I really like brass passenger cars running on the railroad. But the cost for me is a bit much-$250-500 per car. Several years ago I found a dealer that handled Balboa brass cars at a much more reasonable price-$70-85, more within my price range. Now, they are not as detailed, no fancy systems underneath, but that is alright, can't see it anyway. But they have nice paint and graphic work with some roof details and separate grab irons.
Also, the ends of the cars are plain, no detail just flat. I found that Precision Scale brass make Union Pacific car ends for the bulk heads and I thought I could attach those. They do have four brass posts on the back side but I removed those and with my dremel tool smoothed it out then with fine grained sand paper roughened the back side, then using CA, I glued them to the ends of the cars and it worked.
The coach on the left you can see is flat, no detail. The coach on the right has the Precision Scale Brass car end attached, I think it makes the coach look betters.
Precision Scale also produces a bellows type diaghrams which I also like. It is easier for me to apply these than other plastic diaghrams that come in parts.
I removed one section of the bellows then use contact cement to apply the diaghram to the coach.
They come with brass striker plates which I attach again with contact cement.
Then I check the distance between coaches as you can see below,
This is to make sure I have good contact, note there is a small space between striker plates, that's close enough for me.
The soft rubber is very pliable and compresses nicely on my curves which are 28 and 30 inches, thus far no derailments.
I think with the new end plates and the diaghrams it improves the look of my brass passenger coaches.
Thanks
Robert Sylvester
Newberry-Columbia Line, SC
Robert,
.
Really nice looking work, and a huge improvement over flat ends.
I love getting stuff that meets my needs at a reasonable price.
-Kevin
Living the dream.