Modeling MoPac "Eagle River" Pullman 6-6-4 (Part 1) - Research and Fluting

MP Colorado River 6-6-4 TCY Sleeper from the 2007 run - built by SAM-TECH - Brasstrains,com website

This is my project to kitbash a Walthers 6-6-4 into a MoPac sleeper, along the lines of the 2007 The Coach Yard model.

Undecorated Walthers 6-6-4 right side

This is the starting point for my MoPac 6-6-4 sleeper. 

Researching the MoPac paint schemes and the 6-6-4 Eagle River

My research for my MoPac 6-6-4 Eagle River project started about 20 years ago when my passenger train mentor told me that the Santa Fe's No.23 North, aka Grand Canyon, didn't always run two Santa Fe 6-6-4s in the consist, but every third day the Richmond, CA to New Orleans sleeper was a MoPac car.  So our modeled consist really should have a MoPac 6-6-4 that we could trade out to represent this.  Therefore, I picked up an undecorated Walters LW STD 6-6-4 Pullman Sleeper in the early 2000s when the model was available and I saw one floating by at a hobby shop.

Caption for the Colorado River, one of four STD 6-6-4s assigned to the MoPac's Colorado Eagle in 1942, from Carbuilder's Cyclopedia Vol.11.

Decals and painting research for this project has been the main holdup to modeling this car for 20 years.

According to the Pullman drawings of the MoPac 6-6-4s show the names as follows:

"Arkansas River" to MP 606 in 1963

"Colorado River" to MP 607 in 1963

"Eagle River" to MP 608 in 1963

"Gunnison River" to MP 609 in 1963

For many years I've planned to model the "Colorado River", however given that most of the models out there are of the "Colorado River", I usually like to model cars that haven't been done before.  So I'm planning to switch to modeling the "Eagle River".

Walthers produced this 50ft AAR Express Boxcar in MoPac colors

A couple years later, I was able to pick up this MoPac Walthers/Proto2000 produced model of an express boxcar.  The colors should be correct to match and spacing for the stripes to transfer to the Walthers 6-6-4 sleeper.

MP Colorado River 6-6-4 TCY Sleeper from the 2007 run - built by SAM-TECH - Brasstrains,com website

The TCY model is very nice, including very fine C-channel strips for the trim molding.  This last week I was able to find this on the Brasstrains website archive, as the model is not for sale, but a lovely collection of photos were still online.  I'm still wondering if the roof and lower skirt color is the same as the window band.  I still seem to be seeing a lighter color on the window bands towards maybe even white.  So I need to track that down in more detail.

Cropped photo showing the blind-end details and full width diaphragm of the Colorado River. - BrassTrains,com website.

Modeling the River-series 6-6-4s are also more complicated than the other MoPac LW Pullmans because these cars had three strips of trim molding mounted to the basic smooth-sided Pullman 6-6-4s.  The ones above and below the windows were C-channel, and the third strip of molding (under the lower yellow stripe) appears to have been a piece of bar-stock molding, roughly 4" tall.  TCY model seems to be missing this lower trim molding strip.
So I'll need to figure out a way to model this small channel molding for the two around the windows.  It's much smaller than any mass-produced styrene shapes, so that option's out.

Missing the Walthers Boat

Walthers website info on the MoPac 6-6-4.

I didn't know that Walthers actually produced the MoPac 'Colorado River' as a model... so of course I missed it...

Walthers 932-16724 MoPac 'Colorado River', of course it was produced sometime in the last 20 years. - This picture was from an expired auction on-line.

... and of course I have already started this model before I found this out.  So it's rather pointless now to try to find one on-line.  Oh well... I'm pretty close to finishing this project up.  Plus this way I can model the proper trim molding without messing up the existing paint scheme.

Given that I've done a bit more research in the last week or two on how MoPac cars were painted post-1948, the center letterboard "PULLMAN" was replaced with "THE EAGLE" centered with "MP" on the ends of the letterboards in Aluminum-Bronze lettering (aka 'silver').  It seems the 6-6-4s were also the only cars to get this exact treatment of trim molding.  The MoPac's 10-5s didn't have it.

I also could probably do without trying to model the full-width diaphrams, which I have put on several other of my Walthers passenger cars.

Planning Trim Molding

Left side of MoPac 'Eagle River' with pencil marks to plan trim molding.

I decided to sand the molded smooth surface of the car side with a 3200-grit sanding pad so that mechanical pencil lead will have a little bit of 'tooth', thus being able to leave a mark.

Right side of MoPac 'Eagle River' with pencil marks to plan trim molding.

I more aggressively sanded the carside with a paper in the 300-400 grit range to get some more 'tooth' for the mechanical pencil to leave better lines.  I plan to clean up with finer grit after I apply the molding, which the paint should cover smoothly when it is applied.

Modeling Trim Molding

I'm planning to fabricate the trim molding out of Evergreen 0.010" x 0.020" styrene strips.  Evergreen's smallest C-channel shape strips are 0.060" tall.  I need it to be ideally, 1/2 that tall, around 3" in scale.  Looks like the best I'll be able to do is 0.040" or so, about 3.5" in scale.   I think from the photos, TCY's model used photo-etched channel, which I'm not going to be able to do.

I've added the first 0.020" strip, layed flat against the carside.

I'm trying to start this process by laying a 0.020" tall strip flat against the carside, and then apply the two strips on-edge above and below that.  It will be interesting to see if this works or not.  The hardest part is getting the first strip applied, and gauging the width of the 0.010" flange to be added.

Lower flange applied and cut off short of end of car rivet corner strip.

Lower flange strip applied.  I'm using Tamyia Liquid Plastic Glue, which is like a low viscosity water and applied with the brush.

Another view showing the shapes with shadows in better viewing angle.

Part of the trick of photographing this process is getting the light and shadows in the right places to cast good shadows of the details.  You can see some of the scuff marks from the courser sand pads above the window, which allowed the pencil marks to stick.

Completed lower trim molding, with upper flange installed.

I'm a little surprised how easily the first piece of trim molding went on.  

Detail of upper flange installed on the lower trim molding.

I'm not able to take pictures of all the key moments of this process, as it takes at least 7 fingers to do it.  I do try to get some pictures of the flanges being added partway through the process.

3/4 detail view of the lower trim molding installed.

Here's another view of the completed lower trim molding with better lighting and perspective to see the details.  The trim molding will be painted Aluminum when the car is complete, so it will show the shadow over the upper and lower flanges on each piece.  

Here's an overview of the completed left side molding strips.

I may have positioned the upper molding strips too low, as in right above the windows, where some of the prototype photos suggest it should be a little higher... However, due to the molding assembly as I'm modeling it is larger than prototype, I'm just going to live with the difference.  I've also checked it against the MoPac express boxcar I have, and the aluminum painted strips on the boxcar match nicely with the trim molding, so I'm going to accept how this has worked out.

I already applied the upper molding strip here, and the lower's in process.

Time for the right side of the car... I missed photographing the upper strip, and so did more to document the lower strip as I was gluing it together.

Completed molding strips in place.

One of the things that I noticed with this project is that I spent quite a bit of time afterwords, about 1-2 hours later, retracing the edges and joints of the trim strips with the liquid glue to get it to be fully welded to the carside.

Several of the prototype  photos of the MoPac 6-6-4s that are in the Railway Prototype Cyclopedia Vol.11 show detailed views of the prototype car... including the lower trim molding.  It is much more subtle than the window's channel molding... so I'm still deciding if I want to put the lower trim molding on, which the lower yellow and black stripe will be applied over the top of.  I will ponder this for a couple more days while I consider the painting options.

Paint Matching

This is a bit of a planning sneak into the next post, I set up a card with some of the paints that I'm looking at using.  

My own paint sample card.

The "Eagle Gray" (as seen on the express boxcar) will need to be custom mixed.  I'll be using one of the Depot Buffs and lightening it with straight white and shifting it towards gray with the DRGW MOW Gray.  This will take some experimentation on cards and checking it against the express car to get it as close as I can.
For the "Eagle Blue", I think my 10-15 year old bottle of Polly Scale ATSF Blue will work.
The roof's "Gray" will probably just be the straight DRGW MOW Gray.

In Closing

I did have to replace the last lower molding, as I had the flanges roll in and collapse, getting glued into an 'A'-shape without the needed open area to cast the shadows.  I knew this was going too well with the first 3 strips.

Completed Trim Molding, Right Side.

Again, time to fix something... I ended up being able to use my chisel-blade Xacto, which was able to lift the defective molding strip off the body.  I sanded and cleaned off the few bits of styrene that remained stuck to the carside.  This brought me back where I was before I applied the first molding, then I reapplied another set of styrene strips to build the new 4th molding strip.  

Completed Trim Molding, Left Side.

The reason I include these mistakes, damage and redoing steps of the model, is so my readers don't worry if you mess up a step, or in this case a set of the molding.  Just pull it off, clean it up, and start again.

I'm going to  wrap this post up for now.  I'll cover the painting next time in Part 2.

Jason Hill

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