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 Posted - June 14 2009 : 5:34:18 PM
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A while back I picked up a few HO 'Blue Comet' CNJ passenger cars that were advertised as being Athearn kits that had been assembled.
I recently had them out of the box & noticed that 3 of the 4 had the roof line of the left hand coach (named 'Barnard') in the picture below, & 1 had the roof line on the right, (named 'Holmes').
In other respects, except for the different carriage shapes for the different functions, (baggage etc), the cars seem identical.
Do I have 1 car from the 1920's & the other 3 are from ?? era.
Thanks
Tanked
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Posted - June 14 2009 : 7:31:42 PM
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I'm not sure why Athearn did this, but for some reason they made two versions of the coach...one with the clerestory roof, and the other with a round roof. I have a full CN set (seven cars) and only the one coach has the roundroof. The box for the clerestory roof car is specifically labeled as "heavyweight". My guess is that the clerestory cars are supposed to be from the 20's-30's and the roundroof is supposed to be a lightweight (and somewhat streamlined) car from the 40's.
That's my guess...I don't know much about passenger cars from before the 50's, so if anyone would like to correct my info please go right ahead
-cheez
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Posted - June 14 2009 : 11:00:01 PM
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| The rounded roofs represent heavy weight cars that have had air conditioning installed. Those daze they simply ran the duct work to either side of the clerestory roof, then sheathed it in. On other models you'll see where it stops short of the full length, like on combines and RPOs, areas that normally aren't conditioned.
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Posted - June 15 2009 : 10:15:03 AM
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quote:The rounded roofs represent heavy weight cars that have had air conditioning installed. Those daze they simply ran the duct work to either side of the clerestory roof, then sheathed it in. On other models you'll see where it stops short of the full length, like on combines and RPOs, areas that normally aren't conditioned.
Originally posted by shaygetz-June 14 2009: 11:00:01 PM
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I am still slightly confused- would at some point in time, there have been CNJ consists with both the Celestory & smoothed roof cars??
Tanked
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Posted - June 15 2009 : 7:04:17 PM
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quote:
I am still slightly confused- would at some point in time, there have been CNJ consists with both the Celestory & smoothed roof cars??
Tanked
Originally posted by TankedEngine-June 15 2009: 10:15:03 AM
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Yes, in the early days when they were transitioning to air conditioned cars, you would have seen both run together.
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Posted - June 15 2009 : 10:46:15 PM
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quote:quote:
I am still slightly confused- would at some point in time, there have been CNJ consists with both the Celestory & smoothed roof cars??
Tanked
Originally posted by TankedEngine-June 15 2009: 10:15:03 AM
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Yes, in the early days when they were transitioning to air conditioned cars, you would have seen both run together.
Originally posted by shaygetz-June 15 2009: 7:04:17 PM
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Ok, thanks.
I was at SteamTown in Scranton, PA recently & the short up the line & back ride was in a clerestory roofed carriage & I was amused by the sign way up at one end of the carriage that said 'No Spitting'.
Tanked
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Posted - October 22 2009 : 06:26:52 AM
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The Blue Comet was the premier 'name train' of the Central Railroad of New Jersey in the 1920s. The cars all had clerestory roofs. The paint scheme used was special to the Blue Comet, all CNJ cars were not painted that way. Athearn did not offer their cars in the CNJ paint scheme; what you have is a set of cars painted by some company like Bev-Bel. I have a set of bev-Bel CNJ cars but they are in the pullman green scheme; I have never seen an Athearn set in the Blue Comet scheme. Rivarossi did offer a Blue Comet set.
The Blue Comet consisted of a baggage car, baggage-coach combine; several coaches; a dining car and a coach-observation. There were no sleeping cars in the train. The CNJ operated 2 trips each way, each day between Jersey City and Atlantic City, with extra trips in the summer.
While it is true that some clerestory roof cars had air conditioning ducts that rounded sll or parts of the roof, the Athearn round roof cars are models of cars that had round roofs, not air conditioning. The CNJ had both clerestory and round roof coaches; the Athearn coaches are somewhat close to CNJ cars, the rest of Athearn's cars are not.. The Bethlehem Car Works makes kits for CNJ passenger cars. If I were to model CNJ I would just use the Athearn cars if I could still get them.
Bill
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