PRR P70 roof details

[emdgp92]

I'm looking for photos of the details on PRR P70 roofs. I'm almost done with the ECW kit and just need a few more details to finish it off. My question is, what style of vents did these cars have? Most, if not all, P70s had round roofs in their later years. I know that I have to replace the ECW roof, as the Penn Central cars (at least from the photos I have) had round roofs rather than the clerestory type included in the ECW kit. The kit also contains several styles of roof vents. Which ones are correct? Thanks in advance!

[ndbprr]

Bachman cars have round roof vents. Air conditioned cars didn't have any in later years.

[dknelson]

This is not easy to answer since it is possible that no passenger car was more modified, rebuilt, and altered than the classic Pennsy P70
A photo in Wayner Publication's "The Cars of the Pennsylvania Railroad" p 16 shows a P70 rebuilt with a rounded roof, number 1734 (ex-3342) with several windows blocked out to be a Jersey Shore Commuters Club Car. The vent at the close end is circular shaped, perhaps a Globe and seems to be squarely in the center line of the roof, inset perhaps 10 feet from the end of the car. There seems to be an identical vent at the far end.
Another rebuilt P70 is shown page 9, number 1735, with 2-and-1 seating, rounded windows -- but no vents visible in the low angle photo.
They also show a standard clerestory roof P70 1709 which is described as rennovated postwar - and again the round vents, but clearly one is closer to the end of the car than the other. This might suggest that you should not assume that the old roof did not last into your era.
There are many photos and plans of P70s in the NJ International Book "Pennsylvania Railroad Heavyweight Passenger Equipment Plan and Photo Book" (1984).
The P70 as built had globe vents along the whole length of the roof - the plan shows 10.
The P70FAR rebuild (3200-3229, 3936-3984) plan shows just one vent right over the outer wheel of the truck.
P70FBR has both rounded and clerestory roof so evidently the roof alone would not create a different class. Plan shows two vents, again one closer to the end than the other. 1600-1765.
I hope this helps. These books are highly recommended but when I see them at swap meets they now seem to go for fancy prices.
Dave Nelson

[emdgp92]

Thanks for the info. I'll have to see what P70 version I want to do...as the ECW kit seems to be rather "generic."

[dknelson]

I have to think that the PRR historical society has probably published a ton of stuff on P70 variants over the years.
I think the ECW kit is the same tooling as the old Alco kit which I recently tried to sell -- unsuccessfully -- at a swap meet for $3. It is not exactly a craftsman kit since all the parts are cast to size but it has enough parts to look daunting to today's generation of young modelers. Of course I am also trying to sell Pennsy prototype stuff in Milwaukee WI where there are not many Pennsy modelers. If it was a Milwaukee Road kit it would have sold in a heartbeat! Good luck with your P70.
Dave Nelson

[emdgp92]

I have both the Alco kit and a pair of ECW P70s. They're nearly identical. The only difference between them (at least that I can see) is that the Alco one comes in a blue box and ECW's boxes are red :p