day off today so I thought I would tackle this kit. The kit was offered years ago and long out of production, sold for about 39 bucks, but I couldnt afford it then, today, out of production and very rare to find, I managed to aquire 5 kits, a few of them were about 100 bucks apiece, one from a collector around chicago, others thru ebay.
Jason's Brass Poles aka Brian Weisman in ohio is doing a great service for the traction buff.
I aquired the Bowser's new streetcar powering kit thru him, I found that the wheels were too large, he managed to get NWSL replacement wheels for it, (which I bought)
Aquiring the kits and parts has taken me a lot of research and dig time to get to this point.
Now I got to this point with this one car.
The kit has the sides and parts made in soft metal, one spot on the model the mold must be broken a tad as details are off slightly, not a biggee, filing can fix that.
Putting this together as you see it now was more trick than expected.
The usual file flash off is expected from windows, like a bowser kit. The body is split with cast sides, end doors, roof, and floor, 2 floors, one for trailer, one for a power truck.
The roof has these little pegs that fit in holes to help align the sides, well, 3 were busted off, I filed smooth the peg spots, drilled and tapped for small screws that now hold the sides on to the roof now instead of glueing things on, and I accidentally busted the last peg, so it got a screw also. I think that holds the assembly much better like that.
The end doors are 1 assembly with the anticlimbers. The Bowser power truck is very nice, I swapped the wheels for the NWSL ones and the correct size. But mounting the power truck was a problem, as it has screw holes to fit on the bowser designed frame. No such on the CTA car. It would take a lot of fiddling to figger a new mounting or cut away the trailer frame to suit.
After fiddling with everything, cutting the trailer frame idea was out, mounting height would be all wrong. A PDT truck I prolly would not have these problems, but thats a different animal.
I ended up forcefitting the truck mounting just inside the frame opening positioning best I could height, etc...and superglued it in place. What an amateur way to do it, but works...8-P
Sized up the motor and mounts, had to drill a few holes in the frame for its little bumper feet and screw mounts, wired it up, and this baby runs!
A lot more goin on than all explained here but learned how to get this together and maybe be quicker building the other 4 kits. Just about ready for couplers and paint and decals, I gotta get the decals, I know where to get them.
Dinwitty,
Thanks for sharing this. I remember the MTS kits years back as I was interested in the NYC subway cars that they offered during the 80s.
This Chicago unit is very attractive. Though I've never seen the Chicago transit trains in person, I remember that so often the prototypes appeared on tv episodes. They're featured on the opening themes of the 1970s shows "Good Times" and "Bob Newhart" and they have also appeared in loads of movies. I remember the distinctive two-tone green and white paint scheme.
http://www.chicago-l.org/trains/gallery/images/6000/cta6679.jpg
Even as a kid, everytime I saw one of these trains on tv, the window patterns and folding accordian style doors always reminded me of the 1950s style GMC transit bus.
Looking forward to seeing photos of your progress
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