John, your imagination and capability is outstanding. Thanks so much for providing wonderful entertainment for us mere mortals.
Your scenario of those passenger trains might actually be popular, in reality. Friday Harbor does draw a good number of tourists and has grown in living population. I can envision riding around San Juan Island, staring at the views. It is a pretty place!
You first saw the concept in the Hog Wallow Junction being played with and the various renditions in the small space layout plans I have been toying with. Most of this has come about with the lack of models in my roads of interest which led me to SP&S and then the same thing there to my going freelance. Other things such as health and age have led to smaller layouts and finally my love of narrow gauge, logging, and critters. That has led to my sell off of the big stuff and not having use for any power or cars that cannot navigate at least 8 inch radius. MicroScale's having in stock fairly consistently the Turtle Creek decals and the love of maritime equipment leads to the rest of the story.Nothing says you can't have narrow gauge like operations on standard gauge track and I am doing that with my small power. In that some of the Bandai trains fit in if I choose the model and type carefully. A bullet train just would not be right on the layout, even the reduced size Bandai version. I made mention in the previous post of maybe giving my short trains a fourth car for express and mail. Well I found them, and a little more study of them may lead to the two trains getting that service. The home built RPOs may just end up in the display case after all along with the few pieces of equipment I have retained. And after all the years have passed San Juan Island still doesn't have much of a road system. The harbor has changed, and gone is the fish cannery and fishing fleet, along with the timber cutting, and the quarrying. The only railroad is gone. But in my modeler's license its 1945-50 and it is all still there with even fewer roads.
I found a 6 car set of baggage express cars last night and went ahead and ordered them. About four cars more than I need but could not find anything smaller. Woke up this AM to a polite note from the dealer in Japan that they were out of stock so could I please cancel order with Amazon and try another dealer. Did that and then thought that with all the extra parts if I could just find suitable donor sides I could possibly fabricate my own. Got lucky and found one in a small box where I had a few surplus cars. Into the stripper bath it went. Got to thinking that if I made it a cab car that it would fit better in the scheme of things and I had an extra cab front. 100_4953-1 by John Moore posted Mar 30, 2016 at 11:11 AM
Succeeded in getting the sides cut off and cut to length. Then replaced the windows in the baggage doors that had become damaged and added an additional window in the side to the rear. Next was to try and match the paint which ended up being a yellow tinted with a touch of orange, Another coat of paint still needs to be applied to the new sides. Then I have to shim the sides out slightly with some thin styrene strip. Why I designed this as a cab car was with every car a passenger car it just would not look right with a baggage car shoe horned in between. So this way in either direction this car is either trailing or leading. 100_4955-2 by John Moore posted Mar 30, 2016 at 4:22 PM
The sides are attached just some minor gap filling and touch up paint needed. Next in the order of business is to go inside and attach the ribs where the underbody clips onto. I'm probably going to leave this cab car unpowered but not sure at the moment. May also get a Kato 11-105 or 107 if I go with a powered car. I originally had decided that all cars were to be powered but have since determined that the cab car at each end with a powered chassis is adequate. Found the baggage cars at another vendor so once again they are coming, along with a couple of sets of the container cars with the short containers. And finally yet another diesel, this time a DE-10. 100_4956-3 by John Moore posted Mar 30, 2016 at 7:50 PM
That baggage car looks outstanding. We had a lot of Diesel rail cars in Australia, in sets a configurations similar to yours. Also had single cars for branchline use. A regular use in the 1920s to 1960s was the 'school train'. Remote areas had a train -first steam with 1 or 2 coaches, later railmotors- to take the school children into the larger towns for school and return in the afternoons.
John, I'm impressed with your finished product. There's no evidence the baggage side was cut, spliced, and window added.
Some links to WAGR (Western Australian governmrnt Railways) railcars https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3543/3416496068_7f7fe2f5ce_z.jpg?zz=1 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/ADK_687_approaching_Britomart.jpg http://41.media.tumblr.com/d13acce32526668c38bf6b9f6ca238c7/tumblr_mfbsk4nFLm1qzgfwmo1_1280.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2780/4520842334_76546f5667.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3626/3369192527_83694e4c29.jpg http://www.westonlangford.com/media/photos/107197.jpg and if you want a 'vintage' railcar, don't forget the good old coffeepot, http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/2637654591_0cd050430d.jpg
And a totally different diesel loco, http://www.karlgarin.com/Images/xa1406narembeen.jpg The WAGR X class, a 2-D-2 or 4-8-4 wheel arrangement. It had 4 fixed axles and a 4 wheel lead truck at either end.
The engineer's side window took a bit of thought for a moment. Then I decided that cab front piece would give me one good side to start with. The rear window is from my stash of work car and caboose windows. To the old adage of measure again then measure again I add and file and sand and test fit and then do it again in small measures. TE="mosslake, post: 970211, member: 5261"]Some links to WAGR (Western Australian governmrnt Railways) railcars https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3543/3416496068_7f7fe2f5ce_z.jpg?zz=1 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/ADK_687_approaching_Britomart.jpg http://41.media.tumblr.com/d13acce32526668c38bf6b9f6ca238c7/tumblr_mfbsk4nFLm1qzgfwmo1_1280.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2780/4520842334_76546f5667.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3626/3369192527_83694e4c29.jpg http://www.westonlangford.com/media/photos/107197.jpg and if you want a 'vintage' railcar, don't forget the good old coffeepot, http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/2637654591_0cd050430d.jpg[/QUOTE] All which bear proof that you can take a Japaneses model, change a few things, or add a few, and it is at home in another country. Made some major progress this AM in getting the power chassis under it, now for the couplers.
A shot of all the styrene that lets me fit the power chassis under it and the coupler pads. 100_4957-5 by John Moore posted Mar 31, 2016 at 4:41 PM I again used Bandai's couplers by simply cutting off the end that would have gone in a coupler box and mounting it with a machine screw. About 30 minutes ago I finished the unit except for decals. This is both cabs that will comprise the express train and they are both kit bashes. 100_4958-6 by John Moore posted Mar 31, 2016 at 4:41 PM And I was wondering what to fill my time with while taking a break from packing for the move and the last set to finish the trains arrived in the mail.
I was going to suggest powering the baggage cars so you can populate the coaches/cab's. Looks like you're beating me to it. The modifications look great. Wonder if a different color would help unmodernJapanese them further?
Since I did not want to turn them, thus the cab car at either end, any baggage or express car in the train would stand out like a sore thumb plus break up the passenger sections. Thus the cab car baggage came about. I can run a mail car and an express reefer and still have the passenger section as one section. This is taking the place of the mixed train and the 3rd short two car train. The set of baggage cars I have coming have several different styles including a couple I can run as short RPOs. As far as color goes the Japanese rail system has a wealth of colors and so do other countries in the older equipment.. E="emaley, post: 970285, member: 29468"]Those B trains are like peanuts. It's hard to stop at one. Trey[/QUOTE] I'm building three short trains with cab cars at each end. Other than the open excursion cars that is it for passenger. In the freight department I am going to try their small diesel to see if it is a good replacement for the SWs and RS units. I already know from some research that the Bandai 4 powered axle chassis has a better low speed control than the SWs, I just have to find out if it has the tractive effort I need. And other than getting some of the small container cars that will be it. Everything should blend well with my 44 and 70 tonners and short trains.
John, Amtrak's Downeaster (Boston/Brunswick, ME) used to use surplus F-40's that had been converted to a combination control cab and baggage unit for push operations back to Boston. Irreverent rail fans nicknamed them "Cabbages". You might consider this, assuming you dared paint them green.
I could have ordered a series of cars that were in different colors, slightly different cabs and window arrangements. And I don't know for sure but each car in this set had three roof options so I assume the other set types had that option too. But the cab front and color on this set was what blew my dress up so this is what I got. And the paint jobs on these little units is great, better than some of those 39 dollar American type cars from folks that are better known. So I am not about to undo what they did so well. As I call these my mini RDCs and they also had a RDC model that was straight baggage in the 1 to 1 world.
The passenger fleet almost there. Awaiting the trucks for the center cars on all three sets. And some more decals. The white disappears on that yellow. 100_4959-1 by John Moore posted Apr 1, 2016 at 5:27 PM
