LV Alco Century paint schemes

[JohnJ]

This is a model railroading question with a prototype slant. Sorry for the urgency, but I'm headed back to the Amherst train show tomorrow with Lehigh Valley on my mind. I currently have two Atlas Yellowjacket C420s, #412 and #414. In looking at the Lehigh Valley In Color book, most of the pictures with those C420s show three in a lashup, and I'd like to beef up my own miniature version to have three units. Trouble is, the other Yellowjacket Atlas produced, #409, is impossible to find.

So here are my choices for a third unit for my lashup:

Bowser/Stewart C628 in Snowbird scheme
Atlas RS-3 #215 in Tuscan single stripe scheme
Atlas C420s in the red scheme

The last entry would be my top choice - but when did LV start painting the C420s into the red scheme as depicted here?

http://www.atlasrr.com/Images/HOLocomot ... 321_TQ.jpg

And here's the RS-3 I have my eyes on (this links to someone's E-Bay listing, just be aware of that, but it's the only pic I could find):

http://i.ebayimg.com/09/!Bf5dI,Q!mk~$(KGrHqQH-DYEsMGP1lmBBLDEngGB-g~~_12.JPG

If the C420 above was post-1969 as I suspect it was ,which of the other two units (C628, RS-3) would you choose to mate with two C420s on a general merchandise train? And when did that RS-3 gain it single stripe paint?

Thanks,

John

[lvrr325]

Red scheme introduced Dec. 1971 with GP38AC's, 406 was in a Tuscan red version of this scheme by mid-1972. Assume it was the first repaint. LV tended to mix C420s only with one another, and in looking through LV In Color V4 I see only one shot of them mixed with other units - 2 C420s and a U23B.

Another option is a L&HR C420, the LV leased at least two of them for several months in the 1970s and mixed them freely with their own C420s.

[JohnJ]

Thanks for the reply and information. I ended up buying the Snowbird Century 628, as I suspected the red C420s were too late for my 1969 era. I also couldn't find any pictures of RS-3s teamed up with C420s, so that took that unit out of the running.

In my Lehigh Valley In Color book, while it seems the most common configuration for the C420s was in solid consists, there are quite a few pictures of the C420s mixed up with other types of power. In particular, there's a shot of Snowbird C628 626 teamed up with a single Yellowjacket C420 409. The only difference in my model lashup is that I have two C420s instead of one as in the picture.

[TB Diamond]

The Lehigh Valley Railroad very rarely utilized the RS2/3 units in general freight service. These units were more likely used for local freight and switching duties.

In the late 1960s and into the early 1970s I noted the Alco C420 units mued to other type units on main line freights. Even noted one mued in a consist lead by one of the EMD F7A locos.

On into the 1970s the LV began to standardize their power consists, at least on the west end, to three Alco C420s, two Alco C628s (up to 1973 when this type loco was banned between Van Etten Jct. and Buffalo/NF), four EMD GP9/18s, three GP38/38ACs or three GE U23Bs. This arrangement lasted right up to the advent of ConRail.

Would have more precise info, but am in the middle of a move and all my files are packed away.

[Mike Stellpflug]

They also would run a pair of C-420's with a GP9 or GP18 in between them.
Saw this arrangement several times in Rush.

[JohnJ]

Thanks for all the information. My C628 looks good in model form coupled to the two C420s, and it appears that there's a prototype basis for this, at least in the late 1960s.