Reading’s
P-7sa Atlantics: a tinplate favorite
by Keith Wills R
eading’s 4-4-2 P-7sa Atlantic was an interesting if curious prototype for A.C. Gilbert to
have chosen for American Flyer’s entry level, low cost, die-cast steamer. It was the last to appear of the ³/₁₆″ scale de- tail O gauge models. In 1939, he first introduced a UP Northern, NYC Hud-
1915 C-1A 4-4-4 TO BECOME P-7SA
bered 350-353. Of the entire P series, these obscure four were the only non- Camelbacks. Ed Alexander cataloged his ready-to- run (to order) Super Detailed ¹/₄″ O scale P-7 model with full Walschaerts valve gear in 1937. What distinguishes his from Flyer’s, besides the super de-
photo. Alexander’s price was $165.00, still a goodly sum in the late Depres- sion era. The question is whether Gilbert was familiar enough or not with Alexander’s model to have been influenced by it, or, was it Mantua’s plain prewar HO model, seeing it spe- cialized in modeling Reading proto- types? It was not a widely-known or popular locomotive which other mak- ers would likely to pick up on.
The Reading’s P-7sa class Atlantics start- ed out as class C-1a 4-4-4’s (above). There were only four of these locomotives on the Reading’s roster and they were the only non-camelback P series Atlantics the Reading owned. In 1937, Ed Alexander of- fered one of these rebuilt Atlantics in O scale for $165.00 (right).
son and later, a PRR K-5 Pacific, a streamline B&O Royal Blue, a Nickel Plate 0-8-0 switcher, and finally, the Reading. The most interesting thing about it was that it wasn’t part of Reading’s standard P series Atlantics: beginning with four P-1c’s of 1900 to the last two P-6b’s from 1911. The P- 7sa was a 1916 rebuilding of four, pow- erful but unsteady C-1a, 4-4-4 locomo- tives built by Reading in 1915, reclassified as Atlantics and renum-
90
1937 ED ALEXANDER
tailing and trailing truck frames, are their cab windows. Alexander’s has arched two-paned windows, while Fly- er’s O gauge model is three-paned, dif- fering again from the 4-4-4 prototype
American Flyer, in shifting to ³/₁₆″ scale detail, die-cast O gauge tinplate models in 1939, reproduced actual pro- totypes adjusted for wider O gauge tin- plate
track, unlike
downsized, cast JANUARY 2014
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