PeteVS I'm the kind of guy who would rather reproduce a piece than use up something that's somewhat unobtainable.
I get that! You'll always have the "prototype" to model from.
I'm kind of the same way. I have been collecting corrugated passenger car sides that I found, and can't get any more from the manufacturer. When I see'em, I buy 'em. I don't even know if I'll ever use them all!
Mike.
My You Tube
PeteVS What has to be done to the old "blue box" heavy weight Pullmans to get them to a scale length with a meaningful window configuration? I've been trying to get back into the hobby and dug out a pair of old shells that have had the factory paint stripped off and I'm thinking it would be a fun project to cobble up a new car. Thanks!
What has to be done to the old "blue box" heavy weight Pullmans to get them to a scale length with a meaningful window configuration? I've been trying to get back into the hobby and dug out a pair of old shells that have had the factory paint stripped off and I'm thinking it would be a fun project to cobble up a new car. Thanks!
It's up to you but it would be an aweful lot of work to hack up shells to get a correct scale length heavy weight Pullman from a Athearn blue box.
If money isn't that tight, I'd suggest looking for Branchline kits as they will give you nice heavyweights and if you search Ebay, you can find them for attractive prices in the $11 to $20 range.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Dunno if I would want to lengthen Athearn heavy weight passenger cars. Athearn cars look right. The clearstory roof line looks very good to my eye. The rivets and doors and windows look right. This is what we used to ride in back when we rode the train. At 72 feet they are almost long enough. As long as there are no 85 foot cars around to make them look short, they are good to go. Think of it as selective compression. And they stay on the track going around 18 inch curves. On mine I added wire hand rails and grab irons, replaced the factory window glass with nice flat styrene sheet windows. Entemann's danish pastry boxes make good window material. Good paint and decals. Add some passengers. Here is a consist of 'em.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
Most of my air conditioned cars use the New England Rail Services' ductwork, but some have homemade ducts, done with fairly short (10'-12' HO) sections of .010" sheet styrene.The lower edge is cemented to the roof right above, and butted against, the top edge of the rivet strip at the car's eaves. The top edge of the duct can be done in at least two different ways:Method 1 - Cement a length of square strip styrene, (.040"x.040" or larger) as long as the entire length of the planned duct, to the side of the clerestory, immediately below the very slight overhang of the clerestory's eave. You may have to remove some rivet detail there to get a solid bond. Once you've imparted some curve to the short lengths of .010" sheet material, use solvent-type cement to affix the lower edge to the roof, as described previously. Let those joints fully harden, overnight if necessary.Next, apply solvent cement to the top of the strip cemented to the clerestory, and to the underside of the top edge of the duct panels, then press the ducts into place. You'll likely need a means of holding them in place until the bond solidifies...weights, elastic bands, clamps, etc.Method 2 - After forming the short sections of duct from .010" sheet styrene, cement a strip of styrene (about .015" or .020" thick and .040" wide) to the underside of the top edge of the duct material leaving just a few thous of it projecting beyond the top edge of the duct section. The intent here is to attach the lower edge of the duct as described previously, and then, once that bond has solidified, force the projecting portion of the strip material under the clerestory's eave, trapping the duct in place. You can then use a fine brush to carefully apply a small amount of solvent cement to that joint - not too much, as you don't want to accidentally separate the strip from the underside of the duct material. While this method is a little fussier to get the amount of projection of the strip material right, it eliminates the need to hold the upper edge of the duct until the joint hardens.
This car uses the NERS ducts...
...while this shortened Athearn observation car, now a private car for the road's brass, uses sheet styrene, as described in method 2....
I do bother to add some underbody details to most of my passenger cars, like this former Athearn Pullman, converted into a wooden (Evergreen styrene passenger car siding) baggage car...
Underbody brake gear is mostly from Precision Scale, with a few homemade items, and the Pintsch Gas tanks are styrene tubing. Most of the battery boxes on my passenger cars are scratchbuilt on Evergreen square styrene tubing.
The APWS tank, shown in the two photos above, may be either one from NERS or a scratchbuilt one, based on the one from NERS (their very nicely done detail parts, especially for passenger cars, were, for me at least, quite hard to come by on many occasions).
All photos should enlarge with a click.
Wayne