Hello all...
I'm posting a few pics of the latest baggage car for the Fast Mail-1849 (the former 1348 San Vicente)....
according to all references I can find, this was a 'one of a kind' car; being the only car in it's group that was converted to a baggage express-the other Baggage-Buffet-Library cars in it's class being converted to Baggage-Coach Combines.
This car, of course, should be recognizable to most log time N scalers, being THE heavyweight baggage car for may years; the old Rivarossi-Atlas-Concor baggage.
A quick aside-3 of the cars that Rivarossi chose to model as their 'one prototype-fits-all' heavyweight car collection, are actually Santa Fe cars-this baggage express car, the heayweight diner, and the baggage coach combine.(I'm not sure of the observation as I don't have that car in hand, nor do I have a pic to draw from) All of the cars-even the non Santa Fe prototypes- have an identical underframe, which, I imagine, makes it easier on the manufacturer, but is incorrect for the actual prototypes (at least for the ATSF types). I've been using these cars as donor cars for the cars I've been learning to model for the Santa Fe, so I'm becoming more familiar with them (interestingly enough, these cars were my first N scale cars-as a kid, in New Orleans, I received my first N scale trainset; an Atlas Santa Fe E8 with 4(?) heavyweight cars)
Even though it's a 'one of a kind' car, this particular car roamed the Santa Fe system; had that distinctive Santa Fe channel sill, and also has the benefit of actually being available in N scale, and fairly accurate to boot. Considering it's availability in N scale, it would have been foolish for me to not add this car to the ATSF head end roster.
I found this car on Ebay-painted for Norfolk and Western...I stripped the paint fairly quickly, using 91% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol.
after cleaning the car body and roof in warm, soapy water, I started to detail it to make it more of an accurate representation of this unique Santa Fe baggage-express car
Here's a list of the things I did to the car:
shaved the molded grab rail detail (including brakewheel and chain) off of the Rivarossi car, then drilled for new ones made from Detail associates brass wire
Removed the molded floor between the centerbeam trusses (and it's associated underframe detail) and replaced the floor with .040 styrene.
I built new battery boxes from Evergreen styrene and brass battery box covers from a spare set included in one of Roberto Martari's ATSF coach frets
Roberto's ATSF car frets also provided the baggage door steps (the 70' heavyweight baggage fret provides spares-I had enough to spare 2 large and 2 small for this car)
Another fret-the ATSF heavyweight RPO, provided the 2 end steps for the 'blind end'
GMM heavyweight car detail set provided the steps for the plated over vestibule end of this car (with some brass wire detail)
the molded roof vents were shaved from the roof (the photos and drawings I have for this car don't show any vents)
Rain gutters were formed from Evergreen strip, then glued into place on the roof
Evergreen styrene strip added to the underframe to support the MT 1015 couplers (with shim piece)
Rapido couplers and pockets removed from trucks-shiny silver wheels removed and replaced with Fox Valley 33" low profiles wheelsets (these cars prototypically carried 36" wheelsets, but they rub on the brake shoes)
American Limited diaphagms added to both ends (required removing the molded diaphragm lips and drilling the doors open)
BLMA 15" drop-step grabs added to the ends-2 per end
added etched metal brakewheel (another spare from Roberto's sides), and brakewheel chain from fine ship's chain
painted with ATSF coach green (I use Andy Sperandeo's suggested formula of 4 parts GN Empire Green to 1 part Signal Yellow) with Pollyscale acrylics thinned with isopropyl alcohol
roof painted with Pollyscale Steam Power Black thinned with isopropyl alcohol
lettered with Microscale decals and custom decals from RailGraphics
I still need to tweak the decals just a bit, then clean any decal glue residue before a final flat coat-also simulate the 4 clestory windows with shiny black decal rectangles
I want to add some very faint weathering to the Fast Mail consists, but I'm finding it difficult to find pics that show any of the ATSF cars in any kind of 'dirty' condition...the foreign road cars, hoever, are a different story!
Thanks for looking,
~Bruce
