Freight train same chrono age as blue B&O passenger train

[rwexelblat]

So, I just got the blue B&O passenger N-gauge train set.  What would be a freight set (or individual engine & cars) that would be the same period as the blue set?

[Country Joe]

The set you have would be from the 1800's. The Frontiersman set is the same era, though the Central Pacific ran out west and the B&O was an eastern road. You could always reletter the CP engine and caboose to B&O.

As an alternative, you can run any era trains and use the passenger set as an excursion train. The advantage here is that there is little available in N scale for the 19th century. You can find useable buildings with a little searching, but figures dressed appropriately, and horses and wagons and stage coaches and the like are hard to come by.

Also keep in mind that Bachmann no longer sells old time freight and passenger cars separately, only in sets. You can sometimes find individual cars at train shows, but they are not plentiful.

[brokemoto]

Bachmann sells a red and grey eight wheeler lettered for the B&O in addition to the blue eight wheeler.

The B-mann four wheel caboose is based on a Reading Company prototype, but B-mann does not sell it lettered for the B&O.  Some hobby stores do still have the B-mann nineteenth century freigh cars separately as NOS.  You can also find them at shows.

If you can find one, the Rapido caboose IS based on a B&O prototype.  If it ever came lettered for the B&O, I am not aware of it.

MDC sold and Athearn sells 2-8-0s and 2-6-0s painted and lettered B&O.  These are 1880s locomotives.  They come in paint schemes appropriate to the 1860s, 1870s as well as to the 1880s.  The B-mann eight wheeler is an 1870s locomotive, although you could get away with it on an 1860s pike.  Athearn sells and MDC sold freight cars appropriate to the 1870s/1880s.  Both also have a caboose lettered for the B&O in the  nineteenth century style lettering that B&O used.  It is an eight wheel caboose.  Except for the cupola (too large), it appears to be based on the 1880s NYCS caboose. Some of those were still in revenue service in the 1970s (PC, by then).  Athearn swallowed MDC, a number of years back.  The B&O equipment is currently out of production, but it is still in hobby stores and at shows as well as on FeePay.

Atlas sells its 1879s 2-6-0 lettered for the B&O.  It is really bassed on a Proter-built prototype built for Japan,which is why it looks North American.

If anyone sells nineteenth century B&O decals, I would love to know who it is.