Nice work Lee......
Ok; so as we "Canucks" don't have "Memorial Day" I will wish My Amercian friends a very happy Memorial Day and promise that we will screw up the world oil markets on Monday as much as we can..... (ain't that kick in the oiler flanger.....?)
So; I was thinking about passenger trains, as I have been want to do of late and remembered a bizzare and odd ball fact; the Canadian Pacific Railway made a really unique move about 1965 and it struck me that modeling it would be both a challenge and a neat project..... :-*
COFC, or simply put less than car load freight transported by intermodal can was a very new and very unique idea for the Canadian Pacific Express Company in the early 1960's. I'm guessing they looked at the NYC "Flexi van" concept" and, not wanting to spend that much money, looked for an alternative.... they found it...............The container flat on passenger consist. Hey, just put a special flat car at the back of a passenger train; allow crews to add and remove cans at certain stops; hell; let's add or subtract whole cars at certain stops like Smith's Falls, Ontario at say, oh 0300 hrs and we'll have something... uh.. ok..... :-\
Simply put; the CPR allowed the CPE to add a specially built 83 ft ex-heavyweight passenger car - turned flat car with specially designed containers to it's Montreal - Toronto passenger consists, including pool trains for the movement of express packages and freight..... I saw pictures of the flats and immediately knew I had to model one........they built five, one would do me nicely.... a few issues caught my attention however; no commercially available 83' flats; not enough pictures to be sure what the deck looked like; no containers available and no decals..... nothing to it folks.....here we go..........
I used whatever shots I had and began with a slightly modified Amercian Limited core kit base; I built the sides from .010 styrene and the ends from the same. I used the thin metal strips from the kits as deck weight and made the underframe from .030 styrene. Micro Trains 3 axle trucks would be used as would Gold Metal steps later on.......
While searching for something to make containers with, I rememebered the old Life Like and Bachmann flat's I had in the scrap box and after finding them I liberated the old and quite poor containers off those cars and used them for a sizing exersise.......... I was inspired...........
The juices were flowing now.............
Decals for the containers were going to be a problem.... until I took a flyer on scanning an old Atlas 45 foot trailer with the Canadian Pacific Express logo. A good start and after 5 hours of Photoshop; some Illustrator magic and a bit of faith my efforts begot this..........
I had realized that the decal would be easiest if I could hold the entire image, doors, vents, latches and all. It would work fine but if only I could run them on a laser... and that I could do........
The decals well in hand I then turned back to the deck. Strip lumber was used and .010 styrene was used over the bolsters. The lumber was weathered with watered down paints and powders. It was sealed and re-weathered five times to get the look I wanted. The car was sanded and Tamyara putty was used to fill in gaps between the sides and the belt rail and top rails. The car was painted with Testors flat black and sealed with Dullcoat. An assortment of decals were used to get the required look for C.P. 520028..............
"Van rails" were added to the deck and poles to the ends. Gold Metal steps were added to the undercarrage as were American Limited details such as brake cylinders.... The resulting flat car made me stop and take a breath... I don't normally "reflect in pride' at my creations; I usually find flaws first. But this time I was happy.... it's not pefect but........
There was no doubt she was ready for revenue service... she just needed some cans.......
The decals worked perfectly; better than I'd hoped. The stainless steel painted cans with bottom supports took the laser decals like a dream. Weathering with powders worked too... no two cans alike.......
I was very happy to see this.............
I think we're ready to bring those LCL and Express shipments from 'La Belle Province" to "Hogtown" each night....... I'm really not sure how the paying passengers in the "Seaview" lounge feel about having their view blocked by this behomoth, but as I have modeled a Seaview car, and will have her at the back of a consist this weekend, I'll be sure to poll the passengers... I'll have pics later this weekend.....a successful scratchbuild completed.
A passenger train flat car....."Only in Canada you say.....pity"............
