Hello, I have asked the C&OHS several questions without response, so I will ask it here. What were the road numbers for the Hudsons that were painted ORANGE? Also, would the streamiline passenger car sets have a matching numberboard, rather than yellow, or were all of them yellow? I know the locos were not used on the primary passenger trains, because the newly arrrived Mountains/diesels took their place, and I have seen the scheme for these cars having a yellow numberboard with blue window stripe, but again, did the C&O paint any orange and blue? Thank you.
The C&O Historical Society, like many, is made up primarily of volunteers - and the staff available to answer questions can be very over tasked at times. So, as a member of the C&O Historical Society, I'll volunteer to answer your question - as best I can! The Hudsons that were streamlined and had the orange scheme were 490 through 494. As far as I know, the only cars that had the orange scheme were the cars that were slated for the Chessie - which actually never ran. I think that there were 46 cars painted in this scheme. Robert Young headed up this project, which was cancelled by the hard financial reality that a coal mine strike drove home - cash just wasn't there to launch Young's great ideas to expand and improve passenger service on the C&O. Young had launched improvements over the entire C&O system, such as widening curves, bypassing older tunnels, building newer Art Deco stations, such as the one at Prince, West Virginia. The 490-494 Hudsons were part of the upgrade, as well as the Baldwin M-1 steam turbines, numbers 500-502. There were even Art Deco coal towers built. Man, I sure wish I would have been around during that time...
Below is a picture of the "Chessie" cars. As Tim said the train never actually ran but some of the cars were kept by the C&O. The C&O did indeed run the streamlined Hudsons on their name train the FFV(fast flying Virginian). In the book C&O Power there is a picture of astreamlined hudson pulling the FFV in 1948. In the picture it looks like a real mix of passenger equipment as seemed to be the case after WW2. Pictures by David Hickock in Chesapeake and Ohio Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment. Now here is a real C&O oddball. Train X that never ran.
