I hope I will not have enough time to finish a 3rd challenge car before the end of the contest, but I am still unemployed and have tons of free time to use. So, I might as well get started on another project . (My hope is that I find a job soon so that I don't have time to finish )

Anywho, these are two model power coaches I bought a while back. They really are quite nice coaches for their price, and would look good as an 1880s coach being pulled by a 4-4-0 or 2-6-0. But, they are too short to look good with my other passenger cars and too wide to convert easily to narrow gauge. Since I have no use for them within my current plans, I will try bashing the two together to create a longer car. I found plans for a narrow vestibule coach in an old issue of model railroader, and these cars would make a decent starting point.

The prototype car is about 58 feet, and the model cars are about 48 feet. That means I need to combine the two cars together to get the extra ten feet. The cars are also only 9' wide, whereas most passenger cars in my era were at least 10' wide. My MDC passenger cars scale out to 10'6" wide, and the Model Railroader drawing of the narrow vestibule car is 9'10" wide. I won't make any attempt to widen the car - i will live with that slight discrepancy. I will pretend this is a car built around 1890 and purchased secondhand.

The first step was to disassemble the cars, and then cut the bodies so that they can be re-assembled to produce a car of the desired length. I chose to make the splice in the center of the car body, meaning each half would be approximately half the total length of the new car. Because I wanted the window spacing to remain consistent and the siding to line up, the two halves weren't exactly the same length. I sanded each half as square as I could, and glued them together.

[attachment=4172]

For the roof, I decided to make the splice towards the end. I wanted to stagger the splices so that they will be less noticeable. I then glued the roof sections together such that the clerestory windows are a constant width. This left a roof that is about 7 scale feet longer than the car body, meaning I will have vestibules about 3.5 feet long on each end of the car. The plans I have show vestibules about 3' long. Here is the way the car looks as of now:

Great progress. Will this creation get treated to a night in the paint stripper bag as well? I guess it's kind of too late for that isn't it?

TrainNut Wrote:Great progress. Will this creation get treated to a night in the paint stripper bag as well? I guess it's kind of too late for that isn't it?

If the paint isn't too think, I usually just paint over factory paint. I find that the paint actually helps show where high spots are, where I have filed, where my cut mark is, etc.

That's looking good....
On the splices...If your only motive to stagger the roof/body splices was strictly to hide them, then you've been doubly "blessed"..Staggering the joints has made your model much stronger than it would otherwise have been. As any good carpenter will tell you, if you want something to be strong, stagger the joints...

Good start, Kevin. Staggering the joints should result in a stronger car too. I'm interested in seeing what you are going to do with the chassis. Will you be adding all the rigging and boxes (whatever they are) underneath?

Being a "narrow vesibule coach", I needed to convert this car from an open platform to a vestibule. "Narrow vestibule" means the vestibule is not the full width of the car. These types of cars were only built in the late 1880s, after which full vestibules became popular. First, I had to extend the end of the platform. I used some rectangular styrene to do this. I made the vestibules out of the end doors from the Model Power cars.
[attachment=4174]

I also cut off the corners of the roof and the corners of the platforms because the ends of the prototype car have beveled corners. Here is a photo of the end with the roof laying on top.

I am liking this build! I happen to have one of these cars that I was not going to use because I didn't like it's overall look. Now you have me thinking kitbash! Looks really good!

this morning I have spent some time adding roof details that I found in my parts bin, contouring the roof ends, and building up the vestibules. I've got some non-railroad projects to work on this afternoon, but tonight I will hopeful finish up some details around the vestibules.

This afternoon I did more work on one of the vestibules. Despite the lousy photograph, I am happy with the way it came out. I still need to do some work to get the end of the clerestory roof to line up correctly. Compound curves like that can be a bit tricky.

Here are some better photos of the completed vestibule at one end of the car. I had to do considerable building up, filing, and sanding before I became happy with the fit and contour. I still need to do the other end. I think this will look great once painted. I am trying to get all my projects to the same phase - grab irons! All this work is being done when I need a break from job searching and working on my tax return

Very nice work, Kevin, and a good-looking model of one of my favourite, seldom-modelled, type of passenger car.

Wayne

Kevin, I agree with DocWayne. You are doing a great job of scratchbuilding the ends. Very nice work and I am impressed with your skill!

thanks for the compliments, guys. These really are unusual cars, and thusfar I have been pleased with the way this is turning out.

nice