Clover Glen Interior

I really did the minimal on the interior of the car.  I did modify the Bachmann interior so it was moved down to one end and lined it up with the section windows.  I just created a wall to block the ability to see through the car.  I painted the interior with some nondescript tannish color from a spray can I bought at a big box store.  This is very bear bones, I do not plan to light the car. I may add a few figures.

Based on the location of the layout in the world, this car would be travailing it at night, so most people would be asleep.  

8-5 Sides (Clover Glade)

I was able to pain the sides and ends of the end of the core kit Pullman green. I used Tru-Color brand paint and am very happy with the color. It leaves a nice gloss finish to be able to decal the car. I used a set of Delux gold Union Pacific Pullman car delas from Microscale. The set includes several large "PULLMAN" names and a lot of car names. I

was able to find a "CLOVER" and "GLEN" to build he name very simply. After the decals were properly set, I gave the sides a light coat of Testors Dullcote to tone down the gloss. After it is dry, I add the window glass, railings for the aisles and window shades.

I used the prims glass from a branch line kit for the bathroom windows.  On the one next to the vestibule, make sure to us the one with the space for the car assignment number. 

I used brass wire for the hand rails in the aisle.

I use a green hanging file to make the shades.  I generally keep the aisle ones a the same level, but very the rest in the sections and bedrooms.

Here are the completed sides. 

I started to apply the sides.  I work my way down using ACC to adhere the side to the core.

Another view

Here is another set of 8-5 sides from the NKP Car Company, I plan on painting this car in Pullman two tone gray.  I have another car  ready for paint in the same scheme, so it make sense to do them at the same time. I lke that NKP gives you a modernized door to use. 

8-5 Pullman Roof

I am not sure if the set of sides I am working on to create the 8-5 are from The NKP Car Company or another source.  I have two more complete 8-5 kits from NKP and they include very nice resin cat roofs that are very accurate. If this was not only car I was building I may have used the Bachmann roof, which is in the ball park but not perfect.  The biggest issue in on the aisle side of the car, the A/C duct work is about 50 percent to long.  It should only be about one third of the length of the roof.  I am using a branch line roof from a 6-3, which has an A/C vent only on the bedroom side, very close to the 8-5 roof, and I used New England Rail Service A/C vent material to create the short A/C duct on the Ailes side of the car;  One thins I had to do was remove the Garland vents that would interfere with the NERS duct material.  By carefully using a chisel style blade, the vents can be removed and reused. Two need to be added to this car and save the rest for other projects. 

Duct work in place.

Overall view of the roof

Garland Vents carved of Branchline roof

Bethlehem Car Works carries all the various individual part for Branchline kits, they are a great source for complete kits and any parts you may need for kitbashing projects. 

Freight Car Friday

 To prove I do more then passenger cars, here are a couple of fright cars.  First up is an early PS-1 car I built from a Ted Culotta article in RMC.  I have photos here of the construction,

https://norwichandworcester.blogspot.com/2018/04/ps-1-box-cars.html 

Here is a photo of the completed model

I purchased some of the Eastern Seaboard Models.  This is there first foray into HO scale I hope they continue to do more. 

Both models have yet to be weathered. 

Decals

 

I love decals.  They promise so much potential, the ability to letter some great model that I have built and painted.  I have a good number of decals, from old Walthers’ sets to the latest offerings from Highball Graphics and K4.  When I first started building serious model trains, Accu-Cals were my go-to, they had great sets covering the New England railroads I was trying to model. Microscale is the big kid on the block, Champ and Herald king have faded away and several new suppliers have filled in some of the gaps.  Black Cat Decals does a great job for Canadian railroads.  

The reason I am going on like this is while there are many decal suppliers, the ability to letter Pullman Heavyweight cars is difficult.  The good news is Microscale makes a few different sets in both gold (gold leaf) and Deluxe Gold (Painted Gold) to letter the cars painted green.  You may need to cobble together names, but it is possible.  The two-tone gray cars are a whole other matter. Champ did make decals for these cars painted in the two-tone, both in while and aluminum (silver grey), but these sets are long out of production.  Bethlehem Car works offers these for New Haven cars, but not useful for other railroads. I have been keeping an eye on eBay to pick up a few more sets.

So, for all the decal manufacturers, I ask for new sets of Pullman decals. A good set for the two-tone cars, including stripes.  The sets need lots of names, even sets of syllables to create names would be useful. Additional sets of names for green cars would be useful as well. While I am no expert on the Pullman, I do know of resources and would be happy to help.

More Passenger Cars

Now that I have shown off some of the easier cars to build (or place on the tracks) I am back to creating multi media projects, in this case a Pullman 8 Section / 5 double bedroom heavy weight Pullman.  This one I am building a bit differently, I am using the Bachmann Pullman sleeper as a core for a set of bras car side.  I picked this project up from another modeler who decide he did not want to finish it. The two part care side were already assembled and the core had been stripped off the underbody details.  The core includes the ends. One of the pluses of using the Bachmann Pullman is it has only one vestibule, as did the 8-5 Pullmans, having the correct blind end on the non vestibule end.  As you can see below the car is ready for painting.  even though the core and sides will all be Pullman green, it is easier to paint the parts separately and then assemble.  It is much simpler to add the decals then the appropriate finish, I go either flat or satin, and then add the window material, shades and railings.  At this point I will assemble the whole care. 

I removed the material from from the window band that could be seen
 through the new widows on the brass car sides.  I also sanded down all
the high spots on the core so the sides will fit as flat as possible.

Why a Pullman 8-5?  This car will be a clover serious sleeper, assigned to the NYC but out on Pullman lease.  These cars showed up on a number of New Haven and B&M trains over the years including the Montrealer/Washintonian, the Bar Harbor Express and the Night White Mountains, all in to the mid to late 1950's in both Pullman Green and the Pullman Two Tone Gray.

This is also my 100th post!  I will hopefully get to 200 much quicker.

New Passenger Cars and Proto-freelancing

First of all, sorry for being absent for do long, not real good reason.  I have been building models and doing stuff to make a expansion on the layout that has not been worked on at all.  I just finished writing a review for NHRHTA Speedwitch publication  on the just released New Haven County cars made by Rapido.  They are typical of the previous released of the NH stainless steel cars already released by Rapido, excellent cars.

Now I model the Norwich and Worcester in 1958, and I wanted the baggage lounge parlors for the East Wind.  This is where proto freelancing comes in, I keep the traffic levels and trains from the early 1950's and use it for the late 1950's.  When the real East Wind stopped running in August of 1955, it was typically a 4 or 5 car consist including a heavyweight diner, with the B&M and the NH each supplying a heavyweight car to the pool.  The B&M supplied the Mountaineer, this car can be modeled with either the an old set of concord Jct brass car sides or a relatively new kit from Bethlehem Car Works.  The New supplied on of there standard heavyweight diners, either painted silver gray or silver gray with a green window band.  There are no models out that come close and it is a major kitbash.  I am hoping that BCW will release a NH standard diner, as they have already done the first class NH diner used on the Merchants Limited.  Neither of those car were ever painted silver gray.  The NH did use grill cars in the early 1950's, but again, not stainless steel grill cars around either.  I could use a full NH stainless diner, but that is not what I ended up doing.

I picked up an old school Walthers diner some one had built at a train show..  This is the old stamped metal sides, cast ends and wood floor.  The roof is plastic, and the rivet detail is great, making it one of the "newer" metal kits. Th instruction say is is good for the NH and the NYC, but I can't find any drawings or photos of a similar car on the NH.  I painted it a silver color and used correct black lettering to finish it up.  The interior is a 3d printed one I pickup off of eBay.  I numbered it 5249, one above the last NH heavyweight diner.  It makes a great stand it for short money.

There is a my signature passenger train for my railroad, the East Wind, with the signature cars on it. 

I hope to be better at posting as I continue to work on various projects.  There are lots of passenger cars yet to be built, maybe even a freight car or too!