BDE-06
The Black Diamond Express, Sayre PA, photographer unknown, colorized by Scot Lawrence.
Lehigh Valley Railroad.
The Black Diamond Express,
in 1/29 scale.
Car #4 - Coach 1516
LV 1553, Sayre PA. Photographer unknown.
This is the only car that will be unmodified! (except for couplers) This is the USA Trains coach. This car is a good representation of one of the cars that the LV "heavily modernized" at the Sayre Shops.
All the cars were spruced up when the Alco PA's arrived in the spring of 1948, receiving new side-skirts and new paint, many got new interiors as well, but most were not greatly updated externally, apart from the side skirts. However a few received a very heavy reconstruction! basically stripping them down to the frame, and then re-building most of the car on top. These rebuilds resulted in completely new windows and roofs, making them look very different from the cars they started out as. This USA Trains coach is a good representation of these Sayre rebuilds, it has a similar window pattern and the correct "rounded" more modern roof line. this will be the only car in the consist without the older style clerestory roof.
I haven't found a photo of the prototype LV number 1516, but im going to just keep the number the USA Trains car came with. This car is intended to be more of a representation of a type of LV car, (the heavy Sayre rebuilds) rather than a model of one specific car.
