Paint Shop

[Dennis Holler]

Once you fill the pin holes, do you glue the sides on or solder a rail to screw from underneath?

[sleepmac]

De Bruin, splendid modeling!

Dan Weinhold

[De Bruin]

Thanks Guys
Dennis, I have soldered 90 degree angle "cleats" (standard with BCM car kits) to the bottom of rolled/stamped sides if I'm building the car from a new kit with a removable roof, most of the time I'm just gluing the sides on with E6000 and that's how went with these. They're not as easy to remove as if they were screwed on but it can be done cleanly if you are careful and take your time with an Exacto straight/chisel blade. These salvaged car sides are typically too warped, bent, beat up etc to get an even seam with the roof anyway. The left over escutcheon pin dimples don't consistently flatten out either.

[De Bruin]

Using the the upcoming O Scale South West meet as an impetus to finally get this one done.
The tail car for my Mill Cities Ltd again wearing the early post-war “Corn Belt Route” scheme represents the distinctive (and sadly last) 1st class accommodation the Great Western ran before going coach only in June of 1950. “Club” series 8 section-1 Compartment- Solarium Buffets were a part of a group of rebuilds various roads and the Pullman Co. employed during the Depression in responding to the severe drop in 1st class travel, providing a single car in place of sleepers, a lounge, diner etc.


This is a modified Walthers 4831 that was originally finished ACL and sported a rear observation platform. I performed some crude surgery with a jewelers saw to render an approximation of the prototype plan. In the view above a kitchen service door was added and one of the solarium windows plated over.


This side bore the brunt of the cutting, soldiering rearranging the window plan for the kitchen, compartment and restroom that separate the open sections from the solarium dining. Not very cleanly either, note the rear platform was amputated as well.


Here’s some pre-assembly “sausage”; as you can see in this open interior view I’m not very careful in installing the furniture or people as I primarily just want it to look good through the windows. Likewise the bathrooms have no fixtures and I used one of them to coil the wiring harness that connects the side markers with Jim’s light harness mounted the length of the roof. The kitchen’s entirely fabricated from carved wood. Note the interior walls are way too thick, a trade-off done on purpose as I can cement the sides to them and brace the roof across the length of the car, imparting a significant increase in rigidity and strength to the finished carbody as I suffer handling fragile models these days.


Like the sides, the rear solarium end has been heavily modified by filing to match the plan’s appearance. The solarium's side window arrangement here is the most serious compromise over the prototype, enough to where I felt compelled to assign the car a fictional name consistent with the “Club” series. I could only find two pictures for this specific CGW car in this scheme with the only decent close-up taken after it was dropped by CGW, in service on the Southern’s Tennessean as the Knoxville-Memphis sleeper lounge.
I’ll post the locomotive next and hopefully will have built an appropriate baggage car soon after as well.

[up148]

Beautiful Pete. Really nice job. I really like the paint scheme on CGW and IC passenger trains too.

[E7]

Great stuff as always Pete! Calling you and brother Jim the "gold dust" twins. You guys never disappoint!

[De Bruin]

Thanks guys! Rich, Jim has indeed been very helpful with all of these builds, got some assistance on the F-unit from Sarge too for which I'm grateful as well.
So, finally, the locomotive for this train is a venerable All Nation “F7” which I‘m told is actually a Phase V F3, IMO a reasonably good enough car body to use as a basis for one of the CGW’s passenger F’s, although some may wish to reiterate yet again how “..the windshields are too tall…nose has the wrong contour,” etc etc. (don't care)

Specifically was more concerned with the porthole count, freight pilot and the casting’s upper side intakes plus was already on my shelf in the TBD pile. This one specifically a former Smokey Mountain club engine that I picked up at the 2017 Chicago meet, I’ve previously posted shots of the unit in that original guise and subsequent in-process surgery to the roof and nose. The all-wheel factory drive was a plus too.

CGW rostered a small number of EMD SG equipped passenger locomotives; three F3A’s and four F7A’s and two FP7’s, fitting in well with the road’s large roster of freight Fs as the passenger runs were discontinued through the 50’s and 60’s. Again the AN “F7” required some body work to more accurately match the prototype, adding a door headlight, bug-boards, modifying the SG stack etc. Grills are surplus OMI.

Fortunately Micro Scale offered both the basic engine decals (oddly with drawings for the first as-delivered single stripe scheme lacking the center red stripe as cooked up by the EMD stylists) and a second striping set which again was more than enough to do both the locomotive and all three cars.
The final car still in the queue for my Mill Cities Ltd is a straight baggage that will wear the roads older Pullman green scheme, the only question is whether it’s a 60' clerestory HW or one of their three 1947 lightweight PS 70' cars, I'm perversely leaning toward the latter.

[Dennis Holler]

Beautiuous paint job on that one.

[bob turner]

Yes - Pete is a master painter. Very nice!

But oops? I always thought the AN windshield was a tad high, but assumed I could fix it with a window frame. Now that, in my old age, I am a nose job specialist, I can see it might be worse than I thought. I have four of these, and may have to do some surgery some day.

I really like the CGW paint scheme. Kinda like that Illinois Central Panama Limited.

[De Bruin]

Thanks Guys!
Dennis, I can say by now I'm pretty consistent with paint/decaling, more so after retirement and especially doing it commercially which I do sweat. That has made me very careful. My own projects though don't always work out, and so I do spare you guys when that happen.
Jim and I though are both convinced that many of these "senior citizens" of "1:48 World" deserve the best shot they can get if they're getting re-worked. Candidly good or bad result, I like the process as long as it doesn't involve too much of the mysteries of drive trains, solid state, or soldiering brass car bodies.

Bob, should have talked with you before finishing this; edging the entire windshield acetate cut-out with a thin silver sash indeed improves these for sure. Oddly, that's something I usually remember to do these days. As Homer would say "DOH!"
BTW I might have asked this before but have you ever tried lowering the "brow" on one of those CLW "Phase II" PA's? Saw one done that way for sale at that shop in Pasadena, it's always stuck in my mind as a way to partially salvage that particular kit/build/model's "look" and lord knows there's plenty of them out there.

[bob turner]

Yes Pete. I have come very close on Jim’s etched PA. It involves a lot more than lowering the brow.

I will send you a write up. We are also considering a lost-plastic solution. I think we are waiting on the foundry.

[Dennis Holler]

I have an Atwater AB but one of the halves of the A is growing and of course they done fit well now so I guess I need to keep an eye out for a better half lol

[Nortonville Phil]

Pete,

It was neat to see it running on the DFW portable layout at the South West meet. I wish I had taken a few photos.

[R.K. Maroon]

I wish I had taken a few photos.

I took a lot of video but only a couple of stills:


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ab4ebeifjiwnx8pi3iurv/CGW-Mill-Cities-Limited-01.JPG?rlkey=6mpzimkg9ey24yjf53lyjiinc&dl=0


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/cai784eolxyp8u89r29hf/CGW-Mill-Cities-Limited-02.JPG?rlkey=y5jz9crwikckyjeigimkieni3&dl=0

Pete installed an operating Mars light in the locomotive. I'll need to post some video to show this in its full glory, but for now I will include a frame from one of those videos so you get the idea:


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vonsjq7ke9fqsxs9wfjru/CGW-Mill-Cities-Limited-03.JPG?rlkey=63vzkzzd161eo92stc9l3iij4&dl=0

It was great that Pete got to showcase this train at the meet. We all enjoyed seeing a freshly completed project up and running on the rails.

Jim

[bob turner]

attractive!

I really like the color combinations and the way they are put together.