Anyone have these? I think they're nice models, but the N scale version is a little lacking compared to its HO counterpart, particularly in the cab car. On the cab end below the body there's a blank space save for the coupler. The HO version has a plow, hose receptacles, the whole bit. Has anyone tried to detail the cab car ends? Is it worth body mounting couplers to these babies? And has anyone added directional lighting to the cab cars? Here's the prototype:
I have a set of these I've been detailing. The couplers were replaced with body mounted Z scale couplers, and I am in the process of adding a pilot to the cab car (Bad pic, I know, but I took it months ago with my lousy old camera) I'm also working on adding working ditch lights and backup lights to the cab car (And to the F59, for that matter). So far my experiments with adding pickups and wiring to the cab car have been frustrating, to say the least. I doubt I'll be doing much switching with these , so I may simply control the cab car's lights with a switch on the bottom of the car. If that works, I may add interior lighting to the cars, too. I also plan on tinting the windows, painting the interior, adding figures, and detailing the loco...
Looks nice so far!!! Is that just styrene? What radii can these cars take if they're body-mounted? My layout has 18" minimum. Whereabouts do you live? I'm in Hollywood.
The pilot is just two pieces of styrene- one for the back, and one for the bottom bar. I can't recall the thickness, I'll take a look next time I can. I've run them through the 9" curves in my yard, so there really isn't much difference there. if anything, they derail less there now. They run great on my 18" mainline curves. I'm in Simi Valley. It's nice finally living somewhere I can watch trains without having to travel too far :shade:
I have the Caltrain cars. They are very nice in my opinion, with the separate grabs and other details. It's true that there are the missing details on the bottom of the cab end (The top of the cab end is excellent, BTW.) But OTOH, there aren't any glaring deviations from the prototype that need fixing. Body mounting should be relatively easy for how those things go. I plan to detail the cab end, and eventually do the lights. (I have a bigger problem, though, which is that no one makes a loco for my train... ). Lighting will be a challenge, but altogether, if you are trying to decide if you want these, I recommend them.
CalTrain uses F40s right? Get yourself an undec, paint it and get some Microscale CalTrain decals for it...
Thanks for the radius info...I can see where the bottom bar is on the pilot, but how did you make the whole thing look like one molded piece? Can you post a pic of the underside sometime?
Oh yes, another project to do, it's about number 10 on my list right now!!! Gotta finish Grant's F45 first... In any case, what I really want is an MP36PH-3C, heh heh
The back piece is .010" styrene cut to fit the bottom of the car, with a hole for the coupler. The bottom bar is cut from .040" styrene and cemented on to that. The whole assembly is then glued to the bottom of the car shell. Here's a better shot of the end: And one showing the underside, with the pilot, the Z coupler, and the truck pickups:
What looks to be a shim is just the lid of the coupler box. I simply drilled and tapped 00-90 holes right into the floor and screwed the couplers on. They are slightly high, bit this doesn't seem to be a problem.
