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(erielack) modeling questions - Erie trailers

[From: Ken & Carol Dabisch  <mailto:dabisch1_@_concentric.net>
dabisch1_@_concentric.net  I'd like to model Erie piggyback trailers as shown
in Morning Sun's "Erie RR in color", page 101...The latest issue of Model
RR'er, p. 12, shows a Sylvan Scale Models 34' trailer that looks similar,
but the vertical ribbing does not extend around the front as in the photo in
"Erie RR in color". What color were these painted? ...Several years back,
Walthers made a 32' Erie trailer. Were these close to correct for anything
the Erie had?]

There are Listers more technically and historically savvy than I. With that
said, Walthers back in, I believe, 1992 released 75' TTX flats lettered for
Erie (#7589) with a stenciled built date of 1-55. Along with this, they
offered separate packs of Erie trailers. They were pretty much the right
color (a gray-green like the light color on the through cars). They were
flat sided, however, and all photos I have seen showed ribbed trailers. But
the Erie logo and lettering were pretty accurate. The Erie did have fifty
75' flats numbered 7550-7599.

Coincidentally, my next project is to get out the ones I bought and make an
Erie pig train. My philosophy? - I'm going to weather the trailers and the
flats and make my pig train, because I don't have the time to custom make a
whole bunch of ribbed trailers and paint and letter them. I am going to mix
in some other trailers besides the Erie ones to give a sense of life's lack
of neatness. To this end, I was toying with the notion of even throwing in
one reefer trailer I have. I contacted Lister Paul Brezicki offlist re this
usage and his response deserves to be pasted here: "I'm much more familiar
with EL than Erie/DL&W. Refrigerated TOFC didn't become common until the
1960's; prior to that, carload was the norm for perishables. I have seen
photos of 35' reefer trailers in piggyback service from the late 1950's,
including those of SP, MP and some truckers, but nothing on the Erie. Having
said that, it's quite possible it did occur, but it would have been quite
limited. Most of EL's refrigerated TOFC was EB meat received from
connections in Chicago, but TOFC interchange with western lines was limited
in the 1950's.

Compromises are almost always part of modelling if one wants to model lots
of whole trains and not just individual cars. Just renumbering all but one
of these flats will be work enough for me!

One historical tidbit comes to mind. A friend of mine worked a summer job in
Croxton in the Fifties. He told me once that a big headache with the Erie
piggyback operation was that some customers would bring the Erie trailers
back having replaced the good Erie tires with junkies. 

Joe



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