CP fans. What is it?

[mecgp7]

I couldn't tell you where I got this passenger car, but I am sure it was in a lot that I purchased somewhere along the way. It is an older car (Rivarossi possibly) that has been painted for the Canadian Pacific. Someone has added a bunch of details to it. It has a number of square louvers added to the sides and additional details to the roof including what look like two air tanks on one side and one on the other. So, my questions are what is it and did the CP have anything like it? My guess would be a steam generator car.
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[learmoia]

My guess is an HEP car...

~Ian

[Angus Shops]

It doesn’t look like any CP car I’m aware of. CP didn’t have a lot of dedicated steam generator cars, but did build at least one out of a retired ‘express baggage car’; that series of cars (4400’s) were themselves rebuilt from essentially boxcars and so the steam generator version looked a lot more like a 40 foot boxcar than an 85 foot heavyweight baggage car. It does look like an attempt at steam generator car though.

[thomasjmdavis]

Maybe an attempt at some MOW car?  A lot of CP baggage cars did have windows, even some streamlined cars.  Bars or louvers might have been applied in a MOW car either for security, or as vents for some sort of equipment (noting all the vents/stacks on the roof). 
Could you do another photo that is more straight on to the side of the car, so we get a better view of the window covering/louver/screening and the car number.

There is/was a more modern, streamlined car that had some similar louvers and roof vents (in recent times, if not originally) and I would assume it is a HEP car- scroll down to car #95 here:
http://tracksidetreasure.blogspot.com/2017/08/canadian-pacifics-canada-150-train.html

and I think it is the first car behind the locos here:
https://www.royalcanadianpacific.com/experience/

[mecgp7]

 Road number 625 ( no such car found). Better pics of the sides.
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[ncbqguy]

It may be obvious but it is based on a Con-Cor ATSF baggage car as evidenced by the plated-over vestibule doors and channel sill.  Nice job on the conversion!
Charlie Vlk

[mecgp7]

Not my work. I never noticed the plated over doors. Wish I knew the story behind this car and if it follows a prototype. I'd paint it in correct colors if I knew.

[CBQ Fan]

It would be interesting to see pictures of the inside of the shell.

[mecgp7]

The inside of the shell is factory. No alterations. I figured out the back story on this car. It was part of a set of four cars with three of them custom painted (albeit not well). Why buy them especially when I don't really have a use for CP passenger cars and these were dinosaurs? They originally had MTL heavyweight trucks w/couplers or MTL trucks and 1015s and I remember bidding on them just for the trucks. I got lucky and paid far less than if I bought the trucks new.
The factory car was an observation factory painted, but not the Rivarossi version. It's a Lima/Model Power. All the cars originally had steps judging from the glue residue.

[thomasjmdavis]

The inside of the shell is factory. No alterations. I figured out the back story on this car. It was part of a set of four cars with three of them custom painted (albeit not well). Why buy them especially when I don't really have a use for CP passenger cars and these were dinosaurs? They originally had MTL heavyweight trucks w/couplers or MTL trucks and 1015s and I remember bidding on them just for the trucks. I got lucky and paid far less than if I bought the trucks new.
The factory car was an observation factory painted, but not the Rivarossi version. It's a Lima/Model Power. All the cars originally had steps judging from the glue residue.

Even in the present day world of overpriced models on eBay, I occasionally find deals on upgraded cars- I suppose because the scam dealers who have taken over eBay can't sell them as "new old stock" or "new but not in original box" if they have MTL couplers or etched parts added.

Back to the car in the original post. The model is rather like a lot of what I do in my own modeling- which is to say, I often try to create a "representation" of a car or building, by starting with an available manufactured model and adding some details that are specific to the prototype.  For instance, I have cut down Rivarossi baggage cars to 70', even though they still have the beltrail and odd rivet detail not present on real ATSF 70' cars.  This is only speculation, but I am going to hypothesize that the baggage in the OP may be loosely based on a real car- possibly (number notwithstanding) a 70' car, in MOW service or a "supply car" that sat in a yard.  Many CP head end cars had windows- although the one that is immediately next to the smaller door is out of place based on all the photos I can find, but might have been a conversion from a baggage-dorm or combine, just keeping one window and adding an additional baggage door.  At any rate, I can't speak to CP practice, but it was not unusual for supply cars that sat in yards to have louvers or heavy screening over the windows, to help prevent windows being broken and/or cars being burglarized.  The car might be something the modeler spotted in his travels, and built from memory or a snapshot.  Obviously liberties were taken, given that it still has a "Santa Fe sill".

I can't knock this approach, most of my own kitbashes are "as close as I can get" with readily available cars and a razor saw, and I also use many out of the box "close enough" stand ins.  You would also find "Santa Fe sills" on several cars in my fleet that are not models of ATSF cars.

[mecgp7]

"I can't knock this approach, most of my own kitbashes are "as close as I can get" with readily available cars and a razor saw, and I also use many out of the box "close enough" stand ins."

I live by this mantra. That and rule number one.

[Angus Shops]

Nothing at all wrong with “close as I can get” approach. My ability to get “as close asI can” has improved a lot over the decades however. These Atlas/Rivarossi cars were pretty much the only game in town for heavyweight cars for decades, and they were pretty good cars back in the day. I used them repeatedly as kitbash fodder, and a couple of them are still in service. I used to snap them up at shows if they were priced reasonably and I still use the roof sections as the basis for any clerestory roof car to this day. If anybody wants a pair of ‘Alton Limited’ 12-1’s without roofs, I’ll pop them in the mail.

However, all CP steel heavyweight baggage express cars (and RPO’s) used arched roofs, and most of them followed a pretty standard design - two identically sized doors on each side, spaced equally from the car ends, with 2 windows on each side, each spaced between the doors and the ends. The lettering looks like it might be from a CP cab unit decal set; standard CP lettering on cars is substantially longer.

[mecgp7]

The lettering looks like it might be from a CP cab unit decal set; standard CP lettering on cars is substantially longer.

Funny you mentioned that as I removed the decals and added the correct ones. Pics to follow.

[thomasjmdavis]

Nothing at all wrong with “close as I can get” approach. My ability to get “as close asI can” has improved a lot over the decades however. These Atlas/Rivarossi cars were pretty much the only game in town for heavyweight cars for decades, and they were pretty good cars back in the day. I used them repeatedly as kitbash fodder, and a couple of them are still in service. I used to snap them up at shows if they were priced reasonably and I still use the roof sections as the basis for any clerestory roof car to this day. If anybody wants a pair of ‘Alton Limited’ 12-1’s without roofs, I’ll pop them in the mail.

However, all CP steel heavyweight baggage express cars (and RPO’s) used arched roofs, and most of them followed a pretty standard design - two identically sized doors on each side, spaced equally from the car ends, with 2 windows on each side, each spaced between the doors and the ends. The lettering looks like it might be from a CP cab unit decal set; standard CP lettering on cars is substantially longer.

That sent me to my heavyweight parts box, as once upon a time, I had several aftermarket arched roofs (some with a lot of rivets that were labeled "Harriman" and others smooth) made by a company called N Hobby Distributors.  But no luck finding them (not yet, anyway), other than one on a pseudo-Tribe Pullman stand in (ex Riv. 12-1 with plugged windows which will be retired if Roberto ever makes sides for those cars).  At any rate, replacement roofs were a cottage industry back in the day.

The search for roofs was not entirely fruitless.  Found I had one more "new old stock in original box" Rivarossi baggage car, which will save me having to buy one for a project I have in mind. 

I figure it is only a matter of time before MTL produces arched roofs for their coaches as they have for several other cars.  And who knows, maybe a non-AC clerestory roof for backdating the Pullmans into the 20s and early 30s.

[nscalbitz]

It looks to me like a decent enough car- use it as a mow or training/ education car that gets spotted at odd stations; special military or whatever; with a decent coat of matt spray I'm sure it will look ok.
I thought one end looks like one of the later big-window observation/lounges, but you say its unmodified.
But then I like quirky, now back to sleep...
cheers d