Got a call from the LHS, the second run is in. Just wondering if anyone had received theirs yet. I can't get to the LHS for a few weeks.
I got a set in the first run...well worth the wait. If only they would re-run the baggage/mail cars in injection molded. How about The Coast Mail?
Ah..........Ol' Sad Sam............. When I was still with NVNT, I had what the other members called the 'Ugly Mail Train', which was the best that I could do to replicate Sad Sam. It was an A-B set of Daylight PAs and various C-C/RR HW and LW equipment as well as various express box and refirgerator cars. Sad Sam often had a colorful and varied consist, and there was always the coach or two or coach and combine at the end. Another interesting SP train is the Del Monte as it operated between SF and SJO, three or four aluminum cars and some Harriman subs and bi-Levels, (after 1955 on the last, mind you). In earlier days, one of the aluminum cars would have been a baggage for express and storage mail.
"three or four aluminum cars" What aluminum cars??? All Espee cars, as far as I have been able to glean from various sources were built with Cor-Ten steel under the stainless steel corrugation. This was why so many of the earlier cars had the corrugation removed, some of which received more steel while others received stainless steel panels. Now UP on the other hand had a number of cars that were a mix of aluminum and steel...
It was best in the steam days drawing an MT-class 4-8-2 for power The commute cars were dropped at San Jose. The Del Monte ran as part of the commute parade in the afternoon. The consist was down to one or two cars into Monterey towards the end. I actually got to ride the Del Monte in the later 50s and it was a fun ride. But, man, the train terminated by Fisherman's Wharf and it was a long walk to the Hotel San Carlos!
How about Harriman baggage or combine cars? There was at least one combine that made it into Daylight paint, and a couple of baggage cars as well. (I am trusting my memory here so I recognize that there may be minor inaccuracies in what I remember). The secondary trains were far more interesting, at least to me, than the varnish.
