Specifically Chicago & Northwestern, but in general would the railroads run a consist of streamlined passenger cars like sleepers with an older heavyweight baggage car?
Or would streamlined passenger cars always be matched with a streamlined baggage car?
Rich
Alton Junction
The short answer is yes, trains would have mixed consists. I have a book by a former New York Central photographer. One of his shots showed a heavyweight baggage car in a train with the rest of the cars being Budd streamliners. If I remember right it was the Empire State Express. Much of his work was publicity photos for the railroad and he would implore the guys who put the trains together to make homogenous consists for the sake of photos but he was told they only made an effort to do that for the premiere trains and the secondary trains would get made up with whatever equipment was available. Even then, occasionally even the premiere trains, like the Empire State Express, would have to make do with what was available when the normal equipment was being serviced.
On my layout, I like to run passenger consists with mixed equipment because it gives them more character.
Many railroads had no other option. They didn't order streamlined head end cars unless it was for a special, premier train like the Super Chief. Many railroads could not afford them which is why a lot of the heavyweights were still around, up until the coming of Amtrak, when they were well over fifty years old. If a baggage car was in storage mail service or assigned to the Railway Express Agency, it was liable to be routed off line to the far corners of the country, which is why Pennsy B-60s were common sights in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Miami. Also head end cars were not subjected to the rigors of the average freight car, since they didn't get kicked, humped or other abuse, therefore, they "lived" longer. The passenger-heavy New Haven streamlined its mainline passenger fleet but never owned one streamlined piece of head end equipment. Things deteriorated to the point that they had to lease surplus Santa Fe RPOs in 1967 and, THEY were streamlined.
richhotrainSpecifically Chicago & Northwestern, but in general would the railroads run a consist of streamlined passenger cars like sleepers with an older heavyweight baggage car?
Yes and Yes! As mentioned earlier, some railroads didn't buy streamlined RPO or Baggage cars and just used heavyweights. These might be repainted to match the railroad's streamlined paint scheme, but some stayed Pullman green until they were scrapped.
Note too that it wasn't just head-end cars. Railroads after WW2 would take heavyweight diners or coaches or whatever and repaint them into streamliner colors as back-ups to their actual streamlined cars. Some updated their heavyweights more than just cosmetically. Great Northern for example took some heavyweight cars and added air conditioning, a new flatter roof similar to their streamline lightweight cars, updated the interiors, and repainted them to the green and orange "Empire Builder" scheme. Unless you had time to look a train over closely, you might not pick out the refurbished car as being different.
I found this website with lots of information about C&NW passenger trains:
C&NW's "Duluth-Superior Limited" (Train): Timetable, Schedule (american-rails.com)
What caught my eye was this paragraph regarding the Duluth-Superior Limited:
"The Duluth-Superior Limited was never streamlined and for the most part carried heavyweight equipment, even during the lightweight era. The one exception here was during 1948 when the C&NW received a dozen lightweight sleepers from Pullman-Standard, part of the Northern series."
This suggests to me that the C&NW mixed heavyweight and lightweight equipment in the same train.
Thanks for the replies so far. Each one is interesting and informative. Much appreciated.
John-NYBW I found this website with lots of information about C&NW passenger trains: C&NW's "Duluth-Superior Limited" (Train): Timetable, Schedule (american-rails.com) What caught my eye was this paragraph regarding the Duluth-Superior Limited: "The Duluth-Superior Limited was never streamlined and for the most part carried heavyweight equipment, even during the lightweight era. The one exception here was during 1948 when the C&NW received a dozen lightweight sleepers from Pullman-Standard, part of the Northern series." This suggests to me that the C&NW mixed heavyweight and lightweight equipment in the same train.
richhotrain Rich
Glad to help. Enjoy.