With the release of Rapido’s LRC cars I found myself wanting to model a modern VIA Rail corridor train. They come in all shapes and sizes. They are mostly powered by P42s (I think) and include any combination of LRC cars and HEP2 Budd stainless cars.
One thing they all have is an ex-UP slab side baggage (which started life as an RPO).
My train consists of a Kato P42, three LRC coaches, one LRC business class car, and one stainless HEP2 coach. All I’m missing is the baggage.
The closest car I could find on the cheap was this Concor RPO.
I figured the doors were in the right spots and I could add the fluting, fix the windows etc. I was totally wrong as it soon became apparent that this was a ground up build, but the car still served as a very good core.
Since initially I planned on using the stock doors, I set to work rearranging them to make a more prototypical arrangement. The large door needed to be on the other side of the bolster so I cut the end off, cut out the door section, flipped it, and glued it all back together. This was my first time using a NWSL True Sander. What a great tool!
Next I needed a Budd corrugated roof. In the parts bin I had a Kato diner roof which was the correct length but had all kinds of holes for vents and such, and a Kato coach roof which was mostly free of detail, but about 1/2” too short. So I chopped the clean part from the diner roof and spliced it with the coach roof. Again the True Sander was instrumental.
At this point I set to work on the windows. I cut out all
of the Concor windows and started rummaging through my bag of left over Kato windows. The whole time I was thinking about how much of a pain it would be to assemble these windows, and the doors would still be wrong.
@CNR5529 has been encouraging me to learn to CAD and with some cajoling we came to the conclusion that this was the perfect project to cut my teeth on. So I measured my car, imported a good roster shot of the prototype and got to work.
Actually, I drew it twice and the second time was much cleaner than in the picture.
@CNR5529 cut it for me on his Silhouette cutter and voila! More or less accurate sides... or at least much better than what I had planned. I cannot thank
@CNR5529 enough for the help learning the software and such.
With the sides prepped I worked on the fluting next. I made it by glueing three strips of .01”x .06” styrene to a base of .005”.
To create the shoulder below the fluting unused my square as a guide to make a thin uniform cut.
The completed fluting is shown here prior to adding to the car side.
And then it was laminated on to the car sides.
Next I glued spacers in behind, attached the doors, and glued the sides to the car.
Seen here is the basic completed car body.
At this point I still need to add a styrene strip to create the thin fluting below the letter board but I don’t have small enough strip in stock right now. Once that’s done I’ll move on to details.
At this point I’m pretty pleased with the general look of the car.
Craig
