I have been doing some simple kit bashing to upgrade the looks of some old Athearn baggage cars, to represent cars rebuilt by the C&O in the 1950s.
The cars are close on length, but the doors are too far apart to be C&O cars. However, the main spotting feature for these cars is the newer smooth doors with the rounded corner windows after the rebuild. A friend laser cut some doors for me and I think I can live with the spacing inaccuracy.
Simply replacing the doors makes a world of difference in the appearance of the cars. I did go a bit further and grafted the round roof from an Athearn round roof coach on one of the cars as the C&O had both round roof and clearstory roof cars.
I converted the cars to body mounted couplers, still need to add diaphragms and roof grabs.
JB
The cars are close on length, but the doors are too far apart to be C&O cars. However, the main spotting feature for these cars is the newer smooth doors with the rounded corner windows after the rebuild. A friend laser cut some doors for me and I think I can live with the spacing inaccuracy.
Simply replacing the doors makes a world of difference in the appearance of the cars. I did go a bit further and grafted the round roof from an Athearn round roof coach on one of the cars as the C&O had both round roof and clearstory roof cars.
I converted the cars to body mounted couplers, still need to add diaphragms and roof grabs.
JB