SP 6000 project & Golden State

[nickelplate759]

These were finished a while ago, but here are my Rock Island Golden State cars. 

RI 820, lettered as delivered for Golden Rocket.  Rivarossi car


RI Coaches Golden Bell, Golden Flute and Golden Harp.  Rivarossi coaches - not accurate for the Golden State.






RI Golden Vista. Rivarossi car

[Cajonpassfan]

The Lowell Smith baggage cars are ex-Walthers. I think that the fluted side car has no real prototype, but the smooth side car does - something like GGW?

Thanks for the info, George.
I remember now why I didn’t buy any of the Walthers baggage cars then, just the sleepers.
Otto

[williek]

@williek those look great!   I'd like to learn more about your modification of the roof of the Bachmann car.  Did you have to fill the corrugations before sanding?  What kind of sanding tools did you use?

I didn't fill before sanding. I just masked and then hand-sanded down to 600 grit. I used a jeweler's file at the edges.

[williek]

Well, the doors on the RPO-baggage have been fixed, and windows glazed.  Unfortunately, I've realized that the castings (they are resin) are warped.
The GOOD news is that the body is bowed down in the middle, and the roof is bowed up, so if I glue them together the care will be sort-of-straight.

I'm not sure what kind of glue to use.  No matter what I use, my plan is to
1. apply glue to the mating surfaces of the roof and body, mostly in the middle of the car.
2. Put them together and tie them with wound string until the glue dries.

I only expect to get one shot at this, so I'm looking for suggestions on what glue to try.   
My first thought is Walthers/Hobsco Goo, my second is a medium-thick Cyanacrylate super-glue.

Anyone have experience to share?   Or wild ideas?

In my experience, those WOT kit baggage roofs are not warped in any way that can be straightened; they are just crude (even more so than the bodies) casts with curved lines that should be straight. The casting height of the roof is much greater at one end than at the other, and edges that should be sharp are rounded in a way that can't be carved down. I opted to use a Shapeways printed roof instead, and that had its own issues. I would have put more effort into smoothing out the striations in the printed roof if the bodies were better looking.

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[williek]

@nickelplate759 I'm not finding good options for a Golden State diner. Did you find a suitable diner to paint?

The Kato Budd diner appears to be a match for the Rock Island 421-427 cars, e.g. Centennial and Golden Banquet. None of photos I've found of these cars have them in the red/silver scheme. Do you happen to know if any of them were ever painted in that scheme? The name "Golden Banquet" might suggest that was the case. [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[nickelplate759]

I looked into that, and could not find any evidence that those pre-war Rock Island Budd diners received the Red & Silver scheme.  It seems that they used before the Red & Silver scheme was instituted.


Golden Banquet was a pullman diner, not Budd, and did received Red and Silver. 
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1492540
I'm pretty sure it was delivered that way.  Your best (only?) option is Union Station Products sides, which work nicely (albeit with a lot of work) on old American Limited core kits.  The diner (Golden Banquet) is  USP 7517.   USP also has sides for the Coffee Shop , correct Rock Island coaches, and several other cars in the train.

Intermountain/Centralia has an SP diner painted Golden State that's correct: CCS7052.  Unfortunately, their choice of red is a little on the magenta/pink side, and the car ends are red rather than silver, so it will look a little odd with properly painted cars.
https://www.intermountain-railway.com/distrib/ccs/html/ccs7052.htm

[williek]

@nickelplate759 Thanks for the info George. Yes, I had a few of the Centralia sleepers and reached the same conclusion about the red. I thought about repainting the red only, but found the same problem as with the decorated Walthers cars; the windows are seriously superglued in place. I f I could find one of their diners, it might be worth the effort of either masking them or trying to gingerly remove them.

Regards,
Willie

[nscalbitz]

>> so it will look a little odd with properly painted cars.


While I seriously applaud the efforts, real trains aren't always painted (or appear) exactly alike, nor clean, nor 'uniform' as perfectionists or corporates wanted.
So just like highly detailled precision scale models on plywood layouts, things are often at odds with the reality.

[nickelplate759]

>> so it will look a little odd with properly painted cars.


While I seriously applaud the efforts, real trains aren't always painted (or appear) exactly alike, nor clean, nor 'uniform' as perfectionists or corporates wanted.
So just like highly detailled precision scale models on plywood layouts, things are often at odds with the reality.

 I'm already way short on prototypical details - compromise Rock Island coaches, no supplementary vents on the E7s, cars that never ran together in the same train, etc., but I do want the paint to match.   'Cause I like it better that way.

[williek]

I finally completed (except for trucks - stand-ins for now) my SP Class 69-BP-30 baggage car for Golden State. I was able to remove most of the warping by putting it in 130 degree water for a while, bending, and then cooling rapidly. No idea whether the shape will hold. I tried using old Miscroscale SP decals (no longer avail.) but they just fell apart when wet. I could not find a coating of that decal restore coating that was thick enough to work while being thin enough not to look bad. I sent Circus City the artwork and they printed me a nice 8 x 10 of more SP decals than I will ever use. They worked great. Now onto a diner.

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[nickelplate759]

I've restarted work on the engines.   I got the Microscale decal set, but alas it doesn't include a few important details like the small individual unit numbers (e.g. 6001-A, 6001-B, 6001-C) or the F to indicate the front.  I'll need to make some, I suspect.   Anyone got a pointer to the correct sizes of this lettering?

Here's an in-progress shot of 6001-C




I used Microscale 1/8" silver stripes for the big letterboards, rather than trying to mask that off for paint.  Works pretty well I think.

[SP-Wolf]

@nickelplate759

Here ya go:

Locomotive number (Rear side) - 10"
Classification numbers and letters - 2"
"F" - 4-1/2"

Looking good --

Best regards,
Wolf

[nickelplate759]

Wow - thank you @SP-Wolf !

[nickelplate759]

Slow progress.    I will be making decals for the smaller lettering that's missing from the Microscale set.

[peteski]

Very nice George!