Paper side heavyweights

There were four makers that produced American OO heavyweight passenger cars with paper sides.

In our first photo we have three of the brands represented. The top car is a J-C Models Pullman on Scale-Craft trucks, in the middle is a Graceline diner, and at the bottom a Famoco combine on Scale-Craft trucks.

A first key point is if it is a model other than a baggage, coach, combine, or Pullman it is either Graceline or their successor Transportation Models, as J-C and Famoco only made the four standard cars.

Looking at the next photo of the car bottoms gives us more to go on. The Graceline car in the middle has a heavy, die cast frame and die cast details. The Famoco car on the bottom has a wood frame but with die cast side members and details. The J-C car is all wood. But this particular one (you can’t easily see it in the photo) was built with Selley bolsters and Scale-Craft brass steps.

This is what can make these somewhat hard to ID. Reality was that these were cars built by model railroaders for use on a layout so they may not match the stock version. I have for example a Famoco (I think) Pullman that has a Nason sand cast frame (or is it a J-C car with Nason and Famoco parts?), and most J-C cars I have ever seen have picked up at least a few parts by other makers.

Finally we have the ends. Famoco cars used wood and paper parts that are absolutely identical to those of J-C but they had metal details and die cast ends, shown in the photo. The Gracelilne car also has die cast ends, but the J-C ends are pressed paper with wood. Built up well these can look quite good.

I don’t have a good example of Transportation Models to compare with and none of their passenger car instruction sheets either. My so-so example (see this post) has wood frame details and paper ends. If you have a better example I would love to hear from you.

UPDATE: For information on American OO heavyweight passenger cars with metal sides see this post.