"Andrew Pickens heavy weight Passenger car

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I once saw and failed to buy a Rivarossi HO scale heavyweight car, painted solid dark green and lettered ANDREW PICKENS. Was there a real prototype for this car? If so, where can I find prototype information so I can duplicate it in HO scale. (There is probably no chance of finding this car on the shelf now, and I have a special connection with that particular name.)

-- F M Garner (mgarner@mccroryconstruction.com), June 25, 2004

Answers

The "Andrew Pickens" was a heavyweight pullman owned by the Louisville and Nashville. I am unsure whether it served any time as a Southern car, will have to check my files at home. A photo of the car can be found at the link below... sorry, you may have to copy and paste the link to go to the image.

http://rayspics.railfan.net/LNAndrewPickensGarryMorris.jpg

htt p://rayspics.railfan.net/LNAndrewPickensGarryMorris.jpg

-- Jerry M. LaBoda (laboda@bellsouth.net), June 25, 2004.


Jerry, Your answer, while in fact is truthful, may be misleading. The Southern apparently had a sleeper named Andrew Pickens at one time. I found it listed under SOUTHERN Passenger train consists on the www.hosam.com website as follows:

Crescent, train 37, New York to New Orleans, departing Lynchburg, VA Jan 16, 1940

SOU 1395 4-6-2 steam SOU 31 postal car W.C.C. Claiborne bag-buffet-club car Park Road 14 sections Andrew Pickens 10 sec - 1 drawing room - 2dbl bed rm SOU 3170 diner Canonbury Tower 8 sec - 1drawing rm - 3dbl bed rm William Davidson 8 sec - 5 dbl bd rm Winthrop College 10 sec - 1 compart - 2 drawing rm Zebulon B. Vance 10 sec - 2 drawing rm Robert E Lee 3 compart - 2 draw rm - lounge observation

I am looking for more information on the Southern's car. Andrew Pickens was a South Carolina evolutionary war hero and I know the descendent family. I am trying to find the Riv. car or model one.

-- Mike Garner (mgarner@mccroryconstruction.com), July 06, 2004.


The Crescent consist cited above is dated 1940. At that time the car "Andrew Pickens" would have been owned by the Pullman Co, painted Pullman green and lettered PULLMAN on the letterboard. This car could have run over anynumber of railroads, depending on the traffic needs of the Pullman Co. Many Pullman cars ran to Florida in the winter and to northern climes in the summer.

In 1947 the Pullman company was forced to seperate it's car owning and building from the sleeping car operations by the US Government. At that time all the sleepers were sold off to the 57 railroads over which they operated. The "Andrew Pickens" was sold to the L&N and, with in a year or so, would have been painted in L&N navy blue with Louisville & Nashville on the letterboard.

So, yes, as a Pullman car, the "Andrew Pickens" operated over the Southern Ry. But, as a L&N car in blue paint, operation on the SR would have been less likely, except, perhaps, as a charter, or in those few places where the SR ran over the L&N tracks.

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), July 07, 2004.


I hope that Jack Wyatt might be able to chime in here.

As I understand it (and I'm open to correction if new evidence is offered) "Andrew Pickens" was assigned to the "Crescent Limited" in 1929 as a Pullman 10-2 to plan 3584B. After the train was discontinued in 1934 it was repainted in standard Pullman green, but continued to run on trains 37 and 38 which replaced the Crescent Limited

In 1938 or thereabouts it was rebuilt as a 10 section, 1 drawing room, 2 double bedroom car to plan 4074 and was assigned to the Crescent in which service it apparently remained until the new cars came on in 1949.

Remember that L&N ran the Crescent from Montgomery to New Orleans and they had to provide cars for the train as well so that’s probably how it ended up on the L&N after the Pullman divestiture in 1948. However the car probably never saw Crescent service in the blue L&N paint scheme since I think this dates from a later date.

If you particularly want a model of this car, then the badly maligned Bachmann Spectrum Pullman car is a actually a pretty good model of a 10-1-2 to plan 4074. You may need to repaint or reletter one depending on your prefered time frame.

Aidrian

-- Aidrian Bridgeman-Sutton (smokeandsteam@san.rr.com), July 22, 2004.


Here are a few key dates for the Andrews Pickens from Tom Madden's Pullman Project database, http://www.pullmanproject.com/ (under car construction records):

09/11/34 - repainted Pullman green from Southern two-tone green

04/02/39 - rebuilt to Plan 4074D

04/13/53 - repainted to L&N blue scheme

I agree with Aidrian's analysis that the car was Pullman green while in Crescent service. The Crescent was reequipped with stainless steel, streamlined equipment early in 1950.

L&N also had three Plan 4074B cars which I think were assigned to a Pullman car line on the Pan-American.

Jack Wyatt

-- Jack Wyatt (cjwyatt@bellsouth.net), July 26, 2004.



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