Bachmann 4-4-0 Jupiter Coaches

[Sunshine Express]

I have been a happy owner of a couple of these fine  Bachmann Jupiter 4-4-0  models,and had painted some Overton 34ft.Coaches to resemble Central Pacific. All have run well for ages,and are noticed at my train club frequently. However I would like to know if it would look out of reality if I bought a couple of 47 ft.Coaches available now with Central Pacific paintwork and run them behind the Jupiter. I do not expect it to pull large consists,but would like to buy these 47ft.new cars if the forum thought they would not look out of place. I am not a rivet counter,but try to get a fair similarity to prototype where possible. I have the original Bachmann freight cars bought with a Jupiter,and I had in mind a small mixed train.What do you think about this ? thanks Owen

[Doneldon]

Sunny-

It's your railroad so you, and only you, get to decide how to run it. I understand your interest in having things more-or-less prototypical -- I share that interest -- but I wouldn't hesitate to bend time and space a little to run something which really pleased me. That's part of the fun of the hobby. And, sometimes it's fun to send a rivet counter into apoplexy by running something which is totally out of form.

That said, I don't think you would be at all anachronistic in pulling some 47-foot coaches with the Jupiter. Railroads have always kept their equipment around for a long time. Believe me; I've been on trains which were chiselled out during the stone age and were only retired when all of the dino-power died.

By the time the 4-4-0 became the de facto standard locomotive, and certainly by the 1850s, rolling stock was getting bigger, including passenger equipment. The Civil War pushed railroad development very hard and the transcontinental railroad (the enabling legislation for which was signed by Abraham Lincoln during the war) amped up the demand for newer, bigger, faster trains even more. Many 4-4-0s were around until well into the 20^th Century, and there are photos of them pulling even 60-foot cars with enclosed vestibules. I dare say that Americans were pulling passenger cars of almost any length (except the 80-plus-footers) on short lines and in commuter service at least into the 1920s. And, while I don't know this for a fact, I'll bet some were still working right up to World War II.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    -- D

[J3a-614]

I think you'll be fine; cars that long were around in the late 1860s, and even longer cars would be built in the future, and within the lifetimes of the engines that were at Promentory.  In fact, both engines survived into the 20th century, though no longer in front-line service by that time:

http://www.nps.gov/gosp/historyculture/upload/jupiter%202.pdf

Doneldon commented about 4-4-0s being in service for a long time.  They would be rare, but some were still running and pulling trains almost to the end of the 1950s, though in a modernized form after many rebuildings and other changes.  Perhaps the most famous of these would be three light engines on the Canadian Pacific that were still around that late, because of flimsy bridges that wouldn't take even diesel switchers:

http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/CP29.JPG

http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/CP136.JPG

http://www.yesteryeardepot.com/CP144A.JPG

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/Locopicture.aspx?id=124676

[ebtnut]

Ma and Pa No. 6, the Bachmann Richmond modern American, ran until the end of 1951. 

[jward]

does your jupiter & coaches have knuckle couplers? if so it is already an anachronism, as the knuckle coupler hadn't yet been invented when the jupiter appeared at the golden spike ceremony completing the transcontinental railroad. but working HO link and pin couplers don't exist. sometimes you have to fudge things a bit.

[richg]

UP IHC #119 with the UP Photographer car. To my knowledge, 119 never ran with this car. I was modeling about 1900 with the restored 119 and car.



Rich

[richg]

Tomar Industries now owns Alexander Scale Models which has HO scale link and pin couplers. I bought some from some years ago but they are a challenge to use. Plus the couplers are over size.

Rich

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

UP IHC #119 with the UP Photographer car. To my knowledge, 119 never ran with this car. I was modeling about 1900 with the restored 119 and car.



Rich

I just managed to acquire one of these locomotives for my rolling stock. A trouble with the IHC engine, of course, is that the original U.P. #119 had an extended smoke box, like the Bachmann model.

Does anybody happen to know what #119 used for fuel in 1869? I was under the impression that a stack such as #119 had indicated a coal-burner, but all the model manufacturers put wood on the tender of their #119. 

[J3a-614]

The 119 was a coal-burner; the "wood" load is a compromise to allow enough space to cover a motor hidden in a rather small tender, and of course, it also has the benefit of not requiring more mold-making for a different part.

Such are the compromises for what can sometimes be decent model trains at almost toy-train prices.

[richg]

Info below from a Google search. Look on page 17.

http://cprr.org/Museum/Books/I_ACCEPT_the_User_Agreement/Jupiter-119_Appleman_NPS.pdf

UP 119 burned bituminous coal.

Rich

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Thanks, guys! Great info.

I guess one of these days I'll just paint that "wood load" black and sprinkle coal over it. 

Might be interesting, too, to see if I can cut the smoke box off a scrap IHC engine I have laying around and use it to "extend" the smoke box of my #119.

But then I already have far more projects backed up than I can get to.