that is yellow plastic not paint. and no kato engine has the end railings painted. and even the pics. show just the nose railings yellow.
I know they are supposed to be RTR, but would a shot of dullcoat dull the colors down? I have a few units reserved...
Just received 2 Walthers Russell Snow Plows, another Atlas PS 2-bay hopper in PC. Found a 3-pack of Atlas 2-bay hoppers in EJ&E at LHS. -- WARNING-- Pennsy people should not read any further !!! Received Broadway Limited 10 and 4-car sets, with every intention of painting it "Slimy Pond Green" (GF's description !!!) for Penn Central. Hey, I warned you not to read it !!!
Hmmmm...went to The Home Depot yesterday and bought two packages of #4 X 3/8" sheet metal screws to use 'em to mount seven Tortoises under my turnouts on my Emory Center Siding modules. Cost me about two bucks. Still had to grind the tips after I attached the Tortoises so the 1/4" aircraft quality plywood 2 1/2" square bases would fit flush against my splined Masonite subroadbed while the Epoxy cures. Still got four more to install this weekend. Cheerio! Bob Gilmore
“STARVING FOR A DINER”: Part I “May I Take Your Order?” This is ridiculously long for a “latest purchase” post, but it concerns a 40 year quest. Back in 1973, I took my first ride on a “real” regularly-scheduled American train, the Amtrak Texas Chief, which was still running with Santa Fe warbonnets and mostly Santa Fe cars. I noted the consists, car numbers, took photos inside and out. It was my first experience of understanding the function of a car (coach, diner, lounge, sleeper) from the window and door arrangements. I ordered a fish dinner in the diner, the train stopped over a river and a few minutes later, they served my fish dinner. The stop over the river was surely just a coincidence. My diner was Amtrak #8032, which I traced back as former ATSF #1480. External appearance on the no-corridor side- six big wide windows in dining section, narrower window in steward’s section, four small windows in kitchen, and small service door in kitchen. NO passenger boarding doors at all in the car. If I wanted to model a primary long-distance Santa Fe streamliner, I NEEDED a streamlined diner. I quickly learned that early 1970s N scale did not have such a creation. Atlas (Rivarossi) had a corrugated streamlined set with baggage-dorm, coach and sleeper-observation. They also had a smoothside set with baggage-RPO, a car called a “coach” but with windows that more resembled a sleeper, and a “tail car” (observation). No diners here. Atlas/Rivarossi had a heavyweight set with a heavyweight diner close to Santa Fe. Arnold Rapido had a matched set of corrugated streamliners: RPO, coach, dome, observation, but they are all noticeably too short for their prototype except the RPO which was short in real life. So for my Santa Fe streamliner, I lacked any source for a streamlined corrugated full baggage car, diner, or sleeper. Lounge too but drinking and card playing did not seem as high a priority as having something for passengers to eat on a 28 hour Texas-to-Chicago trip. I completely ignored the Mini-Trix “American Tortoise” streamlined cars offered in the early 1970s, turned off by their colored window band, a different color for each roadname, which bore no known relation to any prototype paint scheme. I didn’t realize it but the MiniTrix cars were also undersized- it stands a scale foot lower than other N scale cars (rather noticeable), a scale foot narrower and shorter at 72 scale feet compared to 78 to 84 feet. However, had I looked I would have seen that the car has six wide windows in one end, like the diner, smaller windows in the other end, a bit like the non-corridor side of the diner, and a door on the kitchen side with no visible passenger steps, which slightly resembles the small service door. The Minitrix “coach” may have been closest N scale stand-in to a streamlined diner in the early 1970s. The 1978 Concor catalog listed N scale corrugated cars in Santa Fe livery: sleeper, coach, dome, slumbercoach, observation. The same cars also appear under the Rowa and MRC name. I bought them all, though I didn’t really need the dome, slumbercoach, observation for my Texas trains. The cars are corrugated under the windows but lack the corrugations found over the windows on Santa Fe and other prototypes. Maybe I could use decals to create the higher corrugations a la the shadowstripes. At last though, I had a sleeper. Note that the coach was divided into two sections. Fred ¤¤¤¤¤’s “Prototypes for N scale Passenger Cars” site, (http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/protopass4.htm) notes they are patterned after coaches in the 1610-1668 delivered to the C&O by Pullman in 1950. Santa Fe had a series of three streamlined divided coaches designed for segregation laws in Texas, but the Concor coach does not resemble it. However, I discovered the car does have some use as a dining facility of sorts. Sometime in the late 1970s, I began a listing of all published Santa Fe car plans and roster photos by car type and series number. Then I drew or photocopied plans or photos as close as I could to N scale and made a portfolio to consult when I visited train shows or hobby shops, or looked at catalogs or ads. I could place a model next to the N scale plan and see how well it fit. I scanned part of my portfolio and are reproducing a couple pages here fairly small, to show what I did while minimizing impact on the copyright holders’ sales of their books, magazines and photos. I discovered that the Concor divided coach was close to being a MIRROR IMAGE of one side of Santa Fe snack diner-lounge #1396, rebuilt 1952 from bar-lounge #1396 to become the only streamlined lounge diner on the Santa Fe. The side with the blanked middle window had the passenger door on the right end on the prototype, and on the left end on the model. The other side of the prototype car had full-width windows at the middle of the car. Oh, and the prototype had a corrugated Budd roof. But for the first time, N scale had a diner of sorts, through a combination lounge-diner would not be expected on a long distance primary train like the Texas Chief. It might serve for the Houston to Clovis California Special, a secondary train that mixed streamlined corrugated, smooth side and heavyweight cars. (continued...)
“STARVING FOR A DINER” Part II: Make-do snacks Concor also announced in 1978 it would come out with a smoothside dining car before its next catalog. I bought one and wondered if I could GOO Campbells corrugated siding on it to make a Santa Fe diner. At least it had dining car tables and seats modeled inside it. The chances for a streamlined dining car picked up about 1980 with N Gauge International’s “Golden Brass series” kits for California Zephyr cars with brass car sides and ends, and a Con Cor corrugated roof. From the corridor side, it looks like a Santa Fe diner. From the other side, well it was a streamlined diner anyway. So why am I showing unbuilt kits and kitbashing fodder instead of completed projects. This fact is, I was accumulating equipment for a monster dream layout that would accommodate full-length passenger trains. My existing layout was freight-only with 9 ¾ inch radius “train set” curves. In 1985, JnJ came along with brass car sides for a dining car, very much like Santa Fe’s except it lacked any windows in the kitchen section. Maybe I could drill and cut those out, although I was shy of doing a sharp job. JnJ also produced a lunch counter diner that matched the Santa Fe exactly, nothing needed except assembly on a core or donor car. Cars that fit this exact profile sometimes ran in the consist of the California Special. (continued...)
“STARVING FOR A DINER” Conclusion: Enjoy your meal! Over the past year, I have been downsizing my fleet to get rid of cars that don’t really fit, and I have taken a close look. The JnJ sides COULD be my full diner if I could make decent kitchen windows. I heard about Kato making an authentic Super Chief set but they have not seen selling passenger cars except in sets recently. I didn’t want to have to buy a bunch of cars I didn’t need to get the one I wanted. Without much expectation, I checked eBay and saw a seller breaking up a Kato Super Chief set who offered a Super Chief Diner #1341 individually. I went to my folio of car plans and looked for #1341. Couldn’t find one with that number. But there was a #1341 lounge dormitory. And the plan fit the seller’s picture. I looked in MY roster and discovered I already had #1341. A nice car but not a diner. I wrote the seller with a question, did he realize his listing was not actually a diner but a lounge? I thought questions and answers about items were shown in eBay listings, but the question never showed up and the seller did not respond. I reported my experience on Trainboard’s N scale eBay Humor thread. A couple weeks later, the actual Kato Super Chief diner appeared in an eBay listing. I bid a little above one-fourth the retail price of a Kato four-car set. My wife and I were watching a video when the auction ended and I didn’t get a chance to outbid. Lost by a few dollars. I asked eBay to notify me of any Kato N-scale diner listings. They kept referring me to complete sets, to El Capitan high-level diners, HO cars. Eventually I saw one just for a diner, good old “Diner #1341” (the lounge-dorm!) Perhaps I shouldn’t blame the seller. The cars in the Kato set seem to be nicely boxed but with boxes that have no item number or identification of the individual car. Finally: a REAL Kato Santa Fe diner came up for bids. I bid somewhat more than I really wanted to pay, but I did not know how often these were going to come up for individual sale. This time I won the auction for only a little more than one-fourth the retail cost of a four-car set. It is numbered #603, which usually ran only on the Super Chief. There was however a #1488 which ran in other service and is substantially identical. I can change the number. So my 40 year quest is at an end- except for lighting, painting seats and tables, simulating dinner plates, adding dining customers... Now I need to go lay some broad radius track.
Kenneth, I'm very impressed with your 40 year's worth of patience, focus, and workmanship. You've created a lovely diner. For me, I'm not as patient or as creative as you, though I do have some focus for my latest (of eight) layout. Thanks to Robin and Mike Fifer I have the following on my workbench...... The coal tower and sand dryer are perfect for our little teakettles that we've had for years, gonna keep 'em too. Figured we can keep the teakettles maintained and fueled for a good 10 more years for what EMD wants for their Geeps. EMD isn't offering any trade-in for 40 year old teakettles, doncha know. I was torn with buying the cinder conveyor. However we were able to get a good price from a Class-1 that had 100% dieselized. We figure the cost will be paid back in about two years by the labor we save from the 3-4 guys who've been shoveling cinders dumped on the track into wheelbarrows, pushing them up a ramp and dumping into gons. We're not laying the guys off, but they're young, so are being promoted to the track gang, replacing men who retired after 40-50 years. Hey, this is a small community operation, we're all family here. The crane will be placed over the RIP track for lifting cars needing minor repairs and truck replacement. Sure beats using house jacks for years, plus got a good price from a scrap metal yard that needed a heavier crane. Ya know, the older you get, the more fun your own imaginary N-Scale world becomes...LOL
Got the next installment of the Lowell Smith American Freedom Train. In this case, the Entrance and Exit cars for the interior displays.
I got a 5-6 piece bundle of atlas flex track for $4.00 on consignment at LHS, then proceeded to pay $4.50/piece for store stock atlas flex track. Also got a huge box (like size of Pepsi Cube etc) full of trees/lichen/etc for $5.00 ! It pays to be at LHS when they open on Open House weekend Also got my son an HO Medusa Cement facility, since he has a handful of covered hoppers, this will be his first industry. That is after we receive expansion track pack from a not so LHS, where I also order 6 Maryland Midland coal hoppers that were on sale for $10 each. So now we are both waiting for mail to arrive next week .
Sorry guys, this was just a joke, I did not take the photo, just copied it of the add. It is a used one that I purchased in Tulsa OK and should be delivered to my home this coming week end. It is an Early Christmas present for the wife and I. I have been working in Idaho for the last couple of months and have to go home to accept the delivery and look at my layout to figure out what I may need in the way of added structures and or rolling stock that I can purchase while working here in Idaho at the new Simplot potato processing plant, when this plant is completed it will be the largest potato fry and hash brown manufacturing facility in the US were all the fast food fries and hash browns come from.
Found two seemingly lightly used ER models D&H sharks (A-A set in original box)at a local show for $40. It was a good find for me. A different dealer had an A-B set of NYC sharks. Bazinga! 'Twas my whole budget, but what a way to spend it!
