might be just the ticket. PRR and NH, among some others, used observation cars with a parlor/buffet/lounge configuration. The parlor and lounge sections would offer deluxe seating, while the buffet could serve coffee and breakfast on the inbound morning trip to DC with more potent potables being dispensed during the outbound evening trip to Harrisburg and Allentown. This car could be turned at Allentown between midnight and 4AM, so only one car would have been needed.
The DL&W sleeper would be good. I have two WOT DL&W baggage cars as well as the RR set. DL&W had some cars that resembled the RR cars. The DL&W cars for this train are not the sticking point. The DL&W baggage/RPOs had two baggage doors. Microscale does not sell a sheet for DL&W passenger cars. if I could get a rounded flat roof somewhere for Reading head end cars, that would allow me to letter the MT or RR cars. The Microscale Reading passenger set does not have head end car lettering, but likely I could get it from another sheet, similar to what I did with the WM RPO/baggage. The idea of using Ottawa was that it could be made out of an available car. In fact, I had considered running the sleeper as a parlour, something that more than one road did. Reading ran single window coaches. The coaches and the head end cars all had that flat, rounded roof that is not available in N scale. The idea of using a fictitious open deck observation comes from Reading #15, which was a business car. It looked much like the RR open deck observation. At one point, Reading rebuilt it into a more modern looking car, but I do not know when it did this. My fictitious Elm Glen carries #11. Number Ten was a wood open deck observation. The real sticking point is the Reading cars. I can live with BAGGAGE's being missing from the CNJ baggage car, for now. Perhaps, at some point, someone will do a CNJ or Southern sheet with the modern style lettering that is close to CNJ's later lettering and also contains head end car lettering. CNJ had a RPO/baggage that was similar to the MT. Sadly, though, while it is possible to live without BAGGAGE on a baggage car, you can not do without UNITED STATES MAIL RAILWAY POST OFFICE on an RPO. CNJ ran single window coaches. The Tom's Trains sheet will letter them in either newer or older style CNJ lettering. The CNJ coaches had clerestory roofs (and lasted into the 1980s--I rode them more than once). MT is supposed to issue a single window coach this year based on a NYCS prototype. WM ran single window coaches. The MT baggage resembles some that WM had. While, again, the absolute correct lettering for the roadname is not out there, the WESTERN MARYLAND from the Fireball hood unit sheet fits between the baggage doors on the MT baggage car, just as it does between the RPO windows and baggage door on the MT RPO/baggage. The only thing for which it would not really work would be a coach, but that is not a big deal as we are discussing accommodating the occasional coach passenger between Allentown and Washington in a first class car. It would actually be conceivable, as this would be an accommodation train between Allentown and Washington. This means that it stops at every little hut in every little town along the line. B&O actually had a train like this in the Potomac Valley. It lasted into the 1960s, it stopped everywhere between somewhere in Pennsylvania and Washington. The conductor would have passengers on it detrain at a stop where another passenger train might arrive later, but would get him to one of the major stops more quickly. Usually, FPA-2s pulled it. The occasional coach passenger that the southern extension of this train might get between Allentown and Washington usually would be short distance or going between places that most trains did not stop, thus, the railroads could get away with accommodating them in a first class car. The Interstate Express Northbound arrived in Allentown at about Eight P.M. and at about Five-Forty-Five A.M. Southbound. As this once per week southern extension would be a) an accommodation train and b) running a circuitous route between Allentown and Washington (Harrisburg, Shippensburg, Hagerstown, Baltimore, Washington), its taking eleven, or so, hours to get to Washington could be explained. If you hold the southbound in Allentown until Seven A.M. or Seven-Thirty, it stops everywhere, it has long layovers in Harrisburg and Hagerstown plus a scheduled wait for a change or power in Shippensburg. (the wait would be unnecessary if the Reading power runs through, but as it is on the schedule, the train would hold there, as well)
EDITORIAL NOTE: I was looking at the incorrect column on the time table. The northbound Interstate Express arrived Allentown at about Two A.M. When I thought about it later, the Eight P.M. arrival did not make much sense. I looked again, and realised that I was not looking at the correct column on the timetable.
Does anyone out there have Issue #3 from 2009 of The Beeline? This is the organ of the Reading Technical and Historical Society. According to an online index, there is an article in that particular issue on Ottawa. What I am really trying to find out is how it was lettered and painted between 1948 and 1955. Did the letterboard read READING COMPANY or PULLMAN? I would assume that the car name would be in the middle, below the window line. If it had READING COMPANY on the letterboard, was there small PULLMAN lettering above the doors?
