Espeefan's Passenger Car Modeling

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I finished up the UP Baggage car This morning. It's ready for the Overland Mail. I guess the UP hated the crews as their versions of these cars had no vents. Must have gotten awfully stuffy in there!

UP Baggage After.jpeg


I finally worked up the gumption to disassemble my S-12 and decoder it. This is a very expensive model (don't ask!), only about 50 were done, and I had not had a Challenger imports model apart before. it turned out to be uneventful and pretty much the same as most brass models. Space was very tight in there, and all I had room for was the little Z scale DZ 126T by Digitrax. It has a 1 amp rating and has served well in other small steamers. Nope, no sound! I have seen sound done on one of these, but the owner had to sacrifice the weight, so quiet and it will pull, or noisy and it will pull itself only. Door #1 Monty! Looking forward to testing it at the club Thursday.

My S-12.jpeg
 


Espeefan said:
There was a green, a gray, this blue and a black one. The roundhouse foremen had some discretion as to what colors could be used, but it was usually what they had around. If you didn’t know, these were used in passenger station service and were big time PR/company image engines. Never dirty.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I had no idea of that, my Dad taught me to learn something new everyday. Again, thanks.
 
Hi there passenger car nerds and the rest of you! Thought I was done but well, not really! My pusher (Brasstrains.com) sent me an ad for a flash sale last week. Like an idiot I went to the site and looked. I found a neat RPO Baggage car for a good price. It's the RPO Baggage for the Shasta Daylight (Oakland to Portland). I have not modeled that train, and don't intend to. The larger windows on that train's equipment would mean an entire new train available only in brass. I just can't! 🤣 This car was seen on other trains though, and remained in Daylight paint until 1960, so it has a broad range of possible uses. Take a look:

Shasta Daylight RPO Bag.jpeg


It's already apart and will go to the blasting booth today. Good news: The trucks are not spring and should be reliable. An interior is not required. Wheelsets are standard pointed end axles so I can fit ball bearing wheelsets for easy rolling. Most of the time here will be spent on decaling.
 
I'm getting pretty practiced at Daylight paint! The Shasta RPO/Bag is done. I just need to decal it, then windows and clear coat. One hiccup: I was going to use full width diaphragms on it, but I can't. The Shasta Daylight cars had a wider Daylight Orange band due to the oversize windows on that train, so I'll have to use a pair of Coach Yard ones out of my dwindling stash. That will place the car's appearance at 1955, which is lucky for me! Now I have to cut out those skinny 3/4" (in HO) stripes. Happy happy joy joy! :rolleyes:

Shasta Daylight RPO Bag Painted.jpeg
 
Hello All. I haven't said this yet, but thanks for your interest in my work. I enjoy sharing, and also writing, and it's nice to know people enjoy what I do here.

My long awaited GGD Harriman passenger cars arrived yesterday. It took almost two years from pre-order to getting them in hand. Just like new brass models. They also didn't bring in much more than the pre-orders, so if you didn't order, you're probably SOL! They have a standby list in case anyone returns them or doesn't honor their commitment. I predict slim pickens here!

So here we are! First up is the diner. I bought two of these. One in yellow for my Overland train to replace the stand in I'm currently using, and one in Olive green for a different train as yet undecided.
Overland Yellow Diner.jpeg


Next up is the lounge. One in olive green.
DOG Lounge.jpeg


Last but not least the "Subs" as they were called. Commute cars that ran from San Francisco down the Peninsula taking workers out to the burbs:
SP Commute Coach.jpeg

I must have checked the wrong box, as these have "Lines" lettering. The "Lines" went away starting in 1946, so I have a choice: Run them as is, or re-letter them. I'm on the fence on that one. I got four of them, all with different numbers. I'll stick them behind a Pacific and run them, I think!

Impressions: Very high quality, very well done. The interiors are excellent and beg for people. I'm going to end up using my entire stash of seated people and ordering more! Those coaches have lots of seats and commute trains were generally crowded in my era. Looks like I'll be prowling eBay looking for seated people.
 


Espeefan said:
Hello All. I haven't said this yet, but thanks for your interest in my work. I enjoy sharing, and also writing, and it's nice to know people enjoy what I do here.

My long awaited GGD Harriman passenger cars arrived yesterday. It took almost two years from pre-order to getting them in hand. Just like new brass models. They also didn't bring in much more than the pre-orders, so if you didn't order, you're probably SOL! They have a standby list in case anyone returns them or doesn't honor their commitment. I predict slim pickens here!

So here we are! First up is the diner. I bought two of these. One in yellow for my Overland train to replace the stand in I'm currently using, and one in Olive green for a different train as yet undecided.
View attachment 272215

Next up is the lounge. One in olive green.
View attachment 272216

Last but not least the "Subs" as they were called. Commute cars that ran from San Francisco down the Peninsula taking workers out to the burbs:
View attachment 272217
I must have checked the wrong box, as these have "Lines" lettering. The "Lines" went away starting in 1946, so I have a choice: Run them as is, or re-letter them. I'm on the fence on that one. I got four of them, all with different numbers. I'll stick them behind a Pacific and run them, I think!

Impressions: Very high quality, very well done. The interiors are excellent and beg for people. I'm going to end up using my entire stash of seated people and ordering more! Those coaches have lots of seats and commute trains were generally crowded in my era. Looks like I'll be prowling eBay looking for seated people.
Click to expand...
I remember riding in the "Subs". The frequent passengers would say, "These cars are so old, You can still see the arrowheads in them". Rode from Sunnyvale to SF every day.

Love your work, I am working on a Daylight, nowhere near your stuff, but I do what I can.
 
JimKrol said:
I remember riding in the "Subs". The frequent passengers would say, "These cars are so old, You can still see the arrowheads in them". Rode from Sunnyvale to SF every day.

Love your work, I am working on a Daylight, nowhere near your stuff, but I do what I can.
Click to expand...
I rode the one at Orange Empire RR Museum in Perris. Ancient! 🤣 The power failed out on the track that ran off the property and the little diesel they have had to come out and drag us back. It was hot that day!

Thanks. I'm fortunate to have a larger hobby budget than many so don't use me as a yardstick. The idea is to have fun. If you're doing that, you're doing it right!
 
Normally I finish one project before starting another. Without that discipline you never get anything done and end up with Mount Crapmore on your bench. Unfortunately, the Subs tempted me too much. These cars have been missing from my inventory for so long I just had to dive into them. I took one apart, did the swap for the generator placement, then added figures. I was right about my 10-12 figure practice. Not enough for these cars, not even close. I'm at 21 here and may add a few more.
Sub #1.jpeg
 
Espeefan said:
Normally I finish one project before starting another. Without that discipline you never get anything done and end up with Mount Crapmore on your bench. Unfortunately, the Subs tempted me too much. These cars have been missing from my inventory for so long I just had to dive into them. I took one apart, did the swap for the generator placement, then added figures. I was right about my 10-12 figure practice. Not enough for these cars, not even close. I'm at 21 here and may add a few more.
View attachment 272279
Click to expand...
I don't remember Red seats, just generic green.
 
I've been working on the GGD cars to the exclusion of the RPO, and the O'Neil's project because I've been waiting like two years for them to get here. Issues were:
The generator was on the wrong end of the car. It should have been on the same side as the electrical cabinet vent on the roof of the car. The fix was to turn the chassis around, which required turning the light bar around so those pogo stick bars hit the electrical contacts in the floor correctly. Screwdriver work and very easy.

The windows. The bevel was much less pronounced than the earlier 60 ft cars, but still there. I thought I might leave them in place anyway. Well folks I tried. The factory windows just aren't going to work if you want to add shades. The gray accents the bevel, and the heat staked windows make mounting the shades difficult. Not impossible, but difficult. On Walthers cars the strip of windows is solid, flat, and wide enough to allow you to attach shades on a flat plane. The heat staked windows on these cars are narrower and you have an elevation difference that makes getting shades to stay in place a challenge. Unfortunately, they have to go! They are easy to remove, and you'll want to shave the heat staked areas gently with a #17 blade to get a smooth surface to mount replacements. I'm sorry about this! I really wanted to make these windows work. They're so close!
Shades Experiment.jpeg


My fix is to cut .010 clear styrene strips .540" wide. Then I place a small dot of canopy glue where each heat stake was. Just a tiny dot. Then I wait 3-4 minutes to let the canopy glue tack up, just like mounting Coach Yard Diaphragms. It will grab right away, but you can move the strip a bit if you need to. The tiny dots of cement will minimize the chances of smearing the glue. You can get a whole side out of a piece of styrene, but I prefer to cut it into at least two pieces. Less chance of smearing glue that way.
Window Replacement.jpeg

Before and after. Shades next! Windows took about an hour, including cutting the window strips.

Before
Before.jpeg

After
After.jpeg

I will be adding window shades and am going to try some commercial ones by Railworks. I'll shar that when they get here. The seat colors I have seen were blue, not red/brown, but I'm not going to change them. Just too much work, and who's going to know anyway? Overall, I'm pleased with them. Yes, there were a couple issues, and no,they're not cheap, but brass versions of this car have gone for $400 on e-Bay, and you have to start with a bare brass car with no interior. I'm thrilled GGD did them for us, and fixing the small stuff is part of the hobby IMHO.
 


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