PRR RPO/Baggage cars

I found a picture* of a prototype 5-window BM70m RPO similar to MTH's, although the windows are not as narrow.  A little closer to the prototype, but still need to find a round roof for the car.  Again, any suggestions?

*From Liljestrand and Sweetland's excellent book from the PRRT&HS, Baggage and Mail Cars.

Check the GGD booth at York. One or 2 yorks ago there were some extra roofs for sale from the modernized HW coaches. 

There are still some roofs available, and they are for 80 foot cars and the PRR car is 70 foot therefor the roof would need to be shortened. I have one roof available at my house, and we (GGD) have plenty of them in CA. I can take the roof I have to York.

I have been told that PRR had far more 70 ft Mail-baggage combines than full mail cars.    The BM70's had 30 ft RPO sections.     An article I read stated that the Postal service leased space in 15, 30, and 60 foot lengths.     The M70s apparently had a small mail storage section that was not RPO.

I found one PRR BM70 RPO car in O-scale.  However, I don't know who makes it?  The car is at 8:48 in the video:

Boilermaker1 posted:

Check the GGD booth at York. One or 2 yorks ago there were some extra roofs for sale from the modernized HW coaches. 

Boilermaker1,Thanks for that info.  Never thought of that.  I have several of these roofs I bought a couple of Yorks ago to upgrade some of my P70s, so I will check that out.

Everyone else, thanks for the inputs.  I want to get rid of my Weaver PRR RPOs and replace them with something more prototypical.  Not sure if the MTH cars will work, but it is worth the try.

Peter Araujo posted:

I found one PRR BM70 RPO car in O-scale.  However, I don't know who makes it?  The car is at 8:48 in the video:

 

That is a Sunset/3rd rail BM70  car in brass.

I wonder if Sunset/ GGD will rerun them again. I could use a few more!

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

I wonder if Sunset/ GGD will rerun them again. I could use a few more!

In brass?????

Hot Water posted:

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

I wonder if Sunset/ GGD will rerun them again. I could use a few more!

In brass?????

I would like some new GGD BM70 cars with different numbers.  I'd even take a Sunset brass car, but only one.

I'd take PRR #6565.

I appreciate the consideration of details regarding the old Weaver baggage cars... I have two and use them regularly. The couplers needed stiffening when pulling long trains, but no big deal.

I wish someone would offer baggage cars for Maine Central and B&M trains. Third Rail offered cars for both roads, but my trains run with foreign baggage cars!

Jan

You mentioned stiffening the coupler? Please explain. New modeler here.

GGD is making a rerun of the heavyweight headend cars now.    I think reservations may still be open.  

The GGD BM70 is a very common pennsy car according to my PRR guru buddy.    He said they had many more Baggage-mail combines than full mail cars.     The RPO sections were leased in 15, 30, and 60 ft sections.     the M70 mail car apparently had a mail storage section in addition to a 60 ft RPO.     RPOs were staff by US Post Office employees, not RR employees.     When RPOs were in service, they actually sorted mail and route and could drop off and pickup for origins and destinations on the route.   

C&Osteam posted:

You mentioned stiffening the coupler? Please explain. New modeler here.

Guessing the thumbtack coupler armature was drooping a bit and allowing the coupler to open.

You may be able to procure a wood roof from LaBelle Woodworking (www.labellemodels.com). They make wood passenger car kits and also provide an extra cost roof rounding service.

I took the photos below of PRR US Mail Railway Post Office #6563 at Danbury (CT) Railway Museum in 2017.

MELGAR

CAPPilot posted:

In another topic about the new Lionel (old Weaver) baggage car and RPO tooling, it was brought up the RPO did not represent a PRR prototype.  It was mentioned the only close "O" PRR RPO representing an actual PRR car were 3rd Rail's brass and GGD's plastic BM70k. There may be others, but none was mentioned.

Thanks

Ron,  American Standard may have offered a PRR RPO kit.  Someone in this forum must have an Am Stan catalog.     John in Lansing, ILL

Yes, I have my order in place. I just wish Scott would have offered the F.O.M. paint scheme. The First.O.M. paint scheme was the first to sell out on the sleeping cars. 

I believe that the Weaver RPO was a model of an N&W prototype.

Ed

rattler21 posted

Ron,  American Standard may have offered a PRR RPO kit.  Someone in this forum must have an Am Stan catalog.     John in Lansing, ILL

American Standard did indeed offer an M70 postal car kit. It had rectangular windows on the doors rather than round ones. Both are correct depending upon the era being modeled.

Correct re the couplers... I have two Weaver head end cars that opened up their couplers when pulling a long train. A loop of copper wire is an effective non-permanent fix.

Jan

CAPPilot: Ron, wondering if you ever settled on your choice for a PRR RPO car? I keep obsessing about getting very close to accurate RPO cars in different PRR configurations. Been tempted to attempt a kit bash of a k-line car but I can't find a U Tube to guide me through the how to dos. The MTH versions include 3 window, 5 window and 6 window designs. But as you have suggested, scale wise they just seem "off". 

pennsynut,

I bought two more of GGD's B70k RPOs, giving me 5 total of that type.  For now I'm not looking for another RPO but if I run across a Sunset or other brass RPO of a different design I will buy it (assuming the price doesn't go crazy like the last car I bid on). 

I was going to get the MTH five window RPO and mold a round roof on it to run with my 18" PRR passenger cars.  Since my Lionel and K-Line 18" cars are generic anyway, I decided to keep a couple of the Weaver PROs to run with them.  Somewhere in the buy/trade topic are the Weaver's I'm selling.

Many thanks Ron. I have 2 K-line versions that are not accurate as you well know, and I have the 6 window MTH version that approaches the feeling of a PRR mail/baggage car, somewhat. I thought about buying a GGD Norfolk car that appears to be the same as the GGD PRR RPO but that would require relettering. That would be less work than bashing a K-line for sure and I don't have the skills. 

The Weaver/Lionel RPO is N&W.

@Dominic Mazoch posted:

The Weaver/Lionel RPO is N&W.

Yes, I recognized that would not work for a prr rpo for scale dimensions. Not that my k-line versions are close to accurate. Should have pulled the trigger on the ggd car! 

One day I ran a PRR doodlebud, a B60 and R50 on a club layout.  People thought it was a subway train!