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From Trainset Junk to Respectable Model

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  • Member since
    February 2004
  • From: Knoxville, TN
  • 2,055 posts
Posted by farrellaa on Monday, March 3, 2014 12:39 PM

This was an old Mantua Heavies kit that I upgraded with metal wheels, Kadees, some weathering, stakes and a couple of loads. Was going to sell the kit and deceided to try to salvage it.

   -Bob

Life is what happens while you are making other plans!

  • Member since
    January 2005
  • From: ARCH CITY
  • 1,769 posts
Posted by tomkat-13 on Monday, March 3, 2014 10:28 PM

I model MKT & CB&Q in Missouri. A MUST SEE LINK: Great photographs from glassplate negatives of St Louis 1914-1917!!!! http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/kempland/glassplate.htm Boeing Employee RR Club-St Louis http://www.berrc-stl.com/
  • Member since
    December 2003
  • From: Good ol' USA
  • 9,642 posts
Posted by AntonioFP45 on Wednesday, March 5, 2014 5:06 AM

Doc,

Thank you very much for your response and detailed photos. Outstanding work!  Excellent material for an instructional video.

I have a number of rolling stock pieces, including cabooses, that are missing ladders and rails.  I've decided not to put things off any longer and take the route that you and a friend of mine took.......forming your own from brass.

 

 

"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"

 


  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Sliver City,Mich.
  • 708 posts
Posted by Catt on Thursday, March 6, 2014 7:47 PM

How about one respectable car built from two.This N scale Gern 50' double plug door Hi cube was made from a pair of Bachmann 40' hi cube plug door boxcars.

Johnathan(Catt) Edwards 100 % Michigan Made
  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Thursday, March 6, 2014 9:42 PM

I'd forgotten about GERN cars, although most of mine are stock Athearn BB cars which have a few added details and appropriate paint and lettering.  These ones below are also Blue Box cars, but slightly modified:


I backdated this one just a bit with the full-length platforms:


This is another Athearn car, with the "kitbashing" done in photoshop by my brother, who does all of the ad copy for GERN:


Wayne

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Alabama
  • 1,077 posts
Posted by cjcrescent on Thursday, March 6, 2014 10:50 PM

Here's what I call a "down and dirty" conversion. This started life as a Tyco yellow UP gon. This was a quiet afternoon's work. I removed cast on detail, replaced with wire grabs and ladders. New trucks and couplers.

I had to guess at the color because SRR had 2 colors for their gons, black and freight car red. For this, I guessed wrong, its supposed to be black. One day, I'll change it

Carey

Keep it between the Rails

Alabama Central Homepage

Nara member #128

NMRA &SER Life member

  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Friday, March 7, 2014 12:12 AM

cjcrescent
....I had to guess at the color because SRR had 2 colors for their gons, black and freight car red. For this, I guessed wrong, its supposed to be black. One day, I'll change it


Well, I don't model the Southern, but this one's not black:


...nor is this one:


...although I'm not too sure about this one:


I had two Tyco gondolas like yours in MoW service for my home road, but when I realised how close they were to Accurail's 1941 AAR gondolas, I re-painted them and placed them back in revenue service.
Here's one of the Accurail cars:


...and a re-worked Tyco:


I also followed an article in RMC to convert a ConCor (previously Revell) gondola into a fairly good representation of a Pennsy G-31 all-welded gondola:


I liked the car so much, I bought four more and did a similar conversion, lettering them for my own road.  These cars are almost the same as the PRR car, but I left the sidesills unaltered.  At a buck apiece, I couldn't resist:


Wayne

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Alabama
  • 1,077 posts
Posted by cjcrescent on Friday, March 7, 2014 6:52 AM

Wayne, what I should have said is the SRR painted certain classes of their gons in black, and most of the other classes in freight car red. I chose red as that was what the majority of the classes were painted in at the time I'm modeling. Turns out, this car belongs in a class that was painted black.

Carey

Keep it between the Rails

Alabama Central Homepage

Nara member #128

NMRA &SER Life member

  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Canada, eh?
  • 13,375 posts
Posted by doctorwayne on Friday, March 7, 2014 10:36 PM

cjcrescent

Wayne, what I should have said is the SRR painted certain classes of their gons in black, and most of the other classes in freight car red. I chose red as that was what the majority of the classes were painted in at the time I'm modeling. Turns out, this car belongs in a class that was painted black.

 

 
Okay, got it. Embarrassed  It occurred to me (after I had posted) that the colour options might have been era-specific.  I got caught on that one when I committed to backdating my layout to the '30s with a couple of these Intermountain drop-bottom gondolas.  I had already painted them as seen here:

 
...but many CNR open cars (flats, hoppers, and gondolas) were black until about 1940. 
 
 

Not sure if I'll bother to re-paint them, though. Smile, Wink & Grin

Wayne
 
  • Member since
    December 2003
  • From: Good ol' USA
  • 9,642 posts
Posted by AntonioFP45 on Friday, May 9, 2014 8:17 PM

I had forgotten about these units that I upgraded for my wife's cousin (I posted a thread a couple of years back).

A Bachmann Amtrak Full Length Dome and an IHC Santa Fe dome. Both stripped, Alcladded, and decaled into the Santa Fe scheme. The glazing on the full length dome was tinted green with Alclad's #408 Armoured Glass.

"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"

 


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