A New Adventure

There is a lot changing 'in the 40's' for me, as there seems to be for many people.  One of those things is a new interest that is growing for me in modeling passenger equipment, thanks in part to detailing up the Hickory Creek last month and also in part to the inspiration delivered by the new Rapido E8A locomotives in Conrail's executive Office Car Special paint scheme.  

Suddenly, I have a need for older passenger cars on the Onondaga Cutoff!

The fabulous research by Wes Reminder, a longtime Conrail modeler and fan of the executive train, is documented and available at his great website:  https://www.the-boring-the-adoring.com/conrail-blog

The basics are there along with Wes's spectacular modeling.  Each car on the prototype train has a whole story to it, and many were modified through the years.  I am working to emulate his work to create models for 1994 that will fit in line with the OC and with the regular operation it supports.  I will model several cars using the Walthers passenger cars available to get models that are close, and then will modify, detail, light and paint them to match prototype photos.

Walthers cars are great, and come apart with the sides as a separate molding of styrene.  When you remove the windows too, now you've got a side that is easy to strip.   

While the parts soak in 91% isopropyl alcohol, I worked on the new paint color. No one makes the correct color available for sale for custom painters, so we have to mix our own.  Here's my first try ever using TruColor paint.  This is a mixture of their Southern Green, PRR Brunswick Green, Pullman Green, and a bit of black.  

Close, but too light, by a slight margin.  So back to the drawing board.  

Too dark.  Hmmm.  A light sanding and back to the drawing board.  

Success!  At least, close enough for my eye.  

With the paint figured out I turned to detailing some of the interior of the first car.  I made the beds and painted the features to match photos I found online of the interior, or at least close enough.  I also installed lighting and replaced the wheelsets to ensure good electrical pickup.  

As you can see, I am getting into this and having fun.  It's satisfying work and will lead to a great new addition to the railroad. 

More coming, soon!

The Hickory Creek

Modeling projects can find us just in the same way as we can discover them.  

Tom Schmieder, a close friend and fellow modeler, set up a great trip for a group of us aboard the former New York Central observation car 'Hickory Creek', a 1948-built streamlined car that was intended and used on the famous NYC 20th Century Limited train between New York City and Chicago.  The trip was the center of a memorable day where we had a great time while the car rolled on its original route from New York City up to Albany and return. 

Out of the blue, Tom presented me a model of the Hickory Creek - a beautiful brass car that had been painted and lettered to match the car in its current appearance.  Only issue, we found, was the the interior of the car was bare brass.  Tom went ahead and installed a decoder and lighting for the interior, marker lights, and rear drumhead, and challenged me with doing the interior detailing to match the car on our trip.  Challenge accepted!

I am a total newbie at interior details on passenger cars.  I ride commuter trains to work daily, I have ridden more than half of Amtrak's routes, yes - but my passenger modeling to date was a pair of Amtrak trains to which I installed lighting and figures, and exterior weathering.  

As it turns out there are companies in the hobby that do interior detail kits.  I decided for this one to try out one of the old Walthers interior kits on ebay - and it turns out it was from the 1970's!  It was intended for the Athearn blue box cars of that era.  Still, with some paint arranging we were off and running.  

The floor is styrene with some of the kid's tissue paper as a 'rug'.  The pattern is very similar in fact to the current rug in the car.  I painted seats to match photos from my time riding the car and arranged the seats in the same manner as the current layout.  

Figures came next, checking carefully for clearances and arranging figures to look natural with the lighting.  Lots of trial and error here.  

I even made a flower vase out of some foliage and an old Athearn headlight lens.  This sits on a small round table at the very back of the car on the prototype.  

This was starting to even be - dare I say it - fun!  These cars are a lot more challenging to model with the interiors and windows and lights, but without a doubt the results are impressive.  

And at night?  Oh man....Tom's lighting really is beautiful and makes this all worthwhile.

Not bad for a first try, right?  I am really excited how this is coming out.  This is opening the door to how I will also model the cars for the Conrail 'Office Car Special' - the famed OCS train.  

More to come!