Unmatched passenger cars

[FJ and G]

Ever since the 1960s, I've seen these. Sometimes a heavyweight mixed with a streamliner or a gallery car mixed in with a traditional coach. Yet, most of the passenger trains we model are nicely matched sets.

Has anyone ever tried an unmatched train?

Dave Vergun

[Anonymous]

hey dave,not only do i mismatch heavy weights with streamliners,but i also mix up road names. i feel that connecting railroads transfer off cars headed for distinations not serviced from the point of origin. i almost treat them like a freight consists. droping them off here & there. prototypes do the same thing,don't they????

[guilfordrr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by easter
i feel that connecting railroads transfer off cars headed for distinations not serviced from the point of origin. i almost treat them like a freight consists. droping them off here & there. prototypes do the same thing,don't they????

The only times I know of that happening are when two railroads jointly run a train service, like Southern Pacific/ Rock Island's Golden State Limited.

[passengerfan]

Just a couple of examples The SP Cascade operated four through sleeping cars to Seattle. They operated in the UP domeliner between Portland and Seattle and returned to the waiting Cascade in Portland the next day in the NP Seattle-Portland pool trains. Another example that comes to mind was the MP sleeping car from New Orleans that operated over the AT&SF from Houston to San Francisco. Ther SP Sunset 10-Roomette 6-Double Bedroom sleeping car that operated from Los Angeles to Dallas east of El Paso in a T&P train. The GN Western Star often operated to Glacier National Park with NYC, PRR, SP and other sleepers carrying tour groups to the park. The CN operated a streamlined sleeping car from St. Paul to Winnipeg in the GN Winnipeg Limited where it continued west to Vancouver on that roads Continental later Super Continental. The TH&B operated a colorful train between Buffalo and Toronto that included not only TH&B cars but some CP cars and NYC cars. Not unusual during peak travel periods to see SP cars operating in the CITY OF SAN FRANCISCO. Even the stainless steel CZ could be found with offline sleeping cars from the NYC or B&O on occasion. And the CB&Q Morning Zephyr to Chicago carried not only stainless steel CB&Q cars but the GN cars of the Empire Builder and NP North Coast Limited. Probably the most colorful train was the winter only Florida Special with numerous off line cars in its consists from UP, SP, PRR, and numerous others.

[FJ and G]

incidentally my VRE train last month pulled a heavyweight coach. It was special for the Train Days fair in Manassas.

OFtentimes, Amtrak will pull private coaches such as the Dover Harbor. They've pulled it from Maryland to Florida and even California.

All sorts of oddball combos you can find

[brianel027]

Being from the east coast and interested in those lines, I do know that the Jersey Central may have been the King of running mismatched passenger cars - not only different types of cars, but cars in their own road with different paint schemes and cars from different roads. The CNJ acquired cars from the Great Northern in various GN schemes: these trains got the joke name "The Jersey Builder."

Penn Central also ran some mismatched stuff. As did Amtrak in the early days. Of course, the thing to remember here is that the above mentioned cases were out of lack of funds and utter sheer financial necessity. But there is a prototype for doing this.

I'm sure many of the scenic rail lines dotting the country run a variety of mismatched cars... in their case they are buying and running whatever was available, affordable and restoreable.