SP 10250-51-52 (Part 2) - Triple Diner-Lounge 1949

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's almost here.  Good-bye 2016 and don't let the calendar hit you on the way out!  I will say that I'm pretty happy with the response to this blog.  It has passed 9000 views since the 4th of July!  I also hope that everyone will continue to enjoy the content and hopefully it will be relevant to your modeling projects as well.

Here's one of the upgraded MTH 70-AD-3 Dining-Units with table cloths and replaced letterboard decals for post-1946.

In the last blog post about the SP 10250-51-52 kitbash (Part 1), I started working on the Kitchen Unit SP 10251.  In this post I will start working on the interior changes to the SP 10250 Diner Unit.

History of 1949 Conversion to Diner-Lounge

In 1949 the SP 10250-51-52 & SP 10253-54-55 Articulated Diner-Coffee Shops were reassigned to the San Joaquin Daylight after the discontinuance of the Noon Daylight.  The off-season San Joaquin Daylight didn't need both the articulated Diner-Coffee Shop and a full Tavern-Lounge car.

The Coffee Shop Unit (SP 10252 & 10255) with their mid-car drink station were considered for conversion to the Lounge space, but were rejected as the drink station was located in the middle of what would be the lounge space and there was no refrigerator for the new lounge space either.

It was decided that the rear portion of the Dining Unit (SP 10250 and SP 10253) would be more suitable to have the tables removed and replaced with lounge seats as the refrigerator at the rear end of the Diner would be suitable to store the materials to make the drinks for the Lounge patrons.

Modeling the Lounge Space

I will move to the beginnings of the work to make the Diner-Lounge Unit interior of the SP 10250.

Interior of SP 10250 Dining Unit with tabletops removed in the Lounge section, left.

The Dining-Unit isn't actually that hard to change.  It will consist of opening the unit, cutting through the interior floor and removing the 6 rows of dining tables, 12 tables total.

Detail of one of the retaining clips above the left side of the truck, just below the seat of the chair.

The sides of the interior floor have small tabs that the carside locks into.

Interior Floor removed from new Lounge section

The MTH floor has the seats cast into it, therefore instead of cutting down and destroying all of the interior seating.  One option would have been to leave the seats against the end wall, keeping the fingers of the clip, and removing the cast-in seats.  However, I've chosen to cut that section of the flooring out.  This new floor will need to have at least the end clip replaced on the new floor so the body can snap in.

I removed the tables in the lounge section before cutting it out to keep the tables from being damaged.

Remaining Dining section tables.

The six tables that remain in the Dining section of the unit will have the table tops painted white to simulate the linen table cloths.

With the body back on in this 3/4 high angle view of the Diner-unit without the lounge section interior floor.

A new section of flooring made from 0.030" styrene sheet is cut to be spliced in.  The new section has a screw hole to mount it to the underframe as well.

New floor cut from 0.030" styrene sheet.

Also, I'll cut the new section to include the small notched "fingers" to hold the body on.  The Lounge seats are from several Walthers Lounge cars and a HW Parlor model that I rearranged the interior on, resulting in about 40 extra lounge-parlor seats.

Many reused chairs and a 3-seat sofa from a Walthers Observation and HW 28-1 parlor car are used for the new Lounge.

The SPH&TS Psgr Car book, Vol 4 - Dining Cars, says that the 1949 rearrangement of furnishings to SP 10250 Lounge area would seat 35 and 10253 would seat 34 because one car received a 3-seat sofa and the other car used only a 2-seat sofa.  Because I'm modeling the SP 10250, I get to use a 3-seat sofa and the rest are simple lounge chairs.  Unfortunately the SPH&TS book doesn't have a floor plan of the Diner-Lounge configuration and no photos that I know of, so the arrangement of where the 3-seat sofa goes is kind of a guess.



Here's the new "modular" Lounge and Diner interiors.  The floor of the Lounge section and seats will be painted separately.  Then the seats will be glued in place.  I will probably make a small standee for drinks next to the 3-seat sofa.  I think there might also be enough room on the opposite side for a small standee as well.

I like the idea of easily being able to swap interiors if I want to model the "on-season" versus "off-season" configuration of these cars for the San Joaquin Daylight.  The tables tops will also be painted white to represent the linen table cloths and I may also paint the dining chairs and dining floor as well.

Until I paint the interior - and get warmer weather to do that! -  The SP 10250 will have to wait here.  In the next blog post, SP 10250-51-52 (Part 3) - Cleaning Pads, I'll be showing the fitting of the new Track Cleaning Pads under the Kitchen-Unit (SP 10251) and then the Christmas Joy of filling and sanding the plugs and re-scribing of the fluting.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:
Upgrades and Mechanicals of MTH Daylight Passenger Cars
Modeling Index SP Lightweight Passenger Cars
Modeling Index SP's HW Passenger Cars
Modeling Index Pullman's HW Passenger Cars
Modeling Index Pullman's LW Passenger Cars