Thank you very kindly.
Here's another postcard shot. This one is the El Capitan's dining car.
http://www.cardcow.com/219499/dining-car-santa-fes-el-capitan-transportation-trains-railroad/
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
Brilliant Antonio...brilliant, and the comments and your response too!.
This is the kind of discussion that makes this forum good.
Thanks!!!!
The St. Francis Consolidated Railroad of the Colorado Rockies
Denver, Colorado
The ceilings were painted Turquois walls light beige the carpeting was a green fern pattern. Coach seats were a blue green (seafoam). These colors are for the chair cars. I don't remember the colors for the various sleepers, diners and lounge cars both low level and domes.
Charlie
MP 53 on the BNSF Topeka Sub
Does anyone have any info about Super Chief interior colors, probably the seats are the most important. I have Patrick Dorin's Super Chief/El Cap book but there seem to be some discrepancies in it. I have just finished superdetailing the diaphragms on the new Walthers cars and want to populate and paint the interiors before I put the roofs on. They are such a pain I don't want to take them off again.
Cool stuff thank you Antonio!
Alvie
Here's something that may be useful. This link features vintage postcards. Scattered on the page (you have to scroll down to see them all) are 8 shots of interiors. A few of them are illustrated but at least the colors are shown, which is what is our primary focus. The Southern Pacific "Shasta" and the Union Pacific's "COLA" are included.
http://www.cardcow.com/viewall/29489/
High Greens
G Paine steamfreightboy: Do you know where to get seats for a 60' coach or combine? sfb If you can find them, IHC interior kits can be cut down / kitbashed to fit shorter cars like Athearn or Roundhouse. This is a photo of an IHC interior that I modified to fit an Athearn heavyweight. This is a thread where I described how I did the modificationhttp://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/166695/1832385.aspx#1832385
steamfreightboy: Do you know where to get seats for a 60' coach or combine? sfb
sfb
If you can find them, IHC interior kits can be cut down / kitbashed to fit shorter cars like Athearn or Roundhouse. This is a photo of an IHC interior that I modified to fit an Athearn heavyweight.
This is a thread where I described how I did the modificationhttp://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/p/166695/1832385.aspx#1832385
Far as Combines, I think Palace Car Co has a combine kit for the Rpundhouse/MDC Harrimans, that could be retro'd in as well.
-Morgan
steamfreightboyDo you know where to get seats for a 60' coach or combine? sfb
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
AntonioFP45 I don't remember the seat color. I've searched the web and, frustratingly, there are loads of Southern Crescent exterior photos but up close shots featuring the seat colors seem to be quite elusive! Take a look at these A. This is the conductor on the SC. I don't know if he's in a lounge car or coach, but you can see seat colors, which seem to lean towards the yellow-beige family. http://www.railpixs.com/southern/SouthernCrescent_conductor_Dec78.jpg B. Restored equipment, although I don't know the interiors were restored to their original color schemes. http://www.americanrail.com/Royal_Street.htm
I don't remember the seat color. I've searched the web and, frustratingly, there are loads of Southern Crescent exterior photos but up close shots featuring the seat colors seem to be quite elusive!
Take a look at these
A. This is the conductor on the SC. I don't know if he's in a lounge car or coach, but you can see seat colors, which seem to lean towards the yellow-beige family.
http://www.railpixs.com/southern/SouthernCrescent_conductor_Dec78.jpg
B. Restored equipment, although I don't know the interiors were restored to their original color schemes.
http://www.americanrail.com/Royal_Street.htm
Certainly food for thought. The car I;m doing is a Budd Stainless Steel, not the painted Cresent, I don't know if that will influence the interior colorsa. This si a run-through sleeper that would've come off of train 28 (Cinncinatian?) and was picked up by NYC's James Whitcomb Riley (which is now the Indiana leg of Amtrak's Cardinal) to be taken up to Chicago.
The Royal Street is an L&N car, not Southern, so they may have had a different interior anyway, I can still send them an inquiry though!
AntonioFP45 Flashwave, Might help a little: I rode in a Southern sleeper years back after Amtrak had just acquired the equipment (1980?) and it had not been painted yet. It's been 30 years, but I still remember the walls being the "typical" beige-tan color that was common on various roads.
Flashwave,
Might help a little: I rode in a Southern sleeper years back after Amtrak had just acquired the equipment (1980?) and it had not been painted yet. It's been 30 years, but I still remember the walls being the "typical" beige-tan color that was common on various roads.
Alright, so I'll leave the walls the same, what corolr were the seats,do you remember?
Hey guys,
Here's a "Tube" clip of that Steve McQueen movie I referred to way back in the beginning of this thread. Although it's the Amtrak era, still some very nice shots of ex-Southern Pacific equipment during the early 1970s. Man, those windows are huge! Nothing like the tiny windows we get today when riding in Horizon Fleet cars or the "Amcans".
Note the dome car interior. Also that the color of the seats in the coaches are green, but on one coach they're red. Go figure!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty9i2frK1CI&feature=related
Thanks Antonio!
CPGuy in Texas,
Thank you for your kind comments. Good tip regarding the heavyweight cars. I have none, but since I'm modeling the 1960s, I'm going to need a few since the New Haven and the ACL were still running heavyweights during that time period.
SteamFreightBoy,
Check this out: http://www.palacecarco.com/products.php?cat=7
Do you know where to get seats for a 60' coach or combine?
Thank's Antonio for an interesting thread.
Like you, I'm a serious passenger train modeler, but some things elude me, I gotta say.
CPR heavyweights? I've been winging it when it comes to interior colors. Maroon seats, grey walls and tan flooring is what I've been doing, with a few cars with grey and tan seats for contrasy.
One thing I've founf that really helps the heavyweights is to model at least a few windows open on each car. Open windows were a VERY prominent feature in the old CPR photos, and other roads too. I don't know about other manufacturers, but on all my Branchline coaches. You can easily cut the bottom sills away on the "open" windows and just use short glazing after painting a thin tuscan line on the bottom of the glass to represent the bottom sill on the open window. I assume Con-Cor and Wathers cars are similar.
Also, sunshades. Olive green paper glued to the insides of the windows at different heights goes a long way to help.
End gates as well, of course
A little goes a very long way to make passenger cars much more realistic.
Thanks for the great thread!
Van Hobbies H1b, K1a, T1c, D10g, F1a, F2a, G5a. Division Point: H24-66 Hammerhead, Alco covered wagons A-B-B-A, C-Liner A-B-B-A, EMD FP7A A-B-B.
H1b modified to replicate modern day 2816. All with Tsunamis.
Alright ye gods of color, I'm hunting for Southern 10-6 and C&O 10-5 chair/bed colors. Also, if you find yourself on Ebay and catch the Chinese el-cheapo pcks of people, they really aren't bad. I still reccomend Prieser for the majority, but it's a quality/quantitiy thing. These chinese peeps are great for passenger cars, and you can get two of them into a Walthers seat. IF they're thin enough. But lets face it, anyone who's ridden a train is familiar with the passenger who should've bought two tickets...
I was pleasantly surprised to see this thread come back again (I hope the "anti-old thread police" aren't going to taser us! ).
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Motley, what a difference adding passengers makes! Very nice. In looking at your passengers clothing, I'm assuming that this is early 1960s? I've seen photos of my mom in the early 60s and in one shot she's wearing pants similar to the woman in pink.
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DCFixer,
I'm saddened to read about your situation. You've been an outstanding asset to passenger train modelers and are regarded highly. Your talented work is well known. I pray that your health improves and that you'll be back posting here soon, showing off more of your work.
God Bless, amigo.
chatanyga: Your seats look great. Nice work with the covers and colors.
Motely: Awesome interior, Man. Looks really nice. I'm impressed.
Unfortunately, I have been to busy with health related issues, selling our home and moving to do any work at all on my models lately. Most of my hobby stuff is packed up. I really miss it, but hope to get back to it before Christmas. I haven't been participating in the forum (or my website) lately, and won't be participating very much for awhile. No matter how things turn out, I will never forget all the great people and great times I have experienced here.
DC
http://uphonation.com
Speaking of the NYC. I completed a few cars. I went with blue seats, grey walls, and brown carpet.
Michael
CEO- Mile-HI-RailroadPrototype: D&RGW Moffat Line 1989
For my Amtrak Heritage fleet, I popped the tops and sides off my cars and hand painted the interiors with toothpicks and #0 brushes. Took a lot of work and time, but it was worth it. Just need to add people now when I get the time and money.
For the diner, I painted the table clothes white and the seats a maroon color that looked about like what I've seen in some pics of Amtrak diners. The kitchen area was painted an aluminum color to simulate the chrome surfaces. On the walls of the rest of the car's interior, I used a sandy tan color, which looked better than the plastic tan.
For my two Walthers coaches, two 10-6 sleepers, and two slumbercoaches, I painted the tops of the seat backs white and then used toothpicks to apply a dark blue (again going by what I remember seeing in Amtrak pics) to form the edges of the headrests. The rest of the seats were painted dark blue, and the walls were painted in the same sandy tan color as the diner's walls.
On the one coach that had center posts on the windows, I took a small pieces of masking tape, tore them in two, and then placed the straight edges on either side of the posts. I then used a toothpick to apply silver to the posts to better match the prototype pics I've seen of these cars. This car is actually numbered the same as the real car that I saw in Fostoria on the Broadway Limited in 1994.
On the open vestibule ends, I added end gates to keep my passengers from falling out.
With the lounge car, I went back to the same maroon color that I used on the diner seats and painted the seats and walls the same as I did the coaches.
I'm happy with the results. Looks better than the plain tan interiors, and a few people in each car will complete them.
Kevin
http://chatanuga.org/RailPage.html
http://chatanuga.org/WLMR.html
AntonioFP45Guys A MUST SEE FOR NEW YORK CENTRAL FANS! Many of you likely have seen "North By Northwest". What a movie! Yes, I'm 43 and had never seen it until recently. Cary Grant was truly a classy actor. The type of image that mothers wanted their little boys to be. Anyway, great interior and exterior shots of New York Central equipment. Too many colors to list here. Easier just to get the DVD from a store or check it out from your local library.
Beign the impaitent little scum that I am, I'll try anyway. Googled "North by Nortwest train scenes". granted, these appear to be for the 20th Century, not the stainless I need, but the bedding seems to be a burnt sienna or a mineral red, dpending on color fade for movies of that era. Chair upholstry in sleeping compartment matches too.There's more grey in the cream color paint on the walls of the sleeper and diner, maybe an eggshell?. Floor carpeting is a faded dusty brown.
Michael,
Great! Much better! You can tell that the white balance is still off by looking at the roof. The gray is greenish. Hopefully you can figure a way around that. The trick is to illuminate the outside with the same light as the inside, and then get a good white balance. Unfortunately, my little camera doesn't have manual white balance, so I have had to spend considerable time and money designing and building LED flood lights for my shots. Next camera will DEFINITELY have manual white balance.
Maybe my windows replacement method will be worth sharing and discussing for some. I'll work on a new post.
OK I just took some pics with more backlighting.
Thanks DC. I appreciate the feedback!
Can you tell us more about how you replaced the windows? With step by step pics? Why wonder your windows look so much clearer! Man that's great!
Yes the lighting is incandescent.
I'll work on the camera. Heck I'm actually thinking of getting a better camera, mine is too cheap for good macro shots. I'm looking at getting the Canon G10. It's a cross between a point and shoot and a DSLR. It has manual settings. I do have a tripod already.
Thanks,
Will and Michael: Thanks for the pics. Just lighting, painting the furnishings/partitions and populating makes a big difference, IMO. I think painting the interior of the sides with the factory windows installed is very difficult and useless. The windows are the first things that go when I get the car apart, and I replace them with polycarbonate. They are "flush" on both sides. It's not as difficult as it seems - just takes some time. I can now do both sides of a sleeper in about 4 hours.
Will: looks like you got a pretty good white balance there. LED lighting? Decent framing, too. I think I see some very interesting detail there, like seat head rest covers. I would like to be able to see it better, but the focusing makes it difficult. To take pictures with the camera physically very close to the subject requires a good macro lens. My shots are taken with a simple digital camera, flower (close up) on, and from about a foot away so it focuses. Then I crop on the computer to zoom in. It's not as good has having a decent macro lens, but it's clear enough to make out general interior color and detail. Tripod and shutter timer are very worth while things to have and use.
Michael: Every time I see your station night time pic, I enjoy staring at it. That's a great pic, man.
Is that incandescent lighting in the cars? It looks like you got some nice color combination, but again, it's difficult to see. I don't know what your camera is like, but maybe illuminating a white card with the same type and intensity of your interior lighting right before you take the shot will set the white balance. Or, have the illuminated white card somewhere in the fore/back ground where it won't be in the shot, but the camera will pick it up enough and balance on it. I don't know if any of this will work - just some food for thought.
I don't want to offend anyone, and I hope my criticism is constructive and useful. I think what you guys are doing is a big improvement over the bland factory interior. Keep up the good work, and thanks for sharing.
Here you go DC, some pics of mine. The UP City Streamliners. I was too lazy to drag out the tripod, low light and shaking camera, but you get the idea.
I've got some pics of some of the painted interiors of my Walthers Superliners. They aren't great, but they show the detail.
This is one of the sleepers.
This is the diner
The lounge
One of the coaches
Will
Pictures please, Motley.