Changing a simple coach

[shortliner]

Bernhard just a thought - what about "interfacing"? This is a fabric in various "weights"(including one that is very thin rather like Woodland scenics matting for trees) that is used, either plain or iron-on, for stiffening shirt cuffs and collars, I used it for "dragon skin" when I made Fantasy miniatures. Paint a sheet of glass with copydex, lay the interfacing onto it while it is wet, paint another layer of copydex over the top, and leave to dry. You get a very thin, flexible, rubbery sheet, one side flat and smooth from the glass, the other side drys slightly textured. Peel it off the glass, carefully because it will stick to itself, and lay it on a pre-glued roof, leave to dry and trim afterwards. I used it for wings, laid warty side down, under a wire skeletal frame and folded back over the frame and pressed down, so that it stuck to itself. Far better than the aluminium kitchen foil that was the suggested method of doing it

[modelsof1900]

Thanks, Josh!

Sortliner, your ideas are maybe very well working ideas however I must try to get materials which I never used and now the problem - I do not know where i could get them. I think that these things are very specific and so I have a problem. Unfortunately own omporting of such products from US is no more possible because importing of fluids is forbidden.
However I think that I should have success with all the many other ideas given here in thread. Thanks in any case!

[shortliner]

Bernhard - the interfacing should be available from any shop that sells fabric for dressmaking, Copydex is a latex based adhesive that should be available in Germany <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copydex">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copydex</a><!-- m -->. Oh ,and I'm in UK

[P5se Camelback]

SWEET! Nice work!!!

... Yeah ... Me too!

[modelsof1900]

Hallo to all the friends here in forum again. I was busy for a longer time with a few other modeling projects and especially also with non-railroad projects so that the model railroading must make a step to background. But now I will continue my description of changing this simple passenger car to a well modeled V&T car #18.





If you remember these were my last pictures her in forum.



I exchanged the not good looking plastic trucks by these made from Central valley, a maker gone long ago. These trucks fit my 1900 model very well and that was the reason for exchange and they have working springs! However do they look really good? Additionally the original wheelsets were the last which I would use and brakes are missing also!
The next problem was very near! The truck sides are riveted together so I must make a generally rebuild.



Now this is the rebuild trucks after first step – new half-proto wheelsets and equipped with phosphor-bronze and nickel-silver wheel and axle contacts for an all-wheel current pickup.
Later I must assert that I used to many contacts which all reduce a free rolling so I dismounted the axle contacts again (truck is a metal truck and needs only a cable for electrical pickup – however I would built 100 percent sure components) and I reduced also the pressure of the wheel contacts (looking like a safety pin contacting the lower wheels).





Next I built brake beams …



… using these small hangers and scratchbuilt eye bolts. The bolt is 1.6 millimeters long and has a .5 mm hole (1/16” long, hole .02”).





Both pictures show that I shortened the main beams which were prepared for original end and brake beams and these were too large and too clumsy for my model. I missed more also an important part at these trucks; the lower steel bents of side frames which fix the guides for axle boxes to the main beams. The second picture shows how all parts are connected with the frame and here I must make a thing that could be a problematic case in future. All parts are riveted together in the four corners because I did not found the very thin and long screws which would be a better solution if I must disassemble them in case of a repair.



That is now the model after adding the trucks. I think that I could be happy in than moment.
I’m in planning a whole V&T passenger train together with a few more cars and I will show you so step by step in future however the car no. 18 will play a central roll in this trains. My Virginia & Truckee book shows this on many pictures. How do I make a well working lightening of all these cars so that I can use my as single cars however so that I can control them all easily with a digital system?
First idea was to install a bus system for electrical pickup where each car is equipped with a simple four wheel pickup system. With the bus connecting all the cars I could get a sure pickup system without breaks. However I must use cables and jumpers for connecting the cars and than I would like to use only one central decoder mounted in car no. 18. No, that could not be the solution that I have wished! How should I switch with the cars making a different train with all the electrical connections?
After a few discussions and different ideas I found the solution, my solution. Each model must be usable as an autarkic model with its own electrical circuit and its own decoder! When I let work the decoders all with the same address – the no. 18 of course – than I will program each car for a different function button and so I can control the lightning of a whole train so as would go a conductor trough the train and switches on or off the light car for car or also compartment for compartment.

The lightning worked well – in day. And testing in the night …



The affright was great! The walls are made from a light-colored plastic with a yellow coat of varnish and so the body must be translucent.
What now?
All ideas were not good enough solving this problem. The newer models made by Athearn (in original a Roundhouse model) are rtr-models and all parts are well glued together. In this case the body was glued together with the roof and I have had a very well fixed body box and all windows (clear injection-moulded parts) were glued all around to the window holes of body. Not of all was removable. For decoder and lightning installation I had cut a long and small access in bottom however I could not enlarge this access until to the walls because I would lose all fixing points and screw holes for mounting to the frame. So I could not make an inner black coloring because I did not get all edges inside of body and the black color could run irregular between windows and body and also I could not add an inside sheeting of black paper because – you know – I could not add it in all edges. And how should I add an interior when all walls will be colored in black? Would you as passenger travel in an inside black colored car?
I must approve that I did not found a fast solution and so the model was moved to a dark box, a very dark box.
Continuation will follow. (… this week or next.)

[Drew]

Beautiful modeling Bernard!

That under-frame detail is some of the best I've ever seen!

[cn nutbar]

Bernhard---it's good to have you back ---your workmanship and detailing are outstanding

[Puddlejumper]

Yes, this is definitely an amazing build! Welcome back!

[doctorwayne]

Bernhard, you could use Rapido's Easy-Peasy battery-powered lighting for your cars. The on/off function is controlled by a magnetic wand.

As for the cars, I'm pretty sure they're also available as kits - I believe my LHS has some on their shelves.

If you use black paper to block the light, you could cover its inside surface with either a lighter coloured paper or some thin styrene. Another option to use for blocking light is aluminum foil - it's probably easier to form into corners and curved areas, although, as you've discovered, you'd still need to have good access to the car's interior. On an un-built kit, it might be possible to install the foil over the entire inside walls of the car, paint the interior, then cut out the window openings.

Wayne

[ocalicreek]

Bernhard! Welcome back!

You have taken an already great looking CV truck and turned it into something absolutely beautiful. Outstanding work, as usual.

Not sure I can help with the lighting glow problem...but I'd suggest a thin coat of primer followed by the final coat of paint. Paint then test, so that you can see if it's sufficient to block the light. Too many coats of paint and you may lose the detail on the walls.

Galen

[Tom]

I wonder if using a dark colored primer on the ouside of the shell and then painting over that in yellow would kill off the translucense? That's the first thing I would try. Also, how about a Z Scale decoder? A small one that may be tucked up in the celestory ceiling?

I'm glad you're back and sharing progress, I am a huge old west buff and enjoyed this build a lot.

[modelsof1900]

Hallo friends,

I say this because I read all your friendly welcome innovative tips for solving my problems.

First of all, thanks for that all and all your ideas.

Second, the problem is solved fortunately and I will write about it, today or tomorrow.
However I will give a short annotation because I have had a really problem.
Sorry, your ideas were in my head also and I must abolish them, all. However I will write about the reasons.
I have written already that the body is closed by a very well glued roof so it was like a closed box and I did cut a small cutaway only in bottom for installation if lightning. Und I could not enlarge this cutaway until sidewalls. In this reason doing an inside wrapping was impossibly. A coloring inside was a very difficult problem also because I did not work with a brush in all edges and I was sure that the liquid color would run between wall and inside glued window strips and I must paint exactly and sharp contours around each window getting a 100 percent cover – and that trough a small cutaway in bottom. And last it was impossibly an outside blackening because I must color all window cutaways including the frames and that with inserted windows which were not only flat strips of clear styrene but really contoured injection-moulded parts. And last I could not remove all the windows because they were glued exactly und very close all around to the walls. I knew many industrial produced models and in many cases you can solve the parts using a sharp knife – but here the Chinese modelmaker were not stingily with glue.
My first idea with starting this rebuilding project was also that I must not give the model a new color because the V&T model must have a yellow body at end; and that model with a coloring scheme of Chicago and North Western Ry. in yellow was exactly that what I would need. Removing the old lettering was not a problem. Because of inserted and glued window glass I would and I must avoid a new coloring of my model.
However now that all is history and you will read what I have done with my next post.

[modelsof1900]

It was a longer time with many sleepless nights until I found the solution, my solution and I do not say that other would be impossible or better. I have ordered new parts from Athearn, the shell, window strips, roof and clerestory window strips for all cases when I should destroy the roof. The idea was to replace the shell, coloring inside with a black color and inserting new windows – however I would save the roof with the new ends in first line.
Athearn did sent me a small package and all parts were included – out of a shell! Ok. I have need a week or two for next advisements and than – I was on search for an empty box – I found between all my boxes of kits and materials three Roundhouse boxes with a three car train of these Roundhouse passenger cars! I think that they are since 20 years in my stock and I did not remember to them! What for a lucky day and the best of all, these bodies were made from a black plastic.



The next step was done in a very short time. I did cut all the old yellow shell parts from the roof and in fact I could save the roof completely without each demage.
Now with the new shell I could change the model to a car (relatively) exact to the Original #18 of the Virginia & Truckee RR.



This was the second step that I cut a few fine contours in the new shell so that the old roof fitted the shell exactly.
But now I would build better than before.





I changed the passenger car to a combine so how it did the V&T with its former car #18.



Now I could work with the shell how a simple modelling part without the roof on top and so a made a few more modifications in order to give the model a better look and to change it well fitting the original. Here two samples. One is that I must close the windows in the door in the baggage compartment and second the roof overhang has got a paneling below of roof. And so the plywood construction is not longer visible. Do you remember, Wayne?
What I lost with the old shell are a few handrails and saving guards at the windows however these parts I will mount after coloring of the model. The holes are predrilled already and small NBWs as fixing parts for the rails are inserted. You can see it in next picture.




I added also new stirrups fort he new doors in the side walls and I did it so how I do it every time. The intermediary step is first soldered to the stirrup and second the ends have got a double riveting – so I hope that railway persons do not collapse about defect ladder steps. A friend said later that he would be very frustrated if I would this not it in this (very crazy) manner.



Here a view trough the new doors on bottom of the new shell. Beside of the small hole for truck screw is a bigger hole including a double plug socket for the electrical connection for lighting. (On other side of shell is a second such thing for electrical pickup of each truck.) Socket and cables (divided one to each corner) are inserted and glued in the bottom because I would get an even bottom face for installing the interior. The cable ends are guide to the upper corners of shell where I mounted small blank metal rails. On other side I mounted four small contacts to the roof so that I have a closed circuit when the roof is mounted to the shell – and I must not use connectors when I mount or dismount the roof and I do not have longer cables hanging inside of model.



This is a view on inside of the completed roof.
There is first a heavy wall which divided the whole inner room to the passenger and baggage compartments. This wall is strong fixed to the roof and it will sit on bottom of the shell when shell and roof is mounted together. And I built such a heavy wall because I use two wood screws for fixing the roof to the shell from underside of car. So also the electrical connections are very sure closed between shell and roof. (The roof contacts are visible here at corners of roof guides.)
You see also the two separate lighting rails for each compartment. Thanks here for your idea, Wayne, using Rapido’s lighting sets, this will be good thing for fast lighting of models and that without rail contacts. However my models will run each year one or two time and than each time an action with changing batteries? Or not? My idea was also using a pre-fabricated lighting bar. We have here such a bar available equipped with a rectifier and a potentiometer so that I could it use with AC or DC (i.e. DCC) and a voltage of 4 to 16 volts so that I can control directly the brightness also when I use an AC or DC system on the bar (or with/without decoder controlling). Because my models will run only on DCC-controlled layouts I had purchased a good number such lighting bars and now first both are installed in this coach. (Already before the yellow model has had such a bar however I needed only one of them.)
The decoder isn’t visible here in picture however he has got his position in the clerestory ceiling between roof an lighting bar behind the wall; so how you, Tom, have written. And there is enough room for using a normal decoder. Because this car no. 18 will play a central role in my V&T passenger trains so I programmed the lighting of this car to the F1 and F2 buttons and all other cars will follow in this sequence.
What you see only in background of lower end of the lighting bar in front is one of 5 to 7 capacitors for each lighting bar which I soldered in the AC circuit for an additional voltage stabilization – for the case that it should get short voltage breaks from the track. However I think that this is the last of all what you must do in such an system – all wheel power supplying, three point truck bearing (Is that the right translation? I hope for understanding!), all sprung wheels … and capacitors! Tests on a modular layout installation have shown that we have had more voltage breaks because the kids of our US model railroading members have forgotten to adjust the switches while their “wild” running sessions. However I did not find problems in my lighting outer that I must adjust the wheel contacts for a smooth running of the cars. A brass 4-6-0 could not pull a two car train with full equipped wheel contacts (16 contacts).

Enough written about such a simple digitalizing problem as my coach it is! Ones must I done where I did have experiences however I would like to change the smooth and even plastic roof to a good looking tar paper surface. Thank here again to Wayne that I should use single layers of a tissue fixing by a color thinner. I really good hint and it was very fast to realize …



… and I think that you can see here the success of this method. After a bit of shortening the long ends I glued the ends also around the edges and after drying I cut the overlapping ends with a sharp knife.
Unfortunately I did not make a shot after I added vents for the stoves and toilet however this will follow when the car will be completed – after coloring and after adding all the small details like handrails and safety chains for the trucks and a few more and installing the interior of the car. Also adding packages and sacks to the baggage compartment – then how will look empty compartments when they will be illuminated?

However what I have done in all that time for searching ideas was to make lettering and decals for V&T passenger cars.



This is such a decal sheet usable for all types of passenger cars of the V&T in a 1930 and later lettering scheme - sheet shown here in reduced dimensions with lower resulution. And here I will give all interested modelers the opportunity for buying such decal sets; I have let print a good number of sheets. The sheet is not usable for the V&T McKeen motor car #22, for older passenger cars in 1900 lettering and for use on freight cars. However when I should get a need for the McKeen car then I will modify this set and let print a few sheets. Freight car lettering needs a bit additional investigation however it will not be impossibly. (I think that I will need also such decals in future.) The reason for all this work is simple; original decals for the V&T made from the great decal makers are not longer available.

In the meantime while I have done all what I have described I received a first additional brass model for my planned V&T train.



That is my first complete V&T passenger train now, my combine #18 and the RPO #23, a 40’ Harriman car. And I have found pictures in the book “Virginia & Truckee – The Bonanza Road” written by Mallory Hope Ferrell where these both cars are pictured as a complete train. Sorry, the engine is that what I’m in search. Fortunately I must not make many changes to this brass model however I added …



… a lighting. Or do you think to others?

[Tom]

Wow. I live fairly close to the V&T and I never knew they had harriman cars. I am headed up to the museum in Portola for the week to work on some projects and work Railroad Days 2010 and one of the things we need to fo is to load the Harriman cars that the new V&T bought but sold to another group. We moved them from San Francisco to the museum for storage until V&T was ready for them, but they decided they didn't want them anymore and sold all 5 coaches. They were old Southern Pacific cars. Other than those that they almost got, I never knew the original V&T had Harriman cars of any type. I guess I learn something new every day.

The 18 is looking fantastic though, GREAT model!

[modelsof1900]

Tom, here a more info about car #23, quoted from the mentioned book.

"Original Louisiana Western (T&NO) Railway Post Office car 109.
Changed to mail and baggage (12-1929).
Sold (1938) to Yosemity Valley Ry. 107.
Sold (10-1964) to V&T 23.
Sold (8-1968) by V&T's scrapper, A.D. Schader Co., to Pacific Locomotive Assn., repainted as YV 107, Oakland, CA."

I hope that this will of interest to you. The #23 was the only Harriman car owned by the V&T. Builder was the Pullman car Co. in 1911.