The diner is almost complete with interior and lights.
Here are some updates to the original post. The coach cars are under way to be detailed.
CZ
Upgrades to the trucks include the recorders and piping and Timken Roller caps on the trucks.
Work on the rest of the train is proceeding. I built the uncouplering bars but used #19 wire. This will be replaced with #15 which is close to the right size. #19 is 1.6" scale which looks too large. Live and learn. It does not take that long to build a new one and this one.
Now I have to find the steam conection lines for the cars and install them.
Same coach car with #15 gauge wire for the uncoupling bars.
ho modern modeler I ordered mine from Railmaster, prompt shipping and great service thanks.
I ordered mine from Railmaster, prompt shipping and great service thanks.
Great! Glad to hear others do have the kits. It is a new product to our market and it should be received very well by anyone wanting to detail the El Cap trains. I was told recently the coach car is the next kit to be available. It should be out very soon. I am going to do about five to six coach cars and the diner before I stop this madness!!
Mine doesn't move.......it's at the station!!!
I know Trak Works Kits can be purchased at the Original Whistle Stop here in California and some other stores listed below.
From what I know, it is a start up for interior kits and their production might not be available outside that area right now. Sorry I can't offer more information about these kits. I found out about them by chance watching the video and called the Original Whistle Stop for my kits.
You tube ad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSNz5a9tKwc
How to take them apart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPthZAePeLU&feature=youtu.be
Available from: CA - Whistle Stop - Pasadena, Railmaster Hobbies - Bellflower, Milepost 38 - Anaheim, Burbank - The Train Shack. IL - Mikes Scale Rails - Peoria. Be sure to watch How-To Disassemble Walthers Hi-Level cars
I'm having trouble finding contact info on the company; is there anything on the package?
bigpianoguy This is a marvellous find; and your efforts are commendable! I cut my teeth in paper modelling back when I was into Star Trek; it was the only way to obtain certain models. It ended up with me helping to design & feeshare the world's first paper model of the NSEA Protector, from the movie Galaxy Quest. http://jleslie48.com/gallery_models_scifi.html (I'm the 'Paul' in the credits...) Once into trains, I of course found Scalescenes, and am still adapting other card models to HO scale. I will definitely get in touch with this company; perhaps they could give me a hand with interiors for the Hogwarts Express. Failing that, I'd still like to investigate their methods & see what I could use. Thanks again for the tip.
This is a marvellous find; and your efforts are commendable!
I cut my teeth in paper modelling back when I was into Star Trek; it was the only way to obtain certain models. It ended up with me helping to design & feeshare the world's first paper model of the NSEA Protector, from the movie Galaxy Quest. http://jleslie48.com/gallery_models_scifi.html (I'm the 'Paul' in the credits...)
Once into trains, I of course found Scalescenes, and am still adapting other card models to HO scale. I will definitely get in touch with this company; perhaps they could give me a hand with interiors for the Hogwarts Express. Failing that, I'd still like to investigate their methods & see what I could use.
Thanks again for the tip.
Thanks for the complement. Trak Works as far as I know is only working on the El Cap cars but you might contact them and see what they can do for the Hogwart express in the near future. That might be a good selling kit.
Sorry you are right it's does not work anymore for some reason.
I,m using an iPad and not sure how to cut and paste the link
You could get there by searching. ..train cool by arobertgray...and looking at video 5 and 4 in that order.
Just make sure YouTube does not correct the spelling to the wrong thing
Good luck
turbine71 Must admit I have a soft spot for the Santa Fe and have quite a few Broadway F7's I run the CZ set behind a pair of Broadway CB&Q E8's but have run it with Athearn F7's If you are really bored check out my train set on you tube,enter..arobertgray..in the search and it will bring up my friends page One video is old from 2009 and the other is frankly boring but I can't complain as he did make the effort to make and edit the movie,and the noise if you are wondering is a UP turbine behind the camera car
Must admit I have a soft spot for the Santa Fe and have quite a few Broadway F7's
I run the CZ set behind a pair of Broadway CB&Q E8's but have run it with Athearn F7's
If you are really bored check out my train set on you tube,enter..arobertgray..in the search and it will bring up my friends page
One video is old from 2009 and the other is frankly boring but I can't complain as he did make the effort to make and edit the movie,and the noise if you are wondering is a UP turbine behind the camera car
I was not able to find the youtube video. If you could click on it and then copy it to a reply post, I will take a look at your train.
Thanks
turbine71 Thanks for posting the shots on photbucket.is that some of your equipment,droooolllll Have always stayed away from brass passenger cars because of the price and weight,I like to run long trains,my Broadway CZ is at 15 cars,but they are very impresive with the detail and finish. will have to call Whistle Stop next week and ask about the interiors as they are not listed on their web sight then I will have to figure out how to get inside the Intermtn/TSP cars I have. Not trying to start a big discussion but on my layout the most reliable ,best lighting, detail and good stainless steel finish are the CZ cars from Broadway. I just wish we had not had to wait over four years for them to bring out something new,although the artic chair car was certainly worth the wait when it finally showed up,hope rest of the Daylight train is not far behind
Thanks for posting the shots on photbucket.is that some of your equipment,droooolllll
Have always stayed away from brass passenger cars because of the price and weight,I like to run long trains,my Broadway CZ is at 15 cars,but they are very impresive with the detail and finish.
will have to call Whistle Stop next week and ask about the interiors as they are not listed on their web sight then I will have to figure out how to get inside the Intermtn/TSP cars I have.
Not trying to start a big discussion but on my layout the most reliable ,best lighting, detail and good stainless steel finish are the CZ cars from Broadway.
I just wish we had not had to wait over four years for them to bring out something new,although the artic chair car was certainly worth the wait when it finally showed up,hope rest of the Daylight train is not far behind
I like the CZ train and have the complete train also along with a Genesis set of the WP F3 ABB. When the FP7 came out, I got one to replace the F3A on the front of the two F3B units much like the WP did. That train is very nice and if they had worked to make the dome glazing flush like the prototype, it would be so much beter.
The interior kits from Trak Works should be in by the time next week. I got two of the first issued Lounge car interior kits and the coach kit is next. Check with Fred or Keith when you are there to see if they have stock and let us all know.
All of the cars shown are mine. They are samples from brass trains to show the stainless look for a forum about the differences of the simulated stainless finish. The brass stainless cars were the only ones available for many years and I purchased the complete trains over the years but the brass cars are heavy.
I prefer the new Walthers Hi Level El Cap cars for use on a layout. They are priced high for plastic but low compared to any brass so I got a bunch of the new cars.
The great thing about the Santa Fe trains is the fact the Santa Fe used four to five F units on most trains on the transcon from Chicago to LA. Five F units will pull the brass cars but they can pull the Walthers train with no effort.
AntonioFP45 CalZeph..... As always your work and photos are enjoyable to see and good contributions to the hobby. I only hope that my interiors can look half as good as yours. One thing I felt should be pointed out regarding your comment on the Super Chief units finishes. The finishes on the first Super Chief and later Super Chief are actually close to correct. The first run's finish resembled brand new Austenitic stainless steel with a #7 reflective finish. The later version resembles stainless steel that is in excellent condition but has aged some years. This seems to be the version most modelers prefer.
CalZeph.....
As always your work and photos are enjoyable to see and good contributions to the hobby. I only hope that my interiors can look half as good as yours.
One thing I felt should be pointed out regarding your comment on the Super Chief units finishes.
The finishes on the first Super Chief and later Super Chief are actually close to correct. The first run's finish resembled brand new Austenitic stainless steel with a #7 reflective finish. The later version resembles stainless steel that is in excellent condition but has aged some years. This seems to be the version most modelers prefer.
Antonio
Thanks for the complement. Much of the credit goes to the Trak Works kit. I have one more of the Lounge kits and plan on installing it into either an Overland or Walther Lounge when I have time. After finishing the installation, I learned some ways of doing the whole thing better, at least in my estimate of the work and wanted to try it again for a second El Cap Hi Level train.
Your finish work on the cars that you have applied the Alclad process to is excellent and you can chose the look of the aging of the finish, new or old. I plan on trying that process and copied down your posts on the way it should be done. Thanks for that information.
Yes, I agree with your assessment. I probably will never use that bright shiny Super Chief second run as it is just too bright. I might dull it down some time if I wanted to use it. The first Super Chief train is here also and I was able to get the Pine Sleepers with the first one so it is a complete train. The second train only ran a few of the Pine sleepers and my dealer missed out on those.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
This is the drumhead with a silver painted diaphram.
This is work in progress on some weathering of the face plate.
turbine71 I used a flat silver,as you say they would be banged up abit in service. These cars are great models but the more I look at the finish the more I don't really like silver sheen. Maybe it's been covered in other posts but anybody changed the silver to look more like stainless steel than what's on these cars.sure glad I never bought any of the rerun of the Walthers Super Chief with the same finish
I used a flat silver,as you say they would be banged up abit in service.
These cars are great models but the more I look at the finish the more I don't really like silver sheen.
Maybe it's been covered in other posts but anybody changed the silver to look more like stainless steel than what's on these cars.sure glad I never bought any of the rerun of the Walthers Super Chief with the same finish
The rerun of the Super Chief cars do not match the first run as you know. The finish on these is probably more realistic than my Super Chief first run. I was disappointed when I saw the first El Cap car initially, but after comparing the finish on several cars including brass and plastic, my thought is this is closer to the prototype than most of my other cars. Last year when the first El Cap cars came out, I uploaded to Photobucket pictures for a comparison of various stainless cars and how they looked in both inside and outside light. The photobucket below shows some of those.
http://s806.photobucket.com/albums/yy345/Trainsforyou/Stainless%20Comparison/?albumview=slideshow
gear-jammer It seems like I see more details in buildings than rolling stock. I bet it looks great with an evening scene. Sue
It seems like I see more details in buildings than rolling stock. I bet it looks great with an evening scene.
Sue
The Trak Works coach car kits are scheduled along soon in the next week or so and the diner later after the kit for the coach cars. After they all are done and some other work is completed on the cars, I will try to get a picture or video of the train on a club layout to see how it looks. Normally, we can simulate evenings and night time with the lighting so the detail should show up.
Thanks again for looking.
Anything is possible if you do not know what you are talking about.
gear-jammer Nice job, CZ. Thanks for sharing. Sue
Nice job, CZ. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks. It is nice to know other appreciate the details.
Southwest Chief turbine71 Whats your take on the diaphragm's ,I painted mine silver after looking in the Morning Sun book on Santa Fe equipment and unlike Walthers Super Chief car are easy to remove and paint. Yes they should be silver. With maybe a few bumps and dirty spots here and there. But the base color should be silver. I'm painting my diaphragms Floquil bright silver (spray). When I do the painting, I'll also spray the Train Station Products trucks I use for these new Walthers Hi-Levels. Just waiting for some time off and hopefully a corresponding good weather day to spray paint.
turbine71 Whats your take on the diaphragm's ,I painted mine silver after looking in the Morning Sun book on Santa Fe equipment and unlike Walthers Super Chief car are easy to remove and paint.
Whats your take on the diaphragm's ,I painted mine silver after looking in the Morning Sun book on Santa Fe equipment and unlike Walthers Super Chief car are easy to remove and paint.
Yes they should be silver. With maybe a few bumps and dirty spots here and there. But the base color should be silver.
I'm painting my diaphragms Floquil bright silver (spray). When I do the painting, I'll also spray the Train Station Products trucks I use for these new Walthers Hi-Levels. Just waiting for some time off and hopefully a corresponding good weather day to spray paint.
Yes, I agree they should be silver. I was wondering why Walthers did not cast them in silver plastic or paint them. The ends are easy to remove and that is a project I will get to this winter when time permits. None of my cars are completely finished so the project continues.
The Walthers trucks need the bearing caps replaced also to backdate them correctly. The diner has the correct bearings on the trucks from Walthers.
Even the couplers in the mid fifties were painted silver before regulations prevented that later on.
Matt from Anaheim, CA and Bayfield, COClick Here for my model train photo website
Great job on the interiors,makes me want to go out and buy these kits.
This is the drumhead and warning light for the tail coach car. The roof was not completely in place when I took the picture. Sorry
wholeman I love what you did to the cars. I gotta ask, how did you light the lower level? I have the Walthers Superliners and the lower levels in them are dark.
I love what you did to the cars. I gotta ask, how did you light the lower level? I have the Walthers Superliners and the lower levels in them are dark.
Will
Thanks for the complement. It is easy to light the lower level on any of the Hi Level cars. I don't have the cars you have, but the El Cap cars probably use the same type of lighting circuit board to power the lights in your cars. The same light bar that Walthers sells for the El Cap cars is capable of driving extra led's. The circuit board for the electronics portion of the light kit goes into the lower section of the car and you can solder extra led's on to the output of that board. I have added two extra LED's to the light board I have in the tail coach car with the red warning light and the drumhead. In the lounge car, I glued one regular led flat to the floor of the top level interior and ran the wires to the electronics board located in the end of the car on the bottome level. All of the cars have that mounting position in each Hi Level car where the circuit board can make contact with the hot leads coming up from the trucks so power is provided to the circuit board. At the other end of the circuit board, the red and black wire is connected to the led lighting for the car. You can solder on to the output wires for the power for extra leds that you want to add.
The picture below is the drumhead for the tail coach car. The lens is one I made after drilling out the plastic one they had installed. I installed a smt led into the fixture and the results are amazing when you see it. The camera does not pick up red very well, but it is a bright red light in the second photol
Both of the leds in the tail section of the car are powered by the Walthers circuit board. I don't have any idea of how many extra leds could be powered by the board in addition to the eight on the light bar, but it works great for the two extra.