navy.seal posted:Jim Waterman just told me that he has finished the 10-car Standard Gauge Olympian Hiawatha set I ordered from him. Each car in the consist is unique and is based on the original Milwaukee Road drawings. The paint scheme Jim applied is the simplified 1948 tri-color (orange, maroon, black) livery with the colors of the paint matched to the colors used on the MTH/Lionel tri-color Milwaukee Road Super 381 Bipolar engine, which will be the primary locomotive I plan to use to pull the set. Attached below is a photo of the set's Standard Gauge Skytop Sleeper observation car.
I will post more photos of the other cars as soon as I have them.
Bob Nelson
One of the Olympian Hiawatha cars in the 10-car consist that Jim has built for me is a crew dormitory car. This has gotten me thinking about what life must have been like for the crews assigned to the Olympian Hiawatha and other transcontinental trains. Did they make back to back to back runs on the train or did they have time off between trains? It must have been a hard life.
Does anyone know the title of a good book which discusses the life of crew members working aboard a transcontinental train?
Bob Nelson
