Hello,
Apologies for asking a dumb question(s). I'm contemplating building a little railway based upon the Belfast & Moosehead Lake Railroad in Maine either set in the late 20's / early 30's or the 50's. I've been out of the hobby for over thirty years and have never modelled an American line before (I'm British) so I'm experiencing a somewhat steep learning curve...
I've found pictures of the B&ML's engines and rolling stock but need some help sourcing HO models:
First up: http://cprr.org/Museum/BMLRR/Moody_Photo_Postcards/_bml16_lm.html
I couldn't find a Manchester / Alco improved American - but the Bachmann Spectrum Baldwin looks pretty close (although the tender is different). Does anyone have different / better suggestions?
Next: http://cprr.org/Museum/BMLRR/Victor_H_Rawstron/_bml_thorndikestation.html
I looked for an "open vestibule Harlen & Hollingsworth coach" but couldn't see anything that looked very similar. The closest I could come up with was this - but the roof line is wrong at the ends: Con Cor Carriage
Does anyone have any ideas?
Mail Coach: http://cprr.org/Museum/BMLRR/Victor_H_Rawstron/_bml_73_rpo.html
Similar problem with this one. Nothing that looks very similar that I could see (but I may well not know where to look!). Any ideas?
Thanks
Malc
Welcome back to the hobby. You've chosen a fascinating prototype.
You're probably right about the Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 being a good starting point for the engine. A significant amount of modification would be needed to create a truly accurate model, but a passable stand-in could be made with minimal work. It's up to you to decide how far you want to go.
The passenger cars would be a different matter. If you start with any readily available plastic car, you would probably need to lengthen it significantly. As for something more accurate, my best suggestion would be the Ambroid open platform cars produced many, many years ago. They appear to be closest in appearance, with a few mods needed to make them very close. The problem is that they have been out of production for many years, and sometimes command fairly high prices on the open market on the rare occasions when you can find one. I do wish they would be made available again.
Best of luck to you.
Tom
LaBelle Woodworking Company - 1883 open platform passenger car kits look close:
https://www.labellemodels.com/
but they are wood craftsman kits:
https://www.labellemodels.com/manuals/Building%20a%20Labelle%20Passenger%20car.pdf
The hardest part of building them is the roof:
https://www.labellemodels.com/manuals/Roof%20Contour.pdf
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
Thanks, DSchmidt. I have no excuse for forgetting LaBelle.
I was just researching the sitch-e-ashun, and came up with the same answer as DSchmitt.
The prototype is a real beauty. A LaBelle HO-14 is certainly the closest, but the prototype appears longer--might need two. In addition, you'll need new sides. Looking at the real one, there's the RPO door and widow. And those stunning curved top baggage doors. And the rather large letterboard. Definitely will take some work.
I'd consider having the doors done with photoengraving. There's a highly recommended place on "this little island". Building four curved top baggage doors by "hand" is incredibly unappealing to me. Plus you could do ALL the doors. I would, incidentally, use Evergreen styrene as much as possible. But that's me.
So, it looks like you could use the LaBelle roofs and end platforms.
But, what a beauty!!!!
Ed
deleted - duplicate post
There are some built modeles offered on EBAY.
Thanks for your prompt replies chaps. Those La Belle cars look a tad intimidating (I've built the odd laser cut kit before but not really tackled the "pile of sticks and a set of instructions" variety). The website looks operative - is that not correct?
Also (and this really shows how fresh I am to the hobby) I've been putting together a DPM kit - one of the ones with 5mm thick walls that you need to sand square - and it seems like a lot of physical effort for a simple plastic kit. Can you tell me - are the Walthers Cornerstone models moulded in the same way as the DPM kits or are they made in the same way as the Pola, Vollmer models etc?
Cornerstone kits are generally a pleasure to assemble. On some of the older ones the instructions could be a bit confusing or contradictory at times but this is the exception. Many were made in Denmark to pretty high quality standards.
Their more recent offerings have been produced in China with perhaps a bit more variability in quality but still very good compared to the DPMs. Walthers offers to replace any missing or defective parts and they have always responded favorably to any of my parts requests.
I recently finished a PRR interlocking tower and the brick detail was astounding and the fit and finish of the kit was excellent. Most are molded in appropriate colors however I always paint the walls and details during assembly.
Happy Modeling, Ed
Ambroid and Northeastern both made models of Boston & Maine cars that are probably closer matches to the B&ML cars than the LaBelle kits are, and they're usually available on Ebay at reasonable pricEs. Diagrams at the links below:
http://www.hoseeker.org/ambroid/ambroid61passengercars.jpg
http://www.hoseeker.org/northeastern/northeastern1900scoach.jpg
Good luck!
http://mprailway.blogspot.com
"The first transition era - wood to steel!"
Thank you all for your responses.
Fortuitously, there was an ebayer in the UK selling a couple of lots (shipping and taxes are a b****** from the US). So I picked up a Westwood Golden Era Series Kit G2 which will build a 1908 carriage suitable for the Ma & Pa. And a lot that consisted of a Funaro & Camarlengo carriage, baggage car & RPO suitable for the Ma & Pa that looks in the ball park - the problem with this kit is that, while it has the sides and ends for all three carriages, it only has one roof. I'm thinking I could cast copies of the roof I have to solve the problem.
I'd like to put in a good word for LaBelle. They seem intimidating, but if you've worked with wood kits at all, they're pretty straightforward. Shaping the roof is a matter of patience and frequently checking against the contours needed.
I've not built any of their standard gauge stuff yet, but have done a number of these HOn3 kits. No real difference, so I can tell you you'll likely fund building the SG kits equally rewarding as I've found the narrowgauge ones.
Yes, the website works, I've used it before. If you have questions, use the email and contact them. Rick Steele is easy to work with. Most of the Rio Grande short RPO-express cars had a non-overhanging (the platforms) roof, but I needed to model one that had the covered platforms. So I needed a longer piece of roof than what I knew was in the kit from building the other type. He custom cut a piece of roof material long enough to sub for the one in the stock kit, no extra charge.
I'm pretty sure Rick sells the roof material separately if you need some for the kits you mentioned that lacked it.
Here's a pic of one I built, actually the one Rick customized for me, RPO 123.
The nice thing about the LaBelle kit is that it's easy to modify. I took a combine kit and modified it so that it has the low arch roof the Silverton RR's Red Mountain did, plus other mods and it came out pretty well.
Here's a pic of the modified car before it was painted.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Wow Mike. They are gorgeous! I'll see how i get on with the kits I have. If I buy anymore of these things I'm in danger of owning more rolling stock than the prototpe....
Northeastern also makes clerestory roof stock, available directly on their websit, that is adaptable to your needs. Everything Mike has said about the LaBelle kits is true about the Ambroid/Northeastern kits; the Westwood kits are, however, a bit more technically demanding. As an aside, the Ma&Pa bag car in the Westwood kit is an almost unique prototype; the Ambroid baggage car, with the three side doors, is much closer to the B&LM car. Without dimensional and historic data, I couldn't say for sure, of course, but I would strongly suspect (based on location, connections, and the way equipment got cascaded in those days) that the B&LM car started out as a Boston and Maine car.
Midland Pacific - you are quite right - if you read the caption on the link above that is where the baggage car came from. The Westwood lot I bought is just the clerestory coach.
And here is how one of their other baggage cars ended up: B&ML Belfast yard 2002