Espeefan's Passenger Car Modeling

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Yeah, sometimes the project will sit a few weeks while the fun returns... My projects end up disjointed and sometimes I forget what the plan was. Too many low hanging fruit show up.

But, your projects go into great detail in both the work and the process, so greatly appreciate the frustration that can come from this.
 
Hi guys! I got the passenger cars clear/flat coated yesterday before heading off to the club. A 50-50 clear flat mix gives a nice fresh paint look on these cars while knocking down the gloss finish. In my era the passenger trains were clean, always. The most you might see was some dust on the trucks. The coach yard even had a guy who ran around and painted trucks black when cars were being turned. Windows next. On another front the resistors for the F unit headlights turned up, so I finished the first unit, buttoned it up and took it to the club for testing. It ran nicely, smooth and quiet, but of course, Kato. :) I took a photo for comparison. Athearn Genesis FP-7 on the left, Stewart on the right. The Stewart sits just a skosh higher, and Athearn did much better with the cab windshield. For their time I think Stewart was the gold standard. A couple of decades separate the issue dates of the models. I think I bought my first Stewart F around 1992 or 3. It's no contest that the Athearn is the better model, but even after 20-30 years I think the Stewart holds its own quite nicely, and I got these things for a song! As you can see, the shells are dimpled for grabs.

Stewat vs Athearn F's.jpeg


The excellent Detail Associates F unit detail kit is no longer available unless you can find one on e-Bay or at swaps or dusty parts bins at hobby shops, but I did run across these:

F un it dress up 1.jpeg


F unit Dress up 2.jpeg


They were designed for the old Athearn Super Power F's. I did a number of those models, detailed them up, even installed snow plow pilots and the old American Model Builder windows, including the inserts to correct the windshields. They were sold off long ago to finance better models, but they were fun to do. Because the shells are dimpled for grabs I won't need the drilling templates. Here's hoping the Walthers grabs fit the Stewart holes. Lots to do today. I need to cut the grass between rainstorms, today is lunch out with the wife day. We swap between a fish fry, and Solly's Grill which has the best butter burger and fried cheese curds in Milwaukee. There are a couple of other errands in the mix as well, so I may not get to the bench until tomorrow. We'll see!
 


Morning All! Yesterday was a very productive day. Two decoders installed in the Stewarts, all four A's done. The B units will be easier, as I'll put in cheapie Digitrax decoders. Why waste six function decoders on something that needs motor control only? After the eight Stewarts there are three Proto 1000's to do. So here's progress:

The windows are in. I sprayed Alclad flat on one side of the men's & women's bathrooms to simulate frosted glass.

Windows in.jpeg



Today I'll be working on interiors. For teh Oliver Millet, here's where we're going:

Oliver Millett Floor Plan.jpeg


Note the interior partitions are provided. Thank you Precision Scale! :)

Floors.jpeg


One thing I need to do here bugs me just a little. I have to install markers. This car was always the last in the train, so it has to have them. I'm not crazy about drilling holes in the car, but it's necessary. I need to find that drumhead too.


Oliver Millet Info.jpeg


Now let's shift gears over to the F units since I spent a good part of the day on them!

The 12 volt bulbs and light pipes had to go of course. I bought some of these LED bulbs:

LED Bulbs.jpg


No light pipes in this model, just these little lenses:
F-3 Headlight.jpg


One other quick thing: The Stewart shell is held to the chassis by a clear plastic part that is also the porthole window casting. They are loose in there, so shell removal can be very easy or a real pain. It's a matter of luck which you get. I recommend gluing them to the shell with a little Canopy Glue as shown here::

F unit side windows.jpg

a few dabs of canopy glue then slip them into the notches ahd the windows into their holes and allow to dry. End of issue.

The lenses have to be drilled to accept the LED's. My little Micro Mark drill press made short work if this, but you can hand drill them too.

Drilling out the lens for LED.jpg


I used a little Canopy glue to tack them in place and let it dry:

Mounting LED's in the lens.jpg


While the glue dried I lubed the chassis. Anything that has sat this long needs lubed before running. The trucks were dry so a dab of grease where the orange arrows show and some LaBelle light oil on the worm tower bearings and motor bearings as shown by the red arrows. Note for wiring, the negative terminal is on top as shown by the green arrow. This allows me not to have to reverse wiring after testing.

Chassis Lubed.jpg
 
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The headlight castings just press into the shell, though I believe I'll have to cut the F-7 casting (dual lights) to avoid light bleed through.

F-7 lights installed.jpg


The below pic shows an F-3 decoder installed. The resistor (680 ohm, 1/4 watt) is soldered in and I'll hook that up just before installing the shell. Next I have to do the railings and grabs.
 
Reviewing the post, I find I missed a pic. The forum allows you to upload 10 attachments per post, and I topped out, then lost count! Here is the decoder installed and wired up. I'll attach the headlight wires after the railings and grabs are done, and just prior to buttoning her up. This one is an F-3 chassis. F-7 units will get the green Function 1 wire soldered to the pad indicated by the blue arrow. One last note: On one or two of the units I noticed noisy operation during testing. This was solved by loosening up the decoder mounting screws a bit and allowing the decoder to float.

Decoder wired.jpg
 
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Seats going in on the RPO Coach. A little extra care is required here to avoid the interior partitions I added. I also have to skip a row because of the interior stiffener. I'll put a closed window blind on each side here to hide that. I had enough seats for this car but need to paint more for the air-conditioned coach and another couple of them that didn't get interiors but need them. A car with no interior doesn't look right in a train full of cars with them!

RPO Coach Interior mock up.jpeg
 


Kusojiji said:
I never would have thought to extend the contacts with solid wire. I have extended the wires instead. I like that your option is reversible.
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Yeah, Digitrax used to offer a version of this decoder with the solid wires already done, specifically for Stewart F's. I just use the solid wires off the factory board. There's some pics of that further up the thread. I still have to solder the truck leads to them, as they are too sloppy. The factory board provides some tension that isn't there when doing it this way.
 
Espeefan said:
Yeah, Digitrax used to offer a version of this decoder with the solid wires already done, specifically for Stewart F's. I just use the solid wires off the factory board. There's some pics of that further up the thread. I still have to solder the truck leads to them, as they are too sloppy. The factory board provides some tension that isn't there when doing it this way.
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Nice work. Always good to follow along on your projects. Thanks for sharing
 
Well I'm back in the DC power business. I got a hold of this Troller power pack out of the same estate. New in the box, still in the plastic wrap! I've done a little research on them, and there are many opinions, not all that great, but for testing on a short test track or the bench treadmill, it should do fine.
Troller.jpeg


Heading down to the basement today to paint those seats and other interior parts, and correct a couple of wiring mistakes I made. Yeah, it happens. 🤬 I should have these three cars finished up this coming week and be able to test them on the layout. After that I need to decide what to do next. Probably a steamer, as there are so many in the wings. I also have a set of Stewart F-7's (Santra Fe Warbonnets) to do for the club, but I won't be posting that here, as it'd be redundant. Any thoughts audience? :)
 
The F-3B's are ready for decoders. Two function decoders only in these. The original owner had bought four A's and two dummy B's so I'm doing what I'm pretty sure he intended: swap out two of the A shells for B shells for an A-B-B-A powered set. I scrapped out the B chassis for spare Stewart parts. Stewart dummy trucks actually had metal wheels and electrical pickups/outer beatings that could be made live. See that Santa Fe A up top? That's one unit of an A-B-B set of Proto 1000 F-3's that will get the same treatment.

F-3B's.jpeg



I painted up the RPO interior parts and the rest of my plastic seats. I detail painted the seats last time around, but this time I'm considering just leaving them dark brown. It'll depend on what's visible. There's really no need to waste effort on details you won't see, and this process keeps evolving!

Painted seats Dark.jpeg


Now I have to piece together the lounge interior parts. Onward!
 
OK, I have the Oliver Millet lounge interior pieced together. That took several hours of cutting Walthers interiors apart and test fitting things. I have it complete, and actually pretty faithful to the prototype. Now comes cutting, fitting, sanding, and trimming. Not necessarily in that order. the six seats to the right in the cutting mat have to go up inside the car body due to how the model is made. I also have to do some trimming as I have an interior cross brace to clear, so I'll probably lose some seats. Window shades to the rescue. This is an interesting car. Note it has two standard sections, though in Del Monte service I can't imagine anyone sleeping in it. The Del Monte was a rich man's train. San Francisco to Monterrey. It actually lasted a long time because regular passengers had the financial and political clout to keep it running long after the SP would have liked to get rid of it. The lounge offered everything you might need. Cocktails, a sandwich, conversation, and a nice view. I made the drive from San Jose to Monterrey some years back. Pretty country. Here's where we are:

Oliver Millet Interior.jpeg
 
The three car interiors are nearly finished. All I have left are window shades and passengers. I also have to properly adjust the pigment of the passengers in the forward compartment of the Jim Crow RPO Coach. Not politically correct, but period accurate. Seems all my cheapie e-Bay figures are all Caucasian. :oops: The RPO fixtures are up inside the car body. Note the wood paneling in the lounge. Its actual wood, sliced very thin with a cloth backing. I've had this stuff for years, and this is the first time I've used it. I painted the kitchen fixtures Alclad Chrome, and I'll see if I can't find an attendant among my standing figuresThe glue needs to dry so it's break time!

Interiors.jpeg
 
If you can find Reaper Paint Brown Liner it will do a great job as a contrast paint for taking a caucasian mini to african-american.
Espeefan said:
The three car interiors are nearly finished. All I have left are window shades and passengers. I also have to properly adjust the pigment of the passengers in the forward compartment of the Jim Crow RPO Coach. Not politically correct, but period accurate. Seems all my cheapie e-Bay figures are all Caucasian. :oops: The RPO fixtures are up inside the car body. Note the wood paneling in the lounge. Its actual wood, sliced very thin with a cloth backing. I've had this stuff for years, and this is the first time I've used it. I painted the kitchen fixtures Alclad Chrome, and I'll see if I can't find an attendant among my standing figuresThe glue needs to dry so it
Click to expand...
 


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