HI, and plans for sleepers with staggered windows

[dcfixer]

Hi all,
A little background: My son and I have been working on an HO road and rail layout ( slot cars and trains combined) for about 8 years now. The tracks cross each other, which has produced some casualties (mostly in slot car bodies), but a lot of fun! I have a 7 car UP streamliner, powered with an F3 A/B; mostly corragated side (late 30s) cars and one smooth side hybrid sleeper (50s?).
Can anyone help me locate floor/elevation plans/diagrams for those late 40s-50s sleepers with the staggered windows and alternating floors for the roomettes? I'm modeleing interiors and would sure like to see how those rooms were layed out. Some of the key words I have been using in the hunt are, but not limited to, Pullman plan 4124A, Budd plan 9540, the Budd 24-8 slumbercoach, 16-10 slumbercoach, sleepercoach - anything with the staggered roomette windows and floors. I'm interested in intertior photos, also. I'm not against spending money on the plans and pics, but I can't rationalize spending 20-50$ on a book, not knowing if the plans and elevations that I'm interested in are even in the book.
I'm excited about this forum, and look forward to chatting with you.

Thanks,
DC

[TomDiehl]

Run a search on the Index of Magazines (link at the top of this page) for sleeper and see if any of these are what you're looking for. There's 144 entries when I did it. Look for the word "drawing" on the bottom line of the entry. Then ask on the list if anyone has a copy of the specific magazine and issue you're looking for.

[passengerfan]

Actually the staggered windows were Duplex Roomettes not standard roomettes as roomette windows were all on the same level as bedrooms Etc.

Great Northern , Northern Pacific and Chicago Great Western come immediatly to mind. Might contact their historical societies.

[passengerfan]

Actually the staggered windows were Duplex Roomettes not standard roomettes as roomette windows were all on the same level as bedrooms Etc.

Great Northern , Northern Pacific and Chicago Great Western come immediatly to mind. Might contact their historical societies.

[BR60103]

These cars are still in use in Canada by VIA rail. They are named in the Chateau series. There may be something on the VIA website.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

PRR also had duplex room cars with the staggered windows. Doubtful if any ran on CGW since they had only five lightweight cars on their roster, 3 baggage cars purchased new and 2 coaches from MILW.

[dcfixer]

I want to thank you all for the input. I have found out a lot more. The specific plans I'm still looking for are for the Pullman 8dup-4sec-4br, plan 4124A. I'm still not sucessful in finding these plans. I'm going to try contacting CN/VIA, since this sleeper was the E series.

Again, thanks so much.

DC

[passengerfan]

Absolutely correct about none on the CGW meant to type Chicago & North Western.

[Philcal]

DC, dumb as this might sound, run your search under the word "slumbercoach". Hopefully, this will produce the desired info for you. In the past, I've had pretty good luck with our English butler friend, "Ask Jeeves". Might be worth a shot.

[emdgp92]

The PRR had sleepers with staggered windows. The HO scale IHC/Rivarossi car is correct for the prewar version. Most of these cars were gone by 1966, but a few found their way into work trains. However, if you want a later PRR/Penn Central PS124 sleeper (also with the 12 staggered windows), you'll have to do some kitbashing.

The PC RR Historical Society sells a reprint of the 1968 PC Passenger Car directory. It has drawings and other information of most classes of passenger cars. PC and NYC (no New Haven though) cars are included. It's $22 including shipping. More information can be found over here: http://pcrrhs.org/store.html .

I hope this info helps.

[dcfixer]

Thanks for the info. I did fine PRR, along with Amtrak, to be pretty good sources of those staggered windowed cars - also, CN/VIA for the 8-4-4, but I found that there are more than 1 style of room or roomette associated with those windows/floors. The Budd 24-8 (plan 9540, late 50s) had single rooms with the staggered and alternating floors, and the diagrams show a seperate door for each one; not a duplex there. I guess Budd also rebuilt some of the 22 roomette sleepers into 16-10 "sleepercoaches", and there was 16 single rooms with staggered windows.

No info is dumb to me, considering how hard it's been to find these diagrams; still can't find the 8-4-4. I even tried the model makers. I'm now writing historical societies and SIGs. I'm about ready to give up and just use a dup roomette from one plan I have, a section from another and a bedroom from another. Is that a type of kitbashing?

Thanks everyone.

[emdgp92]

There are some PRR sleeper diagrams over here: http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?sel=sle&sz=sm&fr=

I kitbashed my PS124 sleeper from a pair of Rivarossi passenger cars. The sleeper gave up its staggered 'room' windows and 'corridor' side windows as well. Because of the way Rivarossi molded the cars, the sleeper car walls had to be removed from the floor. After that, it was pretty easy to splice in the correct windows from an observation car. My 'rebuilt' sides were then attached to a Train Station Products core kit. I suppose I could have saved the Rivarossi sleeper floor, but it would have been more trouble than i t was worth.

BTW, MR recently ran an article about using brass car sides with core kits. I haven't tried that yet, but judging by the results, the cars look pretty nice.

Here's another site for you: http://www.hebners.net/amtrak/amtSLEEP.html. There are some Slumbercoach (24-8) photos, as well as some 10-6 sleepers as well. Walthers is having a sale on both types of these cars if you're interested.

[RedGrey62]

Here is a link to Rapido trains for their new HO scale cars including a duplex sleeper. I do not know if this is even close to the plan you are refering. Good Luck

http://www.rapidotrains.com/scl03.html

Rick

[dcfixer]

Thanks.
I went to Rapido and checked out their cars. They look like a nice intermediate priced car. I noticed in the interior photo that they had on the dup sleeper that the floor levels of the dup roomettes were all on the bottom. From plans and photos of duplex roomettes I've gathered, the floor height alternated and there was a step for the uppers. I'm still trying to figure out why and how the floors were staggered. Also, a plan I got from RMC (supposedly a 4sec-7dup-1cmpt, but room count on the diagram says 8dup-4sec-4br) shows a toilet between the end bedroom and the first upper duplex roomette. The window layout on both sides of this diagram from RMC is exactly the same as the Rapido model. The hunt for facts continues.

[passengerfan]

The specific plan you are looking for is in Pullman Standard Library Vol 15. I believe their are still copies of this out there. The 15 volume set covers just the P/S built streamlined cars for every U.S. and Canadian Road built. They also have a seven volume set that covers all of the Budd and American Car & Foundry Streamlined cars built.. Each railroads passenger cars are covered with plans for exterior and interiors and photos of the cars taken at the different factories in most caes with each side shown as well as other details. Really an excellent series of books will answer all of your questions on streamlined passenger cars.