Yeah it's a reach but please bear with me. I'm HO modeling the PC Powhattan secondary in the 73-75 era, I'm trying to get my wife and son a little more involved with the hobby, and I have some vintage passenger cars I'd like to run. The Mrs. likes steam (especially 4-4-0 and sound) so I'm thinking of purchasing some sort of steam engine to pull the passenger cars. But of course mainline steam and PRR passenger service were both gone by the period.
So as a plausible story I'm saying that a group of railfans got ahold of a steam engine in the late 60's and rehabbed it to servicible condition. Then with the formation of Amtrak they got ahold of some ex PRR passenger cars and decided to open a tourist railway to do fan trips etc in the Ohio river valley.
Sounds simple enough and not too far fetched to me. But, I'm a diesel guy and don't know what kind of steam engine might have still been in PRR, NH or NYC possesion in the late 60's? It need not have been servicible, maybe somthing that hadn't made it to the scrapper yet. Would that engine have been capable of pulling 3-5 lightweight passenger cars 25miles one way (tender size)? A 4-4-0 would really be a stretch but a x-6-x would probably fit the bill.
Of course the real kicker is: is a sound equipped model of such a loco even availible in HO? Painted in PRR, NYC or NH?
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
you could buy a Pennsy K4 and run it.
http://www.railroadcity.com/index.php?r=site/k4
seems the Horseshoe curve display K4 was pulled and brought to running order, so your idea would be true.
For fit, I agree wholely with the choice of a K4s, and MTH, BLI, and Bachmann Spectrum had all marketed them in the past five or six years. They can still be found here and there at places like M. B. Klein's ( www.modeltrainstuff.com ), www.trainworld.com , and on auction sites dealing with hobby trains.
However, the fit with the missus....that's a toughie if you want to use a 4-4-0. I have no idea how to go about that puzzle and have it pull a decent excursion train. Maybe brass?
-Crandell
When was 1369 reshopped?
I'd go to Roundhouse, I think they may have a PRR 4-4-0. As for haviung rescued it, pull it out of a museum.
-Morgan
PRR 1223, a 4-4-0, was running in the late 1960s/early1970s. I'm not sure who actually owned the engine at the time, but it ran on the Strasburg RR lettered for PRR and sub-lettered for Strasburg. It was also used on the New York Central for the filming of the late 1960s Hello Dolly movie. It was a pretty good sized 4-4-0 and could easily handle 5 passenger cars. It is now at the RR museum of Pennsylvania. Don't know if any models of it were ever made.
Westside made a brass model of it and there is an article in MR about how to repower it with a tender drive to make it run. I would use a Spectrum 4-4-0 instead. Bachmann sold P70 like coaches. Bowser and MDC made 28-0's and 4-6-0's and they are also available in brass.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Southern's 4501 2-8-2 in green passenger colors should have been active then but not likely on the Pennsy.
December 1972 Trains magazine "Steam News Photos." Clinchfield 4-6-0 #1 was running in North Carolina. It was built by a Pennsy predecessor, the Chicago Columbus & Indianapolis. Not an impossible scenario to imagine it returning to PRR rails.
March 1973 issue. Feature article on the Clinchfield engine (which usually had diesel helpers so it could handle long trains).
Nickle Plate 2-8-4 759 returned to steam excursion service on July 22, 1973. Again not sure it ran on PC or Conrail at any time but the scenario is there for the asking.
Dave Nelson
as far as "other" restored engines, Reading 2124 and 2102, BLI-PCM has that.
Bachmann has a small 4-6-0.
The Clichfield RR faced a similar delima when it restored a 4-6-0 for excusion service, the solution proved to be assigning F-B units for addition power and dynamic brake. During rebuilding, the locomotive was equipped with MU controls.
Dave
For the most part nothing that tourist lines do resemble anything remotely like what the PRR, NYC or PC would have done. The most realistic is Strasburg that ran a D16sb 4-4-0 #1223 that at one time was mainline steam power for passenger as well as an E6s 4-4-2 #7002 that was also mainline power. Not steam but NJT ran the last GG1's. You might also look at the Jersey Cantral Blue Comet offered by AHM (IHC) years ago that was an express to Atlantic City from New York
My fresh out of the mailbox Walthers sale flier includes a nice, DCC-equipped Ma&Pa Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0, on sale now for about 70% of MSRP.
You could say that some died-in-the-wool Ma&Pa fan bought it when the railroad retired it, then spent the next ten or fifteen years gathering up a group of like-minded souls (and PRR time-expired passenger cars) to finally start up the excursion operation you want to model.
I don't know anything about DCC sound, but the model does have a tender of adequate size.
Disclaimer: My only relationship with Walthers is satisfied customer.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
It's unlikely those roads would still have had steam on the premises in the late sixties. By about 1958 NYC and PRR steam engines would either have been sold (normally for scrap) or donated to cities or counties to put in parks and fairgrounds etc. NYC wasn't too concerned with it's history, which explains why it allowed every Hudson it had to be cut up for scrap.
That being said, it's certainly possible a railfan group could have gotten together and purchased a steam engine to use on fantrips, perhaps also buying an abandoned branch line. (The Crab Orchard and Egyptian would be a good example of what you're looking for, although that was actually in the seventies.)
They could have gotten the engine from a scrapyard or bought one on display somewhere. Keep in mind a 4-4-0 might have been retired before WW2, there wouldn't be more than a few in steam even in the early fifties. More likely they would have found one on a small remote railroad that kept steam into 1963-64 or so, like the Duluth and NorthEastern or some of the small southern railways and logging roads...or one that had been used on a lightly-railed branchline of a larger railroad.
Maybe a Proto USRA 0-6-0, or a Spectrum 2-8-0 or 4-6-0, something along those lines??
wjstixwhich explains why it allowed every Hudson it had to be cut up for scrap.
It is concievable that an engine was sold for scrap, and sat in the scrapyard long enough for a volunteer group to interven before the torch did
It's your railroad. Do what you want! As for the story behind it, have some fun and make something up. It was pullrd from a park display, found in the back of a scrap yard. It sat for years neglected on the back track of a rail yard. Maybe your railroad never retired the last steam loco and uses it for fan trips like the UP does.
The spectrum 4-4-0 would be a good choice, also their 4-6-0 or 2-8-0.
There is only one choice for your not so fictitious railroad. The K4 Pacific as many others have mentioned. Actually ran on the Jersey Coast line aka the Railroad Siberia as it was know by many here in New Jersey. It was where The once great Pennsylvania Railroad sent many of it's great locomotives to make their valiant final farewell before heading to the scrapper torch. K4's ran up until the late 1950's some claim even as late as 1962 63 there were a few left but can't say for sure. But I can attest to seeing with my own eyes GG1's and U34CH Bluebird's on that very line which is only a few miles from where I live.
Good Heart Video's has an excellent video on the Jersey Coat line showing all of the great ones making their last runs In my humble opinion a K4 Pacific is the only choice, but I'm a little prejudiced
I guess it would be fair to say I'm more protolancing than prototyping so some far fetched ideas won't hurt. I'm trying to avoid the impossible. That's why I'm shying away from the 4-4-0 since they would have been long gone by then although a larger/newer loco would be more likely to exist. Sounds like I'm going to be looking for a K4.
An ex-Frisco (ex-ex PRR) Russian Decapod. Five of them were sold to Eagle-Pichler (Oklahoma lead mining company) in 1950; all were preserved. 1630 went to the Illinois Railway Museum and was restored to service ca 1973; the others were preserved at different museums. The Bachmann Spectrum Russian Decapod is an accutate model of the Alco engines that were sold to Eagle-Pichler. It's capable of pulling a 5 car passenger consist.
As for cars, anything that Amtrak didn't want would do. Amtrak rejects were common in 1972. The "large" groups of cars included the GM&O heavyweights, the entire C&NW intercity fleet (HEP and Waukesha motors, therefore incompatible with everything else), and the entire Milwaukee Road fleet (carbon steel). Some P70s would have been available if they were released from Noretheast Corridor service.
ruderunnerI guess it would be fair to say I'm more protolancing than prototyping so some far fetched ideas won't hurt. I'm trying to avoid the impossible. That's why I'm shying away from the 4-4-0 since they would have been long gone by then although a larger/newer loco would be more likely to exist. Sounds like I'm going to be looking for a K4.
Wilmington & Western put former Mississippi Central 4-4-0 #98 into service in 1972 or 1973. AFAIK it is still used today. It was used offline to run at least one fantrip on the Octoraro RR in PA in the late 1970s or early 1980s, running over the B&O to reach the Octoraro. More recently, it has been run to a Transportation Display at the Wilmington Amtrak Station, running over CSX to reach Amtrak. 98 can handle 4 or 5 steel cars on the W&W's grades. Of course, there's nothing wrong with a K4.
The W&W website www.wwrr.com has some info on #98.
Whoa, the title made it sound like you wanted to take a time machine back to 1973 and try to find steam engines in a hobby shop! Maybe I've been watching too much sci fi.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Saw a DVR'd ep of Trains and LOcomotives today. Anyone remember Susky 142? They ordered a brand new American style 2-8-2 from China in the 80s (admittedly 10 years late for ya, but the idea's sound) and used it for excursions.
Perhaps modeling one of the "Tourist" lines will fill the bill, especially as it's for occaisional use...
I've visited the Strasburg, personally. Here's a list of some in your area of interest: