01-10-2011, 09:05 PM
Haven't been on the site much lately, but have been banging away at these cars. I ended up with 12 of the ex-Santa Fe cars and 15 of the ex-Milwaukee Road cars to do. 
Here's where I stand on the models:
So I am doing 15 of the these:
And 12 of these:
I think the prototypes are actually 57 foot cars, but since I am using #4 turn-outs, I don't want to go over 50 foot on rollingstock, so I am compressing the real thing by using the Athearn 50 foot smoothside reefers for the Milwaukee cars and Athearn 50 foot outside braced reefers for the santa fe cars. Both are decent matches once some mods are done.
These proto cars are in a number series from around SLC 120 to SLC 199. The ATSF cars are from 120 to 140 and the others are from 141 to 199 with various patches and paint. I have photos of about 40 of the cars so far.
On the SF cars, the diesel tanks are rounded instead of square like what comes in the kit, so I made a bunch of them from styrene tube and strip and squadron putty.
Another mod on the SF cars is the wheelbase. The trucks are moved in towards the middle a bit as compared to the Milwaukee cars, so I did that by modifying the athearn chassis.
Also replacing all the weights with nonmagnetic weights, and putting Atlas 70 ton roller bearing trucks on. Then body mounted Kadees and a little fake brake rigging rounds them out. Only thing, this project has really been keeping me from the layout, although I did have another visitor yesterday. Apparently the guys at the LHS are impressed, and have been spreading the word.
Here's where I stand on the models:
So I am doing 15 of the these:
And 12 of these:
I think the prototypes are actually 57 foot cars, but since I am using #4 turn-outs, I don't want to go over 50 foot on rollingstock, so I am compressing the real thing by using the Athearn 50 foot smoothside reefers for the Milwaukee cars and Athearn 50 foot outside braced reefers for the santa fe cars. Both are decent matches once some mods are done.
These proto cars are in a number series from around SLC 120 to SLC 199. The ATSF cars are from 120 to 140 and the others are from 141 to 199 with various patches and paint. I have photos of about 40 of the cars so far.
On the SF cars, the diesel tanks are rounded instead of square like what comes in the kit, so I made a bunch of them from styrene tube and strip and squadron putty.
Another mod on the SF cars is the wheelbase. The trucks are moved in towards the middle a bit as compared to the Milwaukee cars, so I did that by modifying the athearn chassis.
Also replacing all the weights with nonmagnetic weights, and putting Atlas 70 ton roller bearing trucks on. Then body mounted Kadees and a little fake brake rigging rounds them out. Only thing, this project has really been keeping me from the layout, although I did have another visitor yesterday. Apparently the guys at the LHS are impressed, and have been spreading the word.