I started working on a late 1958 to early 1959 Union Pacific/Milwaukee Road "City of Los Angeles." With the help of the Kato COLA set, this train is pretty easy to assemble based on consists gathered from Bill Denton, Mike Skibbe, and Fred Klein. Here's what I'm looking at:
-74' Baggage #5665 (Kato)
-85' RPO #5902 (Kato)
-85' Baggage Mail Express #5643 (Kato)
-Baggage Dormitory #6008 (Kato)
-Dome Coach #7001 (Kato)
-44 Seat Coach (Southern Pacific in Yellow/Grey) #2379 (Kato)
-44 Seat Coach #5428 (Kato)
-44 Seat Coach #5420 (Kato)
-44 Seat Coach #5401 (Kato)
-44 Seat Coach #5417 (Kato)
-Cafe Lounge #6203 (Kato)
-10-6 Sleeper "Pacific Guard" (Kato)
-6-6-4 Sleeper (PRR in Yellow/Grey) "Buffalo Rapids" (Kato) - this car could also be a 10-6 PRR sleeper in Tuscan paint or Yellow/Grey paint
-Club Lounge "Cheyenne" (Kato)
-Dome Diner #8004 (Kato)
-Dome Lounge #9003 (Kato - kitbash)
-11 Bedroom Sleeper "Placid Valley" (Kato)
-5-5-2 Sleeper "Ocean" series - Union Station Products sides on American Limited core kit
-4-4-2 Sleeper "Imperial Letter" - Centrailia Car Shops
-10-6 Sleeper "Pacific" series (Kato)
-10-6 Sleeper "Pacific Bend" (Kato)
As you can see, most of the train can use stock Kato cars. Three 10-6 Budd sleepers are needed for the train, so I will be changing the names on two of the Kato cars that I currently have.
The Dome Lounge #9003 was modified for mid train service as per Bill Denton's artical from quite a few years ago in N Scale Railroading.
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I've also slightly modified one of the 10-6 sleepers to serve as the last car of the train. I've added a Rapido scissor gate as well as building a rear tailight (non functioning - styrene housing with a red jewel). A MT true scale coupler has been body mounted to the rear of the car as well. Name has been changed to "Pacific Bend" using Microscale decals. The original Kato lettering was scraped off with a sharp #11 blade; no repainting is necessary as long as you're very careful with the blade so as not to remove the yellow paint under the lettering.
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I'm waiting for the Union Station Products sides to arrive in the mail for the 5-2-2 "Ocean" series sleeper and will post photos of that build as it progresses. There are decals available for this car from Microscale.
I will have two sets of power for this train that I can swap in and out; an A-B-B-A set of E9's in Union Pacific paint as well as an A-B-B-A set of E9's in Milwaukee paint.