Yet More Holiday Mail And Express

One thing I like about sharing interests with fellow modelers is the inspiration it gives me to make progress on my own layout! Blogger John R has kept me going on mail and express. As I mentioned in my last post, I've been gathering mail and express equipment and have started some switching operation of this equipment in my passenger terminal, but I still have to bite the bullet and get a full train in operation from Manhattan Transfer to Zenith. But at least I can post about the equipment I have and in fact push toward my goal in the process!

Here are some more baggage and express cars. First, a couple of Walthers steel REX reefers. These had collapsible ice bunkers and ran in dry service as well as produce.

The Brekina PRR van somehow screams Emery Gulash!

A couple of Rock Island cars:

A Roundhouse Burlington BX. I had to do quite a bit to "housebreak" this one, but it now works well with the rest of my equipment:

Another Roundhouse, this one a special run from the Illinois Central historical group. I had to do the same with this as the Burlington car.

I've posted before on my JC Models PRR cars, many of which are head-end. I've also done some Red Ball cars. In the 1960s, JC, Red Ball, and Walthers were pretty much all you could find. The express reefer has been upgraded with new paint and details a couple of times:

Although I rode the PRR NEC a lot in the 1960s going back and forth to school, these were very rare by then. I did weather this one to reflect what I often saw.