B&O passenger car question

[Anonymous]

I have a set of Mikes Train House O-gauge streamined passenger cars that carry the B&O logo on each end of a blue stripe running along the windows. But the broad yellow stripe above the windows looks like what the C&O ran, minus the name. Recently I saw a old B&W photo of a car like this. Did the B&O buy some C&O cars and repaint them? Thanks for any info. Joe

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

B&O was one of many roads that took advantage of one of the bigger mistakes of the postwar era, C&O's "Chessie" streamliner and the massive order of passenger equipment that would have completely re-equipped C&O's passenger trains. The order was much larger than necessary, about 1/3 of the order was cancelled and a fair number of the rest of the cars that were built were delivered to other roads. One of Robert Wayner's publications from the early 1970's has all the ugly details.

Between castoffs from that situation and later sales by C&O, B&O wound up with a good amount of ex-C&O passenger equipment.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Paul. Until I saw the photo, I assumed these were a figment of a toy train company's immagination. Joe

[trolleyboy]

Joe if you jump over to the Our Place thread. one of the regulars there "Passengerfan" just posted a complete list of the who, and the where, these cars were distributed.He is an amazing font of passengercar knowledge. Rob

[daveklepper]

Some went to the D&RGW but were quickly repainted yellow and black.

[passengerfan]

Actually the P/S cars that were originally ordered by C&O and then delivered to the D&RGW were never painted in the C&O colors but painted by P/S in the D&RGW colors for delivery.Those C&O Domes built by Budd and delivered to the D&RGW were painted C&O colors and repainted in Denver for the D&RGW.