GEC's Layout Progress

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Since my CDOT has been aquiring the Bombadier Bi Levels for the Litchfield Hills, I do have a Comet coach and cab car I'm willing to part with.

Eightyeightfan1's Comet II cars arrived yesterday in the middle of the storm, and the UPS guy's truck got stuck in front of our house. He mentioned in PM that they'd need work, and he wasn't kidding!

Fortunately, I was able to clear them up without to much effort. The cab car was pretty covered in questionable crud, and the axles were rusted. I have access to spare wheelsets, so i replaced them. the crud came off with some careful attention from a damp tissue, without harming the decals.

In fact, it was the coach that required more careful attention. It seems that a bit of glue on one of the vestibule ends were interfering with the body seating properly on the floor. I used a sharp knife to break away this excess glue, and the frame went into place nicely.

I might make some adjustments. In particular, it seems like most of the CDOT cab cars I've seen have only two front windows, the engineer and the end door windows. This would require some filling and sanding, and probably repainting the end of the car. I have seen photos of some Metro North cab cars with all the windows, but I'll have to keep looking to see if the CDOT cars were always missing this window.

Technically, all cab cars (SEPTA, NJT, etc) are also missing a small window on the engineer's side on the other end of the carbody, but Walthers left these in place. I'll probably leave these alone.

In any event, these CDOT cars are promising, and I can probably have them running reliably after a few hours at the club. here are some photos-

Cab Car 1693 pushes into the station-



This really makes a good short commuter train.





Cab Car "Yankee Clipper"



Coach "The Connecticut River"




In other news, I began work and finished another core kit body, this time an ex-CRI&P 8-6 sleeper. These were refurbished by Amtrak and placed on trains like the broadway limited. I have a book and a photo that reccords the #2552 "Brooklyn Bridge" on the Broadway Limited's New York section during the 1970s. This car was retired in the early 80s, but it is fine for my late 70s time period.

I did make a video of me assembling the car, but I need to edit it together. Things went wrong pretty early in, and I actually tore the side a little. I was able to fill it in and polish it with putty, though i'm not sure its totally flat. I'm hoping that when I paint it, that it won't look to weird, especially since I plan to Alclad it.

For now, here are some pictures of that-



Not the best photo, but a quick one-




Finally, I'm almost able to demold JWB's Arrow I. I ran into to difficulty since the inside of the mold did not harden as fast as it should have. It feels harder now then it did, but I'm going to let it sit a little longer before I try to remove it. If the inside mold isn't going to hold up, then I will have to do it all over again!