Espeefan's Passenger Car Modeling


Espeefan said:
OK, car assembled, all done.
View attachment 180743
Click to expand...
Ok, I went back and looked though the thread and still missed where you got the individual slatted Venetian blinds for this car. Or did you make those from scratch?

Also just a comment from about 4 posts back. The one with the interior pictures. I was surprised by all the different patterns/colors of carpets, and even one with linoleum on the floors.
 
Iron Horseman said:
Ok, I went back and looked though the thread and still missed where you got the individual slatted Venetian blinds for this car. Or did you make those from scratch?

Also just a comment from about 4 posts back. The one with the interior pictures. I was surprised by all the different patterns/colors of carpets, and even one with linoleum on the floors.
Click to expand...
They did go all out on the car interiors, didn't they? They spared no expense. Lucky for me what you can see from outside the models is pretty limited. I think my head would have exploded if I had tried to duplicate all of that! There is a guy on the passenger car list on the IO groups named Andy Harman. He has scaled photos down, printed them and cut out carpet and so forth. He used to give clinics at some of the RPM meets. He did some really pretty work. For me, the only place it's practical to do that kind of detail is in dome cars.

The venetian blinds are decals made by Circus City Decals. I had to check references to stay faithful to which cars had them. they were found in diners, taverns, parlors, and some sleepers, typically first class accommodations. The rabble got plain old window shades. :)
 
OK folks, next project. After probably scaring the crap out of some of you with complete paint jobs, extensive modifications, interior installations and like that, let's do an easy one! We'll start with a complete car, and we aren't doing anything radical. You'll all remember this photo from earlier in the thread when I discussed stand ins. View attachment 181450

From top to bottom: The updated Athearn Roundhouse baggage car out of the box. They'll cost you around fifty bucks each if you can find them. At this point that would be e-Bay or swap meets, or maybe your LHS if you have one that hangs on to stuff. In the middle we have a Precision Scale brass model. It is prototypically correct, comes factory painted, is ready to run, out of production, and will cost you about $300-$350 on the secondary market. Beautiful model, but a bit pricey. A Coast Mail full of these will cost you a few shekels! On the bottom we have an old Roundhouse version that came as a kit that I modified many years ago. These still come up on e-Bay for cheap. As I type this there are a couple up there right now in the twenty buck range. Plenty good enough for us cheapskates! Yes I'm a cheapskate! 😁 Don't let the brass models fool you. I only resort to those when there is no other way to get what I want, and as an Espee modeler, that happens far too often I'm afraid. I was warned about this many years ago, but I didn't listen. Oh well...too late now!

As you can see looking at the UP car, Athearn took some liberties with their model. The trucks were moved inboard to make negotiating the 18" radius easier, and to allow a common floor. The trucks also had to clear the end well steps on chair cars. The trucks are not quite right for the car but will serve if you like. The roof like all cars in this series (combine, coach, RPO, Baggage, and Observation) has a double row of globe vents. This roof vent configuration was used on early Harriman chair cars that weren't air conditioned. Also note the smaller battery box compared to the other two cars. As delivered these cars were equipped with gas lights. Later upgrades saw dual gas and electric lights and later electric lights only. They also gave us a swinging coupler box to get around that 18" radius. The earlier car kits had truck mounted couplers, so I guess you could say this was an improvement. Then we have the dreaded McHenry coupler that Athearn puts on everything. I won't go into the many ways I hate this piece of crap as I'm pretty sure I'd be preaching to the choir, but they bought the thing and we're stuck with it, or with replacing it as the case may be. 🤷‍♂️ They did give us a nice underbody, as opposed to the old kit which had a very basic "barely there" underbody. The steps are greatly improved, and we now have grabs installed where we had none before. A word on the steps of the updated cars. They are DELICATE! Look at them mean and they'll break. I broke one taking a car out of the box and another with careless handling. They should have been metal, but oh well, they had to keep the model cost competitive! There are brass parts out there if you need them. I managed to reattach them with ACC but now they are even more delicate. My grandchildren would have had their vocabulary greatly enhanced if they had been present when this happened!

Underbody detail.jpg


swinging coupler box.jpg


coupler box removed.jpg


This is a project you can take as far as you want. Since mine were to be layout models and work for a living as well as survive being transported back and forth to the club, I went for basic details upgrades. So we know where we're going. How we get there will follow!
 
Espeefan said:
OK folks, next project. After probably scaring the crap out of some of you with complete paint jobs, extensive modifications, interior installations and like that, let's do an easy one! We'll start with a complete car, and we aren't doing anything radical. You'll all remember this photo from earlier in the thread when I discussed stand ins. View attachment 181450

From top to bottom: The updated Athearn Roundhouse baggage car out of the box. They'll cost you around fifty bucks each if you can find them. At this point that would be e-Bay or swap meets, or maybe your LHS if you have one that hangs on to stuff. In the middle we have a Precision Scale brass model. It is prototypically correct, comes factory painted, is ready to run, out of production, and will cost you about $300-$350 on the secondary market. Beautiful model, but a bit pricey. A Coast Mail full of these will cost you a few shekels! On the bottom we have an old Roundhouse version that came as a kit that I modified many years ago. These still come up on e-Bay for cheap. As I type this there are a couple up there right now in the twenty buck range. Plenty good enough for us cheapskates! Yes I'm a cheapskate! 😁 Don't let the brass models fool you. I only resort to those when there is no other way to get what I want, and as an Espee modeler, that happens far too often I'm afraid. I was warned about this many years ago, but I didn't listen. Oh well...too late now!

As you can see looking at the UP car, Athearn took some liberties with their model. The trucks were moved inboard to make negotiating the 18" radius easier, and to allow a common floor. The trucks also had to clear the end well steps on chair cars. The trucks are not quite right for the car but will serve if you like. The roof like all cars in this series (combine, coach, RPO, Baggage, and Observation) has a double row of globe vents. This roof vent configuration was used on early Harriman chair cars that weren't air conditioned. Also note the smaller battery box compared to the other two cars. As delivered these cars were equipped with gas lights. Later upgrades saw dual gas and electric lights and later electric lights only. They also gave us a swinging coupler box to get around that 18" radius. The earlier car kits had truck mounted couplers, so I guess you could say this was an improvement. Then we have the dreaded McHenry coupler that Athearn puts on everything. I won't go into the many ways I hate this piece of crap as I'm pretty sure I'd be preaching to the choir, but they bought the thing and we're stuck with it, or with replacing it as the case may be. 🤷‍♂️ They did give us a nice underbody, as opposed to the old kit which had a very basic "barely there" underbody. The steps are greatly improved, and we now have grabs installed where we had none before. A word on the steps of the updated cars. They are DELICATE! Look at them mean and they'll break. I broke one taking a car out of the box and another with careless handling. They should have been metal, but oh well, they had to keep the model cost competitive! There are brass parts out there if you need them. I managed to reattach them with ACC but now they are even more delicate. My grandchildren would have had their vocabulary greatly enhanced if they had been present when this happened!

View attachment 181576

View attachment 181577

View attachment 181578

This is a project you can take as far as you want. Since mine were to be layout models and work for a living as well as survive being transported back and forth to the club, I went for basic details upgrades. So we know where we're going. How we get there will follow!
Click to expand...
Simply Phenomenal modeling, ALAN ....
 
I took a break to go out to the Mad City model railroad show with the son. It was OK, but not as large as it used to be. I came away with a pair of express trucks for a car I'm working on, and a police car just like the one Broderick Crawford used to drive on "Highway Patrol" So...let's get started! The first thing you have to do is install diaphragms. These cars look just awful without them. Now you have several choices on what you can do. Here they are:
Diaphragm Options.jpg


IHC also made some, but they are non-working. I chose the old style Walthers diaphragms with the paper bellows. They don't make these anymore, but they turn up on e-bay, though they are a bit pricey, as are the old Walthers black rubber ones. I'm thinking a little profiteering is going on with these two options. You can use the American Limited ones or the Hi Tech details ones, but they are a bit on the fragile side. I have found they don't take transport well. I've mostly transitioned to the Coach Yard ones, but you may get some sticker shock, and if you put them on the old MDC kits, your diaphragms will be worth more than the car. Their advantages are that they work, and they are durable. You pays your money and you takes your choice! For these cars I had some of the old Walthers paper diaphragms in my inventory, so I decided to use them. Instead of the Walthers plastic striker plates I used the etched stainless striker plates that came in the Coach yard sets. They give you a choice of six different striker plates, so actually they are worth the money!
Before:
Combine end.jpg


After:
Diaphragm Installed.jpg


I'll need to remove the swinging coupler, as with it the knuckle is too far out. The knuckle should be just under the striker plate so that when the cars are coupled the diaphragms touch. This is important for me but may be impractical for you. My club has a 48" minimum radius. 30" radius may work, but anything smaller will derail the cars. You'll need to experiment on your layout to find out what works best for you.

This particular car represents a 60-B-9 or 10 car. These cars generally had seven roof vents, four on one side and three on the other. This information was gathered from the SPHTS book on head end cars. All those globe bents weren't right for a baggage car, so they had to go. The roofs on the RTR cars are now held in place with rare earth magnets, which is really nice if you want to do interiors. The kits were plain old glue in place assemblies. If you are doing a car from a kit, you need to install the vents. Then you're going to cut them off leaving the locator pins in the roof.
globe vent removal.jpg

Be careful of the rivet detail! You'll be replacing them with a different type. I happened to have a store of old Walthers parts, and I have a stash of the correct vents. If you aren't so lucky, you can get them here: https://midwestmodelrr.com/scm2250/...gbXs1CNTVJOOd7ii4XYI2Go9X5lx-slBoCvsYQAvD_BwE

For the four-vent side, you can use existing holes. For the three-vent side you'll need to locate the middle vent using a center finding ruler so that everything is symmetrical.
Locating the three vents.jpg


The new vents press right into the existing holes. If you have issues, use a hobby reamer to tweak the hole as necessary. I used good old Canopy glue to attach them.

Installing new vents.jpg
 
Now we've got our seven vents installed and we have to do something with the unused areas with the locator pins in them. I put a little ACC around the pins, and then after that cured, I applied Gunze-Sangyo's Mr. Surfacer 1000. The same stuff can be had by Mr. Hobby. It's a nice brush applied filler. I applied several coats as it's very thin.
Roof Mods prior to paint.jpg

After the Mr. Surfacer cured I sanded it smooth using sanding sticks and abrasive blocks. Be careful of the rivet detail!


after sanding.jpg


This felt as smooth as a baby's bottom when I was finished sanding, so I painted the roofs flat black. Use the paint of your choice. I used Floquil.

The finished roofs looked a little rougher than I prefer:
Painted roofs.jpg


Again, you can't feel any irregularities with your fingers, and the camera is showing it worse than it is in person. I contemplated going over these again with some Tamiya filler, but I don't think it would make a difference, so I'm going to try some light weathering on the roofs and see if it blends in. If not, we'll try the Tamiya filler and a repaint. Note the small vent on the car roof at the top of this photo. It's right beside the middle vent on the three-vent side. This is a toilet vent, and its presence indicates that this is a messenger equipped car. Another indicator is a star above the car number. Being that one guy in the car must have been a lonely boring job!
 
Last edited:
Espeefan said:
I took a break to go out to the Mad City model railroad show with the son. It was OK, but not as large as it used to be. I came away with a pair of express trucks for a car I'm working on, and a police car just like the one Broderick Crawford used to drive on "Highway Patrol" So...let's get started! The first thing you have to do is install diaphragms. These cars look just awful without them. Now you have several choices on what you can do. Here they are:
View attachment 181651

IHC also made some, but they are non-working. I chose the old style Walthers diaphragms with the paper bellows. They don't make these anymore, but they turn up on e-bay, though they are a bit pricey, as are the old Walthers black rubber ones. I'm thinking a little profiteering is going on with these two options. You can use the American Limited ones or the Hi Tech details ones, but they are a bit on the fragile side. I have found they don't take transport well. I've mostly transitioned to the Coach Yard ones, but you may get some sticker shock, and if you put them on the old MDC kits, your diaphragms will be worth more than the car. Their advantages are that they work, and they are durable. You pays your money and you takes your choice! For these cars I had some of the old Walthers paper diaphragms in my inventory, so I decided to use them. Instead of the Walthers plastic striker plates I used the etched stainless striker plates that came in the Coach yard sets. They give you a choice of six different striker plates, so actually they are worth the money!
Before:
View attachment 181652

After:
View attachment 181653

I'll need to remove the swinging coupler, as with it the knuckle is too far out. The knuckle should be just under the striker plate so that when the cars are coupled the diaphragms touch. This is important for me but may be impractical for you. My club has a 48" minimum radius. 30" radius may work, but anything smaller will derail the cars. You'll need to experiment on your layout to find out what works best for you.

This particular car represents a 60-B-9 or 10 car. These cars generally had seven roof vents, four on one side and three on the other. This information was gathered from the SPHTS book on head end cars. All those globe bents weren't right for a baggage car, so they had to go. The roofs on the RTR cars are now held in place with rare earth magnets, which is really nice if you want to do interiors. The kits were plain old glue in place assemblies. If you are doing a car from a kit, you need to install the vents. Then you're going to cut them off leaving the locator pins in the roof.
View attachment 181654
Be careful of the rivet detail! You'll be replacing them with a different type. I happened to have a store of old Walthers parts, and I have a stash of the correct vents. If you aren't so lucky, you can get them here: https://midwestmodelrr.com/scm2250/...gbXs1CNTVJOOd7ii4XYI2Go9X5lx-slBoCvsYQAvD_BwE

For the four-vent side, you can use existing holes. For the three-vent side you'll need to locate the middle vent using a center finding ruler so that everything is symmetrical.
View attachment 181655

The new vents press right into the existing holes. If you have issues, use a hobby reamer to tweak the hole as necessary. I used good old Canopy glue to attach them.

View attachment 181656
Click to expand...
Nice. I'm not an Espee fan...but i can see in my mind a string of these being pulled by one of the beautiful SP 4-8-2s with the skyline casing.
 
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