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BY JOE LOFLAND AND MARTY OBED |
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EL Heavy Coach 62 Seat EL Heavy Coach 60 Seat Paint and Decal Info 72 Seat Stillwell Steel Lightweight |
Coaches. They are the common denominator of any railroad's fleet of passenger rolling stock. We've looked at Erie Lackawanna's stable of head-end cars; to come are sumptuous lounge and observation cars, appetite-pleasing diners/ diner-lounges and luxurious sleeping cars. But in this section we look at EL's roster of work-a-day coaches, from early heavyweights to the lightweights that closed EL's years as an intercity passenger carrier. As with all EL passenger cars, the coach fleet reflects the pre-merger roads of EL: Delaware, Lackawanna & Western and Erie Railroad. |
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Page 16 During the EL period there were four basic groups of heavyweight intercity (or "thru-line," as EL equipment diagram books called them). The first was a series of fifteen 62 seat cars (series 246-260) that were 75 feet 1½ inches over buffers, had four-wheel trucks and featured reclining seats. These coaches originated from Pullman in 1926 (lot 4935, series 110-124, 76 seats), were subsequently renumbered in the 200 series and had their seating changed so that capacities ranged from 54 to 80 passengers.
All the cars in the series were rebuilt by American Car & Foundry in 1945, emerging with 62 seats (18 of which were in the smoking section); all had small, sealed windows. Judging from company rosters and some photo documentation. DL&W 246-252 had modernized (i.e., smooth, high-profile) roofs, while 253-260 kept their original monitor roofs. A 1954 DL&W roster shows Nos. 246-252 as having mechanical air conditioning, and cars 253-260 electro-mechanical. In 1954, all fifteen cars are shown as having been painted maroon-and-gray. After the 1960 Erie-DL&W merger, the cars were quickly withdrawn from intercity service. white-lined and, by 1965-1966, only one car, renumbered No.1149, remained on the roster. E-L 1149 (hyphen included in lettering) was used as the Mountain Lakes commuter subscription car and was white-lined on April 21, 1967. At least one example, the former DL&W 246, operated for a time on the now-defunct Everett Railroad, an excursion line in Pennsylvania, and was later sold to the Williams Grove (Pa.) Steam Engine Association. The second group of heavyweights came from the Erie Railroad seven 60-seat coaches, Nos. 1100-1106, of which only one (1105) was repainted maroon-and-gray and relettered EL. This car, in its EL livery, saw service on some of the last runs of trains 21 - 22, the Hoboken- Binghamton day local, and was later used as a commuter subscription car on train 1009 (Hoboken-Netcong, N.J.). |
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The 1100-1106-series cars were delivered new to Erie by Pullman in 1930 and 1931 and were originally numbered 2205-2211. Throughout their tenure they kept their monitor roofs, small windows and six wheel trucks, although they underwent some modernization, including air-conditioning, sealed windows and more-comfortable seating. At least one example of this series survives on static display at the Hitching Post restaurant in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Thirty-five ex-Erie modernized coaches made up the largest category of intercity heavyweight coaches. These former monitor-roof cars (ex-2200 series) were modernized in 1946, 1947 and 1952 at Erie's Susquehanna (Pa.) shops, emerging with high-profile streamlined roofs and double-wide thermo pane windows. Like the 1100-1106 cars, they rode on six-wheel straight-equalized trucks. Their seating capacities varied substantially, with the 48- and 52-seat cars being equipped with restroom lounges. |
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Page 18 Company rosters show that fourteen of the above cars were eventually re-painted maroon-and-gray and relettered EL. Five were sold or white-lined in 1967, and the remaining coaches were sold or white-lined in October 1969 or February 1970. Today, examples of these cars may be found on the Cuyahoga Valley Line, an excursion line near Cleveland, Ohio, operated by the Midwest Railway Historical Foundation; at the Steamtown Foundation in Scranton, Pa.; and on static display at The Station restaurant in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. |
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| Page19 Page 21 Fifteen 72-seat Stillwell coaches (2650-2664), of which only one (2654) was painted maroon-and-gray. make up the forth category. These cars, built by ACF at Berwick, Pa., in 1934, were long-distance versions of the original Louis Stillwell-designed commuter cars. They featured the distinctive Stillwell roof style (a pseudo-monitor/ hump profile) now so closely identified with the Erie.
Some three years after intercity service ended in 1970, these Stillwells were renumbered 2700-2714 and re-painted Erie Lackawanna. Still, they kept their Erie green-and-gray livery and were used until New Jersey Department of Transportation's own equipment began operating on Hoboken-Port Jervis (N.Y.) trains. Eleven of the series were eventually sold to the Texas State Railroad. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| The model you see of the 1100-series ex-Erie heavyweight coach is a Pennsylvania P70 by Eastern Car Works. The Walthers single-window coach is more accurate, but it is no longer produced and thus may be difficult to to-date. so the Eastern model seems to be the closest. To acquire the Erie appearance, remove the vertical beltrails below the windows except for the center one and the second one in from each end. Though the photos don't show this change, remove the rivets on the letterboard to make it completely flat. The openings for the windows in the doors should have rounded corners. Air-conditioning ducts need to be added to the roof. as well as grabirons and a hatch. The trucks we used are Capeline (formerly Red Ball) Commonwealth fully equalized six-wheel trucks. |
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Page 22 Modeling the 1000-series cars is an easy job. Nickel Plate Products manufactured these cars in brass. Previously produced brass models for NYC coaches will also work. You should change the trucks to Capeline six wheel fully equalized versions To model the Stillwell intercity cars in HO you have two choices: (1) the brass cars produced several years ago by North West Shortline, or (2) the cars currently produced by Funaro & Camerlengo. There are several changes you can make to the cars. There were intercity coaches with doors in the vestibules and diaphragms. Air-conditioning and other exhaust systems can be added to the roofs, but check photos for accurate location and other details. |
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The 24 LIGHTWEIGHT COACHES owned by EL were all ex-DL&W cars which were delivered to that pre-merger partner in 1949. A twenty-fifth car, DL&W 322. was reportedly burned and retired prior to the merger, but the car number was still listed in the March 1964 issue of THE OFFICIAL REGISTER OF PASSENGER TRAIN EQUIPMENT as being in revenue service.
These 62-seat coaches included Nos. 301- 315, built by American Car & Foundry, and Nos. 316-325 delivered by Pullman-Standard. The truck types (four-wheel) varied from one manufacturer to the other, and the ACF cars had a 4-inch metal strip running lengthwise along the car side about 1 3/4 inches below the windows, but otherwise the cars were quite similar. In addition to the disposition list included in Don Dorflinger's book, THE LADY AND THE TRAIN (reprinted in 1979 by Hill Press, Bernardsville, NJ 07924), the reader should also refer to Edward B. Frye's article "The Phoebe Snow Coach." in the January-February 1983 issue of PROTOTYPE MODELER. |
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| The Rivarossi lightweight coach distributed by International Hobby Corporation is the basis for modeling the lightweight cars. You will need an extra coach for "cannibalization" --in this case, for extra windows. Add one window to each end of each car by cutting an opening and splicing the extra window into each side. Fill and sand the seam and you will have a lightweight EL coach. To represent the beltrail of the ACF- built cars, apply Evergreen brand strip styrene part 8102 (an HO scale 1 x 2). Again check Edward Frye's article for details; that feature also provides an alternative method of adding the double windows.) You will be able to do several coaches because you have that scrap coach to use for the extra windows In the next installment (Part III) we will look at diners diner-lounges, buffet-parlor, cars and Observation-lounges. |
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