Matching a Passenger Car

[Zox]

For my latest module, I need to have a passenger car, the City of Kankakee, which is on permanent display next to the Kankakee railroad station:



(larger version at http://lordzox.com/mrr/2011/city_of_k3_big.jpg)

However, my attempts to find information on the car have failed, as any search for the words "city of kankakee" brings up tons of stuff related to, well, the city of Kankakee. I'm not even sure the car was actually called City of Kankakee when it was in service, or what railroad it was with (though most likely it was the Illinois Central).

What I really need is a recommendation for an appropriate N-scale model to use on the module to represent this car. Do any of you passenger-car gurus have a suggestion?

Thanks!

[jmlaboda - RIP]

Its an ex-ATSF coach... but you won't (at least not yet) find a ready-to-run model.  You can come close using a core kit and M&R Models #MRS-60-8 sides.
http://www.nscalesupply.com/mrs/MRS-8.html

[Nato]

   Yes,It is an EX Santa Fe Coach. If you did not want to build it as suggested next best stand in would be the Walthers Fluted side coach,an NYC prototype,it does however have longer larger side windows. Ntae Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[Zox]

Thanks--that's the info I needed.

I'll probably go with the Walthers car. I'm not worrying about absolute prototype perfection for this module, and that car has the right general "look" to it. And it's the sort of element that can be easily replaced when/if the proper car comes out RTNR (Ready To Not Run).

[nickelplate759]

You can get sides for what appear to be this car from Union Station Products:  http://unionstationproducts.com/_7503.html

If you've never build a car from their sides, it's quite the project.  What you get are thin styrene sides with the windows cut out, a clear plastic base side, and separate machined styrene pieces for the fluting.  You laminate the sides and the fluting, paint & letter, then laminate the clear base, then attach to the (pre-finished) ends and roof from an American Limited core kit.   Not easy, but with care it can make up into a decent model.

[Zox]

As a followup: Walthers had the NYC car on sale for $19.98, so I went ahead and ordered it, and it arrived on Monday.

Here it is next to the mockup-so-far of the Kankakee station, for a size check:



I'm compressing the station to about 80% of actual, and wanted to make sure it still looked reasonably large relative to the car. I think it's going to work out.

Here's a closer look at the station:



This is actually the side of the building that faces away from the tracks, but I started with it because I have better photos. I'll have a chance in late August to get more shots of the track side.