Re: Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (diesell48) — Wed, 27 May 2009 21:01:50 GMT

Lost in all this is "what is a PRR C-type". The WKW is an 'F', but do we actually know that the PRR C types were much different? It's all a little weird, huh?
I now have good cars for Eventide or Nocturne (two total cars), Marsh Run or Willow Wood (an old WKW kit) Total - two cars. And now Afton or Echo Canyon... we think two cars built.
No one, and I mean NO ONE can know it all. Let alone remember it! I can now put together a pretty nice train of...

Re: Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (pennsylvania54) — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:41:27 GMT

Well, shoot. I hate it when this happens. I misread Garry Spear's info on Plan 3975: ECHO CANYON is listed as a "C", one of ten. There are two "F's" listed: AFTON CANYON and BRYCE CANYON. This is of course at odds with Lil. & Sweet. Parlor Cars, which cites ECHO CANYON as an "F" in the photo caption. With a dislike for conflicts like this, I went to The Pullman Project at

Re: Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (diesell48) — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:45:13 GMT

accepting the "F plan" as being the WKW car, I was able to find two cars built to this plan... Echo Canyon and Afton Canyon. Those are evidently, your choices.

Bill M

Re: Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (jbothwell) — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:42:36 GMT

Hi Guys,
In case anyone is interested, the solarium car at the museum in Altoona is "Union League Club", a Plan 3989A 8 Section, Buffet, Lounge. There was a Keystone article on these car years ago.
Jamie Bothwell

Re: Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (blfprr) — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:30:09 GMT

Thanks steve: Will take that into account. Bill Faith

Re: Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (pennsylvania54) — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:34:16 GMT

Bill and Bill: ECHO CANYON as seen in Lil. & Sweet. Parlor Cars is definitely an ice a/c car. A word on suffixes: C and F. It may have been a C on the UP, but by the time the PRR got it, ECHO CANYON was modified to an F. Both Lil. & Sweet and Garry Spear call it an F. However, that does not mean the window arrangement changed, and, in this case, it obviously did not. For consistency with known PRR sources, mine is a Plan 3975F.

Hmmm. That photo on p. 390 of PPIII...

Re: Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (diesell48) — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:19:51 GMT

Thanks guys... looks like a c plan canyon will be the applied lettering.

Bill M.

Re: Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (blfprr) — Mon, 25 May 2009 03:50:52 GMT

Bill and Steve: Been doing a little re-research and may be able to answer your questions. The Walthers car matches the C variant dead on. Now with this info I remembered a picture in pennsy power 3, and sure enough on page 390 is a car matching this plan. Now, across the page is a picture of the end of a train and the last car matches the Walthers car and also the C floor plan. Looks like we have both sides of a Canyon solarinm within 2" of each other! Both appear to be ice A/C cars. If...

Re: Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (blfprr) — Mon, 25 May 2009 01:04:30 GMT

Steve: There is a good shot of a perfect broadside shot(might be a builders photo) of Echo Canyon on page 84 of Kratvilles Passenger car Catalog book. It says it is plan 3975-C AND IS FROM LOT 6262 (1929) and is in UP service. The other cars from this lot with suffex Canyon are; Bryce,Ogden and Rainbow. Looks like the PRR eventualy recieved all of them. Picture shows very well all locations of equipment at that time. I only have a photo copy of this book that Tom Olsen did for me about 20+...

Re: Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (pennsylvania54) — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:55:45 GMT

Bill and Bill: First, I have been unable to use the decals furnished with any of my Walthers cars due to different colors being out of register. I checked Garry Spear's site and found the Plan 3975 cars listed at http://prr.railfan.net/passenger/GSPEAR/GSPEAR_PRR_Planix.htm#Plan3975. Two of these cars are shown on the last page of Liljestrand and Sweetland's Pennsylvania Parlor...

Re: Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (blfprr) — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:11:47 GMT

Bill: I did research on these cars some time ago and came to the same conclusion. I don't remember which,but some cars are listed in some recent books with the wrong floor plan. I believe the car that appeared in TKM some time ago should not have stripes as it was white lined before that scheme went into force. To bad as that's what I was going to letter my car. Can't lay my hands on the decal sheet to check out the names ,but here are some as listed : Ogden Canyon W/L 5/58,Afton...

Solarium Cars

feeds@yuku.com (diesell48) — Sun, 24 May 2009 07:43:04 GMT

I picked on of these up recently... the WKW 3 solarium windows per side in the lounge car. There is a picture of a similar car called "Denver" in the Stegmaier book on the rear end of the Gotham Limited, I believe. Upon closer examination, the Denver does not appear to be a match for the WKW as you move away from the solarium. The decals on the WKW enclosed sheet seem to want to make this a "Canyon" series name.
Much to my surprise, I have very few pix of Soalrium...