Atlas Trainman inspired foobed passenger train

[Tom L]

I really like the Atlas 60' passenger cars, so I bought a few for no reason and long story short I ended up with this. The baggage car is similar but has wrong door spacing. I like how the prototype had the same issue of fitting the lettering above the doors! The coach is like 9 feet too short, the MT baggage mail is close (I used WOT 4 wheel trucks), the Wathers baggage is a match. I added Truescale couplers, FVM wheels, moved the truck spacing out on the coach.

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Inspired by these Photos by Roger Puta and one unknown

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Tom L
Wellington CO

[learmoia]

Very nice!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Awesome, I dig it!

I really like these cars. I'm waiting to grab a few for a future "Northern Central" tourist excursion.

Anyone know where I can get a deal on a Bachmann K4s?

[Point353]

Anyone know where I can get a deal on a Bachmann K4s?

What's your definition of "a deal" on this loco?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

What's your definition of "a deal" on this loco?

Honestly, I don't even know. Something I see and go "ooh, that's cheap".

Although I don't want to thread-jack @Tom L 's thread with the topic.

[OldEastRR]

Huh....I just noticed the Atlas cars
have rain gutters above the loading doors.

[wcfn100]

I like it!

Jason

[x600]

Tom, What 4 wheel trucks are they on the coach and the RPO? I've been looking for 4 wheel trucks like that.

Greg O.

[thomasjmdavis]

Tom L,
I think this is much better than "foobed." Unless you plan to build a lot of craftsman level kits or scratchbuild, it is difficult in N to get an absolutely accurate HW consist, even for very large railroads- and especially for secondary trains.  This train is modeled on the "closest model available" premise and the overall look is quite effective.  Great job!  And kudos for doing the scrunched lettering over the doors- without the photos you showed for reference, I would have been asking "why did he do that when he could have divided the lettering around the doors?"  One of the issues I have with manufacturers is that sometimes they opt for what "looks better" than reproducing what the railroads actually did.  The CGW lettering is reminiscent of the misspelled "refrigerator" on REA cars and other, similar, graphics "errors" by real railroads.

It is too bad that to date, no one has done the NYC 60' baggage (which would be closer to the CGW, plus traveling in mail trains and head end all over the US in NYC paint) or any of the 68 to 72 foot coaches that were commonplace on commuter trains throughout the US. 

[Tom L]

Tom, What 4 wheel trucks are they on the coach and the RPO? I've been looking for 4 wheel trucks like that.

Greg O.

The coach has original Trainman trucks (w/Fox Valley metal wheels) and the RPO has Wheels of Time 4 wheel  trucks, also with FVM wheels. I am hoping that Atlas makes the trucks available separately.

Tom D. - The short length of the coach bugs me a little, I would also like to see someone do a 70 footish car. I was/am kind of thinking about either cutting down a longer car  or lengthening a Trainman car by splicing in a section.

Tom L.

[Cajonpassfan]

...
Anyone know where I can get a deal on a Bachmann K4s?

PM sent.
Otto

[thomasjmdavis]

Tom D. - The short length of the coach bugs me a little, I would also like to see someone do a 70 footish car. I was/am kind of thinking about either cutting down a longer car  or lengthening a Trainman car by splicing in a section.

Tom L.

Some years ago, I picked up a box of "we don't know much about N scale, but these appear to be passenger cars...." on eBay, that happened to include some cars that someone had cut down from Lima coaches- and I think look pretty good.  These scale out to about 66', but you could play with the concept a bit to get other lengths. As done, they look more like CGW 237 or 238 than the car in your photo (275?) but you might get more the result you are looking for by splicing in a few scale feet of "blank" car side from one of the Lima combines.  For reference (and because this stuff was on my workbench at the moment), here are some variations of shorter cars that are available....

At top- the last Bachmann coach I will ever own (which actually scales a couple feet short of the CNW prototype); #2 is the recent Atlas 60' baggage- accurate or darn close; #3 is the kitbashed Lima (scales about 66'), Keystone Details Stillwell coach (72'7" over buffers);  and last a MT baggage car (70'6" inside, 74' over buffers).
and for reference...



The couple of redone Lima cars I have are not far off from the LV cars that were acquired by C&EI (give or take a window here or there), and I may end up using them for that.

[JanesCustomTrain]

What couplers did you use on the locomotive and the first car ? Do they couple ?

Jane

[w neal]

Foobed or not, I really like it.

[Tom L]

What couplers did you use on the locomotive and the first car ? Do they couple ?

Jane

It’s a MT TruScale and the loco coupler sits too low, but I normally run it as part of a ABA set with MT 1015s on the front of the A units. Since I just use the Truescale couplers to couple the As to the B and they are all at the same height, it doesn’t matter. I staged the loco in the photo until I can get a Kato F7 with steam generator painted up and will have a Truescale mounted at the proper height.

Tom L