Texas Special sleepers???

[peteski]

No, it won't.

To quote myself from above:
USP or M&R sides for a plan 4153 plus the decals will give you what you want.

Got it. Thanks.

[gelboy45]

Ideally, I too would like to have the prototype sleepers but I decided to order a sleeper although it is acknowledged to be a foobie as I do not have the skills to make and paint the correct cars. I am just so excited to be able to have what would is for me a 'good enough' look alike rtr in Texas Special colors. I never thought I would ever see the day! Let's hope by purchasing the proposed cars an E7 may follow....

What I really need is for Kato to do The Train of Tomorrow'.

I have asked.

Gerry

[squirrelhunter]

Thomas, good catch on the vestibule end difference between the NH and MKT/SLSF sleepers. I still think you could probably kit bash the Lowell Smith cars with the ESM sides to get the right car by cutting out the Lowell Smith window band and replacing it with the ESM one. You could probably do the same with the USP sides as well, since their kits are laser cut plastic.

Petski, good find on the decals. I'd never heard of Circus City decals before this. I'll have to check them out. Only concern I have is their decals look kind of orangish on the screen, but the Texas Special lettering was bright red.

The E7's will be a tough deal for any mfg because only the MK/SLSF (8 units) and the GM Train of Tomorrow  (1 unit) had the stainless fluted panel on the sides.

[thomasjmdavis]

I do need to lighten up a bit, don't I?

By way of explanation, I have been disappointed over the years by several manufacturers who have advertised their cars as "accurate" or "prototypical" for a certain road, and it turns out that the cars are actually foobies (my first ever pre-order was for the initial run of Con Cor Budd cars that were advertised as accurate for Santa Fe but turned out to be distinctly CB&Q- the cars were nice in and of themselves, but not what I expected when I shelled out a couple hundred bucks).  In these days of $50 N scale passenger cars, I think we deserve to know exactly what the prototype for the car modeled is, so that WE can make an informed decision on whether it is close enough, or not.  For me personally, a lot of cars a "close enough" if I am paying $10 for it second hand, but for $50, I expect prototype accuracy- or very, very close.

At heart, I am more of a passenger train modeler than a passenger car modeler. Even though I have a large number of passenger car builds going on (I never seem to finish these to the point of being DONE enough with them to install window glass and call them finished) most of my actual, run-able passenger trains are made up of foobies and stand ins. An example is my consist for the CEI-LN-ACL-FEC "New" Dixieland (until 1953 the Dixie Flagler) in which I use those self same 10-6s that Lowell is painting up in place of the unique 4-5-1-4 sleepers. I did paint one with an ACL purple letterboard, but otherwise those cars are just as the Chinese factory made them.

So long as we are having fun, right?

[Point353]

For me personally, a lot of cars a "close enough" if I am paying $10 for it second hand, but for $50, I expect prototype accuracy- or very, very close.

If Lowell Smith did make a 14-4 car decorated for the Texas Special, but it was with a different floor plan not correct for MKT/Frisco, would you buy it, or not?

[peteski]

Petski, good find on the decals. I'd never heard of Circus City decals before this. I'll have to check them out. Only concern I have is their decals look kind of orangish on the screen, but the Texas Special lettering was bright red.

I can't  take the credit here - it was Tom D. who mentioned the first. I simply went to the site and pulled in the photo of those decals (picture is worth 1000 words  ).  The reason I got into this conversation was that I (in my spare time, LOL) sometimes offer to print small runs of decals for my TRW friends.  But if a readily available set exists, there is no need to duplicate the effort.

[squirrelhunter]

 Weellll, if we are talking custom decals, there is a real need for Cotton Belt passenger car decals. The Micro Trains Cotton Belt Heavyweight set has the head end, diner and sleeping cars one would need to make a credible Lone Star or Morning Star, and Atlas covered the GP-7 and the RS-3's, and BLI did the PA's.

But team huge, gaping hole is coaches. SSW had 10 Osgood Bradley coaches delivered in 1937 that were the backbone of their coach fleet. Rapido canceled the correct body style in HO, and I doubt they will ever run the 10 window version in either the as delivered Pullman green or the later daylight paint.

So if someone would make SSW decals that match the lettering on the MT heavyweight diner one could re-letter a NH Pullman green coach and have a good stand in.

[k27463]

Cedar Summit Customs (search for their Facebook page) -- run by a friend of mine, painted up a N scale TexSpecial for a client using those decals and it turned out quite well.

https://i.imgur.com/yoKTv6T.jpg

[peteski]

Weellll, if we are talking custom decals, there is a real need for Cotton Belt passenger car decals. The Micro Trains Cotton Belt Heavyweight set has the head end, diner and sleeping cars one would need to make a credible Lone Star or Morning Star, and Atlas covered the GP-7 and the RS-3's, and BLI did the PA's.

But team huge, gaping hole is coaches. SSW had 10 Osgood Bradley coaches delivered in 1937 that were the backbone of their coach fleet. Rapido canceled the correct body style in HO, and I doubt they will ever run the 10 window version in either the as delivered Pullman green or the later daylight paint.

So if someone would make SSW decals that match the lettering on the MT heavyweight diner one could re-letter a NH Pullman green coach and have a good stand in.

Do you have any photos of those cars?  What color is the lettering?  I'm not promising anything mind you.

[OldEastRR]

Didn't know that ESM did sides. Although since there are no Texas Special decals and core kits are rare and hen''s teeth I'm not sure it helps much in this case.

At the end of the day, I think this is mostly a question of window arrangements- you would need to add a roomette window to each side and delete a bedroom window from one side. Perhaps use the part of the ESM sides in the window band to get the right arrangement?

I used a KATO PRR 10-6 as the body to mount the ESM 14-4 sides on, The KATO body matches the side length exactly and with some rearranging of the 10-6 interior you can make it 14-4 too. As a bonus the KATO car has the PS roof ribs which you can't get with the core car kits. Plus it runs like a KATO!

[squirrelhunter]

Petski, I thought I had a black and white photo of the SSW Osgood Bradley coaches in the as delivered scheme, but I eed to find where it was on the 'net. Let me look around...

[Point353]

I thought I had a black and white photo of the SSW Osgood Bradley coaches in the as delivered scheme, but I eed to find where it was on the 'net. Let me look around...

Is this it?

[peteski]

Lettering is simple:  Railroad Roman typeface. Hopefully the color is not imitation gold or Dulux gold..  That is really hard to render with Alps printer.

[squirrelhunter]

Point 353, you got it- thanks for finding it! Railway Classics has that photo on their site, looked like they planned a run of them that never happened.

Peteski, I think the color was a kind of imitation/Dulux gold, like the MT diner. The original numbers were 400-409, then 200-209 after 1940 until they were shipped to SP proper as SSW passenger service collapsed in the early 50's. There is a photo in Strapac's Cotton Belt Locomotives book of a PA leaving St. Louis around 1950 where the head end cars are in daylight paint, but the 2 coaches look to still be in green.

[JoeD]

I had the help of a fellow who is currently working on a book on the Cotton belt who provided all our color references.  I really wanted to secure a run of the O Bradley coaches from Rapido to add to the set.  I think if we had pursued the project the finished piece would have been too expensive.  Maybe we can persuade Jason to do a SSW foobie.   

Joe