I've recently become enamored of a Bachmann Spectrum Richmond Modern 4-4-0 given to me as a gift. Can anyone recommend any passenger or freight cars that would be appropriate for it, preferably short and readily available from Walthers or Amazon? If it makes a difference, it's letter for Main Central, although I'm not fussy about the line and was thinking of renaming it. Thanks. Aurelio
Aurelio - Welcome to Trainboard. A modernized 4-4-0. I'm not certain when the last 4-4-0 ran in the U.S. but there were still a number of 4-6-0s and 2-8-0s still running on shortlines until the 1950s. So a 4-4-0 running until then is not that much of a stretch. That would mean that you could run almost any 40 ft. car you wanted to - steel or wood. For passenger stock would recommend the shortest steel combine (combination baggage passenger car) that you could find. The "built" (abbreviated on the car side as "Blt.") date" will be the most important, for a 4-4-0 it should not be later than 1950-ish, although 1940s or so would probably be more appropriate.
Thanks, Dave. I was under the impression that these were considered obsolete by 1905, and that only a few limped along until the 1950s, primarily in industry. I was not aware of those Blt. dates though. I'll look for those to find appropriate cars.
While the last of the American 4-4-0s (standard gauge) were probably built before 1900, many continued in service into the 1940s in switcher duty and secondary routes. Obsolete? Yes. Still of service? Yes! I doubt if any saw passenger service past WWI though. I've been google searching but haven't found any doing that.
Just happened to be looking at an MKT book last evening that had modernized 4-4-0's running lots of branch line passenger trains. most all of them were 2-3 regular length cars ... Usually baggage or combine followed by one or two chair cars. latest photo was summer 1948 - don't know how long they really lasted.
AFAIK, the final two 4-4-0's built in the U.S. were built for passenger service on the Chicago & Illinois Midland in 1928. I do not know when that service ended.
Interesting. They were retired between 1950 and 1953. Guide to North American Steam says that 3 were built but as passenger service died out, the C&IM only needed 2, 1 pulling the train and one spare, so one was scrapped early.
In the case of the Maine Central the last of their 4-4-0's were removed from service sometime in the 1930's. Long before even that they were not considered worthy of hauling any freights and had been relagated to only light passenger service (2-3) cars. Considering that, the most suitable cars for such a locomotive to be utilizing would be something like Con-Cors recent 60-footers. NYW&B
