Coach, Car Sides, C&O Wooden Composite Car Series 635-655, HO Scale, HO Scale by Shapeways
(In use 1935-1955)
3-D printed accurate sides for use in building an accurate C&O wooden (composite wood/steel) coaches from 635-655 series.
The cars were built for C&O as its highest class cars in 1911 and were part of the transition from wooden to steel cars. The composite cars had steel end posts and underframes but wooden bodies. They were supplanted in the mainline name trains in the late 1920s with steel cars but persisted in use on branches, secondary trains, and specials.
Nos. 635-644 were converted to camp cars in 1934, while the remainder (Nos. 645-655) stayed on the active roster until they were scrapped in 1952.
During the 1930s-40s they were available for emergency, standby, and branch line use, and saw service during the WWII emergency when so much old equipment was pressed into regular use.
This is a car that could be seen on branch trains in Va., W. Va. and Ky. in the late 1940s and up to as late as 1951, and, of course, also could be seen sitting at mainline yards/stations where branch trains terminated. It is useful for modeling right up to the early 1950s, still painted green with gold lettering, an ideal wooden car in the streamlined era!
The car sides are 3-D printed from drawings and photos in the C&OHS collection and are the first accurate designs available. Modelers can use “donor” parts from kits made by Bethlehem Car Works, Walthers, Athearn, and others.
