Baltimore & Ohio’s National Limited, 1949 – late 1950s

Fred Klein, 2013

The Baltimore and Ohio railroad’s two premier passenger trains were the Capitol Limited between Washington D.C. and Chicago, and the National Limited between Jersey City (near Manhattan) and St. Louis. The National Limited made stops in Washington, and Cincinnati but avoided the southern Great Lakes and also major cities along its route. B&O’s streamlined heyday was in this postwar period, but frugality, smaller stature and an inconvenient route prevented B&O’s trains from challenging the modern cars and ridership of New York Central’s Twentieth Century Limited and Pennsylvania’s Broadway Limited. The National Limited was introduced on this route in 1925. It was initially all Pullman but coaches were added in the 1940s. Train #1 left Jersey City at 12:55 PM and arrived in St. Louis the following noon, allowing passengers to make connections with other railroads. Busses that left various points in Manhattan were ferried to the Central Railroad of New Jersey terminal to board the National Limited in Jersey City.

 

After world war II most of the older B&O heavyweight cars of all types were refurbished and repainted from Pullman green or solid blue into the attractive blue and gray scheme with yellow stripes. Trains of the late 40s and 50s thus had mixed lightweight and “streamstyled” heavyweight cars, usually in blue and gray paint. B&O came under control of the C&O in the mid 1960s, and C&O corrugated cars, corrugated aluminum cars including slumbercoaches, and C&O paint schemes appeared in B&O trains in the 1960s, well after the train pictured here.

 

I chose to model the National Limited because the selection of factory produced and painted N scale cars now available is a better match to the National Limited than the Capitol Limited, and better during this postwar era. Cars of B&Os flagship train, the Capitol Limited, initially received more unique and customized streamstyling including “The Capitol Limited” lettering on their sides, than the National Limited.

 

I am not a B&O modeler and have only factory painted cars. Most of the available cars are similar to the prototype train, but the B&O did not run standardized, common cars. Many of the heavyweight cars in the late 40s and early 50s were rebuilt and “streamstyled” by the B&O in their Baltimore shops. For example, a smooth roof was added, hiding the clerestory and air conditioning ducts, and coach window corners were rounded. To simulate the appearance of streamsyling, I replaced the clerestory roof of some of the coaches with a round roof casting made by http://www.prr-parts.com. The casting is made expressly for the 78’ Microtrains coach car. The baggage-coach car is not available in N-scale until someone makes this much-needed car. For the baggage-coach car, I substituted two attractive wagon top express box cars, a baggage car and a coach car, much as the railroad may have done if it required additional baggage space. I also substitute similar sleeper cars.

 

The Capitol Limited (pictured) was similar in appearance to the National Limited in low-resolution photos in the 1950s. Note the mixed consist but a uniform paint scheme before trains were updated with corrugated aluminum cars in the 1960s. Here the Capitol Limited is seen near Bound Brook New Jersey in early 1958. Photo by John Dziobko from Joe Welch’s Baltimore and Ohio’s Capitol Limited and National Limited.

 

The Capitol Limited in 1952 was a mixed train like the National Limited. The power is a set of EMD E7 diesels. There is a dome car in the consist. B&O photo from Joe Welch’s Baltimore and Ohio’s Capitol Limited and National Limited.

 

 

 

 

The National Limited consist is from Robert Wayner, reprinted in Joe Welch’s Baltimore and Ohio’s Capitol Limited and National Limited. It is for train #1 departing Washington DC on September 5, 1945, but I updated the consist to 1949 when E7 power units, the lightweight dome coach, lightweight diner and observation cars were added. Additional baggage and express cars at the head end can be added at any time, and dead-head (not in service) coaches can be added to the back or front from time to time.

 

Diesel power and head end cars

 

B&Os favorite diesel passenger locomotive was the EMD E unit, starting with the original EA model sold in 1941. The two E7 diesels are Life-like models. The two express box cars, heavyweight baggage car and coach substitute for a baggage-coach car which is not made in N scale. The express cars are based on the 1938 “wagon top” box car made by the B&O as a freight car, except for those painted blue and fitted for passenger train use. The wagon top models are made by Fox Valley, the baggage car is an old Rivarossi model of similar type but made from a Santa Fe prototype, and the heavyweight coach is by Microtrains. The model baggage car looks like the old and faded baggage cars in many photographs. The heavyweight RPO model may not have the same window arrangement as the prototype, but B&O had 60’ RPOs with both arched and clerestory roofs like the model.

 

Coaches and diner

 

The heavyweight coaches used by the B&O after the war were “streamstyled”, meaning the window corners were rounded, a smooth roof covered the clerestory channel and the air conditioning ducts, and the modern blue and gray paint scheme with yellow stripes was applied. The window arrangement remained unchanged. The Microtrains heavyweight coach is based on a pre-war B&O prototype, but I substituted 78’ round roofs from http://www.prr-parts.com to add to the streamstyling.

 

The B&O bought two dome coaches in 1949 from Pullman Standard for the Columbian, but they made appearances on the National Limited and Capitol Limited (see black and white photo above). The domes on these coaches were lower than those on western railroads due to lower clearances. I placed a low dome from a Rowa dome car on a factory painted Con cor dome car. Though the window arrangement of the Budd-GN dome car on which the model is based is not correct for the B&O, the Rowa dome and model paint scheme are correct for the 1949-50s era. The B&O bought 8 lightweight flat-top coaches from Pullman Standard in 1949, and these were sometimes used on the National Limited. Rapido makes a coach model in the correct paint scheme for this era that could probably also be used, though I do not know how close the model is to the B&O prototype.

 

The B&O also bought two lightweight diners from PS in 1949 for updating its trains, though most B&O diners were streamstyled heavyweights. The diner model is a lightweight PS “eastern diner” of the same era as the train. It is from Intermountain painted in the correct B&O paint scheme.

 

Sleeper section

 

The first sleeper in the 1945 consist is a heavyweight 10 section-1 drawing room-2 compartment Pullman car. A streamstyled version of this car was used through the 1950s on the B&O until the curtained section cars became unpopular and were replaced by roomettes and slumbercoaches. Microtrains made this 10-1-2 car. The blue and gray paint scheme is correct for 1949, and the Pullman divestiture in 1948 meant that the cars were sold to the railroads, repainted with the railroad name in the letterboard, and typically leased back to Pullman for operation. Except for streamstyling, the model is prototypically correct. The next heavyweight sleeper is a 12 section-1 drawing room car, and the Microtrains model is nearly prototypically correct for the same reasons.

 

The next sleeper prototype in the 1945 consist is a 14-section, probably tourist type, sleeper. These were becoming unpopular and were usually the first heavyweight sleepers to be removed and rebuilt into a different car. I replaced the 14-section with a lightweight 10 roomette -5 double bedroom car built by Pullman Standard and delivered in 1940 or 1943. The prototypical model is made by Centralia-Intermountain. The next sleeper in the original consist is precisely one of these 10-5 Cascade cars.

 

Sleeper and Observation

 

The next car is a heavyweight 12 section -1 drawing room sleeper. Fortunately, Microtrains made this car. The roof air conditioning ducts show the model is of 1930s vintage, the paint scheme is accurate for post WWII, but the prototype car may have been refurbished with a new, smooth roof. The lightweight observation-2-1-1 cars were bought by the B&O from New York Central in 1956 as it upgraded its Twentieth Century Limited. The B&O even kept the NYC “River” car names. The Centralia-Intermountain model observation car is prototypical to the car used on the National Limited right down to the tail-sign (see below).

 

Before the 1956 lightweight upgrade to its observation cars, the Microtrains heavyweight observation car would be a good post-war tail car for the National Limited.

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Bossler, Craig, B&O Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, Morning Sun, 1996.

Chapman, Bob, Kitbashing B&Os National Limited, A passenger train you can model, Model Railroader, March 2002 and on-line. This article describes modeling the 1940 NL in HO scale. There are no modeling tips for N scale but there are some facts and a photo of the 1940 HO model (this N model is the 1949 version).

Randall, David, From Zephry to Amtrak, Prototype Publications, 1972.

Sperandeo, Andy, “pike-size steam passenger trains”, Model Railroader offprint, now available for on-line purchase from Kalmbach publishing.

Welsh, Joe, Baltimore and Ohio’s Capitol Limited and National Limited, Great Passenger Trains, Voyageur Press, 2007.

 

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