In a lot purchase not long ago I obtained two old time passenger cars. I did not give them a much thought initially — my guess was they were simply kitbashed HO models on HO trucks widened out to OO.

I have a friend who collects HO and he gave me some leads as to possible manufacturers and they did not pan out. Still, the cars looked really familiar in a way. I finally realized that they both were models that there were O scale plans for in the Carstens publications Rolling Stock Plan Book — on the same two page spread! — of which I had purchased a copy way back in high school.

Thinking there was maybe a series on how to build these 1863 PRR prototype models in RMC, I looked in the Model Railroad Magazine Index that is maintained in the Model Railroader website. There is actually an underlying publication, on page 50 of the February 1960 issue of RMC, but it is just the same scale drawings for a coach and a mail car as in the Rolling Stock Plan Book, in HO instead of O scale.

I don’t know which source was used by the builder, but these two cars were built from these plans. The coach has a little more liberty taken compared to the plans, with the substitution of scribed siding, but is made really nicely and proportioned exactly to the drawings. The trucks are HO I think, widened out to OO. And note the nice custom decals for the Cactus Patch and Western.

The mail car, when I first saw it, I though had lettering for the Central Pacific. But actually it is clear in this case that it is actually for Cactus Patch, the builder maybe counting on a bit of double meaning.

In the photo I show it with the scale drawing showing how it is larger in every dimension and is scaled up accurately for 1/76. Note in the photo you can see the floor is Masonite! The coach has a more detailed floor. And note too, both cars have link and pin couplers. They could be run but I think were mostly shelf models.

Then we come back to the topic of the Cactus Patch and Western. I have one more car for this line, seen in the final photo. Note how large in comparison this express reefer looks to the rather small 1860s era models. This car came to me with cars built by David Sacks for his Greenbrook Line. My initial guess on that car was it was a Sacks subsidiary line, but looking at the old time cars I don’t think so. They are not built like any of his other models and I have no idea the builder. 

[If I were to build a garden railway, Cactus Patch and Western would be a great, fanciful name….]

In total these cars are quite interesting models. I still am so surprised they are not HO kits on modified trucks, instead being nicely scratchbuilt models. I won’t be running them a lot (if at all, with the link and pin couplers) but it is really interesting to see these 1860s models next to more modern cars. And I wonder how many other cars are out there for the Cactus Patch and Western?