Hi, I have aquired a No. of Coaches and intend to lengthen them by cutting and rejoining with spliced-in sections of a couple of sacrificial Coaches.
I have a selection of Razor-saws, Mitre-boxes and Craft-knives, Styrene sheet & Adhesives, but I would like to read-up any info I can find, before doing the deed. I feel like I've amassed all the gear, but not got much idea.
However, I have searched the Community & Digi-Archives + Google and cannot seem to find much info, albeit it will probably be there.
Any help would be much appreciated. Paul
"It's the South Shore Line, Jim - but not as we know it".
Making two out of three would allow you to do it with only one joint. Cut a little longer than needed and use sand paper on a flat surface to get to the exact length. Check the alignment of the corrugations carefully. They may not line up if you try to join pieces from opposite sides of the original car bodies. Use pieces of flat styrene inside the body to reinforce the joints.
MEK is a good adhesive for styrene.
Mark
mvlandsw....Cut a little longer than needed and use sand paper on a flat surface to get to the exact length. Check the alignment of the corrugations carefully. They may not line up if you try to join pieces from opposite sides of the original car bodies. Use pieces of flat styrene inside the body to reinforce the joints.
When sanding the cuts, move the work in one direction at a time, not back and forth. Back and forth tends to impart a slight rocking motion, which often yields a slight curve. Turn the part regularly, too, to ensure that equal amounts of material are removed.
Another thing to watch is varying thicknesses of body shells, depending on the location where the cuts are made.Where one shell portion is thinner than the one to which you wish to mate it, you'll need to add material to the inside surface of the thinner one. Otherwise, the flat styrene splice plates will create a continuous surface on the inside of the car, and a stepped surface on the outside. Having sheet styrene in a good range of thicknesses will be useful here, as it's possible that none of the mating surfaces will be the same thickness.
This doodlebug was created by cutting a Rivarossi combine into three segments, then re-arranging and modifiying them. Fortunately, the body casting's thickness was pretty constant....
I wasn't so lucky (or skilled) on this earlier conversion of a Rivarossi diner into a combine. The body thickness was pretty constant, but I should have done a little more work to improve the joint....
I don't really mind the shorter Athearn cars, and I actually shortened this Athearn observation car about 40 years ago, then put it, as parts, in its box, where it stayed for about 30 years. I stumbled across it while searching for something else, and decided to finish it...
A lot of my other Athearn passenger cars retain their original length, but get new sides and new life as wooden baggage and express cars. These two were built to match photos of CNR prototypes....
...while this one is freelanced for one of my home roads...
Wayne
I have kitbashed several Athearn Heavy Weights and Streamline cars and they are much easier to wotk with, this IHC wasn't!
This was a Athearn Diner, now it's a SP ¾ Dome Lounge Car.
Hi Guys, Thank you for your replies and advice and photos. I have read & noted everything and hope to be able show you some modelling surgery soon.
Regards, Paul
Lazers Hi Guys, Thank you for your replies and advice and photos. I have read & noted everything and hope to be able show you some modelling surgery soon. Regards, Paul
Paul,
If I might, a question and some more information.
Are you planning to model one of the SP Daylight trains with this project?
If so, are you aware that the prototype Daylight cars were not typical 85' streamliners?
They were in fact only 79' over the buffers or diaphragms. The car bodies were only 77' long.
The Athearn cars are 72' long, only 5' too short.
There is a big misconception about passenger car lengths. Many modelers assume that all passenger cars were 80' or 85' long. Not so.
The AT&SF also had streamlined equipment that was shorter than 80', as were a few other specific cars on some other roads.
And most heavyweight head end equipment, and many coaches, were less than 80'.
In heavyweight equipment it was mainly Pullman built sleepers, diners and lounges that were built on several "stock" 80' underframes. But other heavyweight equipment came in a variety of lengths.
So my question/point is, do you really need or want to do this much work to these cars?
I run a lot of Athearn passenger cars, Streamlined and heavy weight. I have kit bashed my share. But I have never felt the need to lengthen them.
Especially considering all the other models on the market to choose from if you want more accurate models of longer cars.
I like the selectively compressed nature of the Athearn cars, and the ConCor smooth side cars. I do go to great effort to close couple them with working diaphragms.
These are not the best photos, and I don't have photos of my Athearn streamliners handy, but this may give you some idea what I am saying.
Good luck in any case,
Sheldon
Mel,
Passenger car length is measured several different ways.
Acording to these drawings:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/p/276782/3161628.aspx#3161628
the Daylight cars were 79'-2" over the buffers, or in other words to the contact face of the full width diaphragm. The car body was only 77'.
Most, but not all, other streamlined cars are aproximately 85' over the buffers, or to the pulling faces. Making the car bodies over 82'. Example, the 1938 20th Century Limited cars were 84'-6" over the buffers, which would make the car body about 82'-2", five feet longer than the Daylight cars.
Sorry, I don't remember the nonsense to make that link hot.
Hi Guys,
Apol's for my not replying sooner, but I've been decorating the Bathroom and then my cousin Jacquie announced she was visiting us for the weekend 6/7/8th Sept!
Here in the UK, USA models are (obviously) not quite so readily available. Please don't laugh, but I am planning to convert these Coaches to NICTD (Chicago South Shore) Commuter Cars. 2 x series 110 Driving Cars (single cab) and 2 x Trailers (more basic) I cannot justify butchering expensive 'newer' models (Walthers Budd 85' Coaches would be a very nice starting-point)
Also, I cannot afford to buy and import 'Model Island Works' resin kits. The current exchange rate is dire and then there is Duty and Royal Mail 'Handling Charge'! Having written that, I will make an enquiry, re supply of Decals. All due respect to MIW - they have boldly produced kits where no Ready-to-Run manufacturers have gone before. After all, the prototypes have only been operating since around 1982 and they would make a good model for free-lanced commuter railroads?
I bought the Coaches for £6.00 ($7.5 USD) each, at a Model Railway Exhibition. They are in VGC and have not been glued together. I have drawn the Athearn Models as they are, using my SolidWorks 3D CAD and then I will copy & save to a new drawing design, "NICTD" based on all the photos & info I have gleaned from the web (thanks to all those who post these) and just make them 'look right' - as near as I can. It would be great to have a Nippon-Sharryo layout drawing - anyone?
To achieve the sloping sides along the lower valance, I have 'mini-milled' some trial spacer blocks and intend to score along the inside face of the Cars (with a home-made tool) and bend and glue them to the shaped blocks.
I realise that all this must seem a lot of work & effort for a 4-Car Commuter train, but I like the prototypes so much and watching U-tube vids of them trundling down 11th Street in Michigan City is brilliant. I am determined to recreate a bit of this in HO scale.
As soon as I can get a PhotoBucket account running again, I will post some photos. Thanks once again for your help, Paul