Con-Cor B&O Passenger Cars

[freeway3]

Is anyone familiar with these models? Made in both 80' & 72' versions, I believe. From the pics I've seen:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/223-19603

The colors seem like 2-tone blue, rather than the blue / grey I'm used to seeing. (I don't have any of these, just going by the pic above & others.)

Are the colors of these cars correct, and if so, to be pulled by what?

Thanks!

Ed

[Anonymous]

If you're referring to the HO cars, I have one in NKP livery (bought it as it was cheap at my LHS and looked interesting). Had a bit of entertainment fitting Kadees to it - eventually found I needed their #505 conversion kit and a pair of #22 couplers to get the right height. It's ok now - lacking interior details and paint, but I plan to fix that. Also had to repair the roof moulding as it had a chunk missing when I bought it - used a little filler and a repaint to rectify this. Having said that they're pretty good for the money, and I'd buy another one or more if I found some matching cars, though considering the effort I'm more inclined towards the Walthers scale-length cars as my layout's end to end and has no sharp curves.

[brokemoto]

If the colours are not one-hundred-per-cent correct, they are very close to it, certainly as I remember them (at least the ones that were still painted that way when I rode the B&O). When the C-C first issued these in the late 1960s (these are N scale cars), the color scheme was more like that Blue and Grey that you may have seen on other models. I do not remember any B&O passenger cars painted like the initial scheme offered on the C-C cars

Arnold still offers the RR HWs painted in the colour scheme of which you may be thinking. I do not remember any B&O passenger cars painted in that colour scheme.

C-C offers the HWs in the same colour scheme as the photograph in the link.
I do remember B&O cars in that colour scheme.

Kato also offered smooth side B&O cars in the same scheme as the photograph in the link. Those cars are not in current production in B&O, but again, you might find some at shows or in a LHS as NOS.

If you want the B&O smooth sides in the older C-C colour scheme, you will have to hit the train shows.

As for what pulled them, I am assuming that you are interested in N scale, as the photograph is of an N scale car. For the B&O, it would mostly be passenger cab diesels.

C-C, LL and Kato offered E-8s. LL offered two different kinds, a plastic frame and split-metal frame. The plastic frame came in A units only. The other two, as well as the LL metal-frame, had B units available. The only one in refcent production is the LL metal frame, but the others are not dificult to find at shows.

LL offered E-7s and E-6s in B&O. The E-6s came in an A-B set, the E-7s are A units only (the B&O had no E-7Bs). They are plastic frame and not in current production, but are not difficult to find at shows.

The Kato offered passenger F-3s in B&O.

Atlas offered torpedo boat GP-9s in N scale, in 'as delivered' colours. While these locomotives eventually did pull smoothsides on the B&O, on a regular basis, it was later in their careers after the passenger scheme was removed from the torpedo boats.

Steam did pull these things, on occasion.

RR offers USRA heavy pacifics painted black in B&O as well as a Blue scheme. The latter is easier to find. While the B&O did not have originals of the USRA heavy pacific (only the Erie had those), they did have two classesof copies (although one, class P-6 had Vanderbilt tenders. There was also a class of pacifics rebuilt into USRA heavy look-alikes.

RR offered a USRA light pacific in a blue color scheme. Atlas offered a USRA light pacific (RR maufacture) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. If the B&O ever had a USRA light pacifc painted in that blue scheme, I have never seen a photograph of it. The B&O had thirty USRA light pacifics, Twenty Baldwin-built, ten ALCo-built, class P-5. They rarely pulled smoothsides, even late intheir lives; they lasted almost until the end of steam , running mostly in Ohio, but also on the BR&P toward the end.

Model Power also offers a USRA light pacific in B&O. They offer it with both the Vanderbilt and USRA Standard tender. While some USRA light mikados on the B&O did acquire Vanderbilts late in life, I have never seen a photograph of a P-5 with a Vanderbilt. ALso, MP has yet to get a correct number on any of their offerings of this one in B&O (there are three different numbers available on the B&O offering).

The prototypes on the C-C smoothsides are GN. They are not exact replicas of B&O cars, but the B&O did have some cars like some of them. Same for the Kato (the smothside RPO is the one htat stands out, the B&O only had one smoothside RPO, it may have been a re-build from a HW). Same for the HWs.

I may have omitted or forgotten about something, I usually do.

[freeway3]

Actually, it is HO I'm interested in, but the wealth of info supplied is a great help. Thanks!
Ed