Passenger car underframe details, need help

[NYSW F45]

Ok so im trying to get as much done from my projects list for an upcoming RPM meet here in NJ. One car is my NYSW Observation car 510. I have a rivarossi cafe observation as the starting point which matches the prototype pretty closely. I added train station products a/c ducts and ends to the roof to match the prototype aswell. I filled in the one end with green putty to bring it flush. So now I turn my attention to the underframe. I had cut out a few molded on details to make room for more prototypical accurate pieces from branchline trains. But trying to get photo's of the more specific pieces is difficult, the car sits on a dead end house track where one side is facing a road. So getting views isn't bad except for the huge chain link fench that obscures your view. The other side is not accesible whatsoever. So I have relied on whatever pictures I can come across.

With the pictures below can anyone tell me what is under the car on this particular side?

This photo is probably one of the better ones. I would like to know what those grey boxes are.

Also, can anyone recommend a way to create this part of the rear of the car under the coupler? The coupler on the model will be a kadee knuckle and box screwed to teh underframe.

 

[NYSW F45]

And lastly, does anyone even make vents like this?

 

[UP2CSX]

I can take some wild guesses. Most of what you see under the car in the first photo are standard battery boxes to provide temporary power when the car is disconnected from the train.

On the side with the yellow air compressor sitting on the service road, it appears to me that the railroad has added a generator, a fuel tank, and moved an air tank further out. To the right of those, it appears they are a transfer switch for the generator and a circuit breaker box. This would make the car self-contained if there was no trackside power available.

The thing under the coupler looks like a piece of angle iron with some recepticles for head end power and, I assume, to be able to pick up power from track side if it's available. A piece of brass or plastic angle iron with a few sprues and wires are really all you need since this detail will be invisible unless you take it off the track and turn it upside down.

That last thing is an attic ventilator and turns in the wind. I imagine it was added to help ventilate the kitchen area or a toilet, which can get pretty stinky at times. Again, no one I know of makes a model of one of these but a straight piece of brass or plastic tube with a round thing on the end with some black lines painted on it will easily pass the three foot rule. If you try to exactly duplicate everything on any model, you spent a lot of time planning and sourcing parts but you will never have a finished model.

 

[NYSW F45]

Jim is there a specific company that makes a generator for passenger cars?

 

[UP2CSX]

None that I'm aware of because they are so rare. I can't see any reason you couldn't take a model portable generator or two and kitbash them together to make the one shown under the business car.

 

[NYSW F45]

i spent close to an hour on walthers.com searching. there were a few possibilities that I could use. Then I thought about getting one, removing some of the plastic on the front side, then adding some wire mesh to it to give it that look from the picture.

 

[UP2CSX]

Yep, that should work. The wire mesh is just there to protect the generator from flying debris but you can use it to hide a multitude of other sins too.

 

[ccool]

Hi !

I don't know if it can help you, i have the instruction for 8-1-2 pullman sleeper of Branchline.

If it can help you, just tell me i will scan them and i think that all instruction are available on branchline web sites.

Thanks !

 

[NYSW F45]

well i pretty much made up some stuff for the underframe with stuff i had lying around from other sprues of stuff. I also found a company that makes that turbo vent in HO.