I've been working hard on two Walthers Budd coaches for the Man O'War in "as delivered" scheme (no red band or car numbers. Unfortunately, "as delivered" in 1947 means each car had full diaphragms. After much gnashing of teeth, I was able to build one of these cars with the full diaphragms only to discover it can't come close to handling 22" radius curves. I won't be seeing any curves larger than 24" in my house until the kids move away, so here is my question: Did CofG remove the full diaphragms before the addition of the red hat band scheme and the car numbers added? If so, maybe I can build them as "just a few years after delivered".

-- James Hamilton (JHamil2081@aol.com), February 23, 2003

Answers

James,

I haven't located a specific date for the removal of the full diaphragms on the Man o' War cars, but my assumption is that the CofGa replaced them with "standard" diaphragms relatively early on.

The Budd cars were delivered in 1947 and went through a major refurbishment in early 1952. The May 1952 issue of THE RIGHT WAY notes "Man o' War's coaches have been completely refurbished to give the train an attractive 'new look.' On the exterior of the coaches, near the top, a hatband of red paint has been applied. All this, one officer said, is intended to give the train 'snap.'"

-- Allen Tuten (allen@cofg.org), February 25, 2003.