New diners from IMRC/CSS

[Sokramiketes]

Well for the side IMRC shows the UP (Kato) car is closer to N&W 491-494. But I agree it will make a nice foob. ;D Will have to look at pics of the other side of the NYC proto vs the other side of the N&W car. Will do this later this week.

I've got a case where I already have the Kato car ready to paint - If I didn't I'd go for the IMRC car for sure since Kato SS cars are tough to get these days.

The only problem with the Kato SS diner is that the cable duct on the roof screams UP.  The vestibule door on the CCS car is dissappointing for those looking for a real N&W diner, but I would call the CCS car slightly closer to the N&W car.  All depends what you're looking for though, and removing the cable duct might be easier than removing a vestibule door if you're really getting down to it. 

[bbussey]

I've never tried this, but I thought many of the parts of the original Kato smoothsides were interchangeable.  Perhaps it's possible to put the sleeper roof on the diner body and add any missing details, rather than removing the cable duct?  That would alleviate having an extra service door.

[Sokramiketes]

The Kato car has an extra service door too though...

Here's the N&W car again:


Here's the Kato Diner from Fred Klein's site, kitchen side.


Trying to swap roofs is a good idea.  If that works, then you can file off the UP-esque batten strips above and below the windows.  Then remove the extra service door on the Kato car and move the square window from the end of the car to position where the extra service door was.

Both cars need skirting also.  But the CCS car has partial skirting at the ends already.  CCS car would need the vestibule door removed and a kitchen window blocked.  At least on the kitchen side of the car, the CCS body is still less work. 

What I'm realizing from all of this is that N&W passenger modeling is too much work. 

[jmlaboda]

"What I'm realizing from all of this is that N&W passenger modeling is too much work."

Personally I would go in the direction of M&R brass car sides.

[bbussey]

Does M&R offer the N&W diner sides?

Seems that it might actually be less work on the CCS car.  If I couldn't live with the N&W production car as is, I would get an undec, remove the service door and paint/decal.

There may be tooling samples in Springfield to see, which would make the decision easier.

[jmlaboda]

Yes they do.  Two coaches, the diner and the observation car.
http://www.nscalesupply.com/mrs/MRS.html

[Mark5]

The Kato car has an extra service door too though...

The opposite side of the Kato car is a even better match for N&W 491-494, matching the N&W car door for door, window for window. I wonder what the other side of the IMRC car looks like ....

I'm not particularly worried about the roof, that should be easy to modify.

The M&R would give an exact match, but would take some work to  get flush windows, plus ... I'm lazy.

Mark

[Sokramiketes]

The M&R would give an exact match, but would take some work to  get flush windows, plus ... I'm lazy.

Mark

M&R sides are thin (etched nickel-silver) so flush windows are easy with just window material on the back of the etched sides.  You can even get the silver window frames easily by scraping paint from the raised frame after painting:

[Mark5]

Mike,

Thanks - I did not know that they are that thin.

Mark