Kitbashing SFE 1524 (Part 1) - Shadowlining a HW Chair Car

I'm taking a short break from working on the Santa Fe 1458 "Shadowline" Diner to practice my shadowline decaling skills on an 'easier' car.

This model of a 3060-class Santa Fe HW Chair car is one I've had around for 20 years, as Walthers released these cars in 2006 and hasn't rerun them as far as I know... which they really should!  (Hint, hint, Walthers)  So, around 2013-2016 iirc, I pulled this one out and repainted it Aluminum, in preperation to do it as a shadowlined car.

My starting point after 10+ years, Gloss Aluminum painted Walters Santa Fe HW Chair Car from 3060-class.

Unfortunately, the model stalled at this point as I didn't get around to ordering the MicroScale 87-1243 set of decals until this year.

Prototype History

Prototype photograph from the web (sorry no citation, probably one of the Santa Fe Historical sites)

I'm not as much a Santa Fe passenger historian as I am for the SP.  I have asked one of my friends who's a Santa Fe passenger modeler and he's suggested that much of the 1947 expanded fleet of cars needed in Grand Canyon passenger 'system' of trains, that was already running a mixture of HW and LW cars, and the HW cars being repainted into the Shadowline scheme would bring a sense of standardization and more modern look to the Santa Fe's trains in general.

From what I've gathered so far, these ex-chair cars were converted to some sort of Lunch-Counter Snack service, but I'm not sure a date on that.  The June 1952 internal letter in Santa Fe about repainting the fleet into TTG shows the 1524 and 1525 cars in TTG as "coach snack diner?".  This would seem to suggest that the pair of cars were not regularly assigned to a specific service or train at that point in time. 

Excerpt from old.atsfrr.org website for repainted cars into TTG, dated June 1952.

The sister cars were either in various combinations of the forms of Cafe-Lounge, Snack Diner, or Dorm-Bar Lounge service at that time.  I know the Santa Fe also was, like the SP around the same time, evolving the ideas for various forms of 'Lunch Counter Diner', with other than full Dining serving format.  So if the SFE 1524 and 1525 were being used in some form of snack or lunch-counter type setup, that could be a really useful car to model for increased operational use in modeled train consists.  While I might still like to have a full lounge car, some of these cars seem to have been set up in that roll as well.  I'm looking forward to seeing what my friends with the Santa Fe passenger car libraries report back with on these cars.

I will also take this opertunity to comment that the letter from June 1949 on the old.atsfrr.org website on the Shadowlined cars also mentions that due to the impossiblity of cleaning the roofs of the HW Shadowlined cars, the Santa Fe was authorizing and directing the roofs of the cars to be repainted solid black.

While I'll probably be modeling after 1949, and even towards the end of the Shadowline era (1952+), I want to model these cars with their unique dirty roofs... so this may result in some slight era bending results with my TTG 6-6-4 sleepers, which weren't repainted themselves until 1952-53, but I think I'm going to invoke the 'my railroad, my models, my reality bending reality' slightly more than I generally do on my models of the Espee.

Body Work

There's always body work to do it seems... As this model's not just a HW Chair car repaint of the Walthers model, but a kitbash into the Dorm-Lounge configuration, I need to make a couple window changes.

The original patch plug was rough from the styrene welding process I used to install it 10 odd years ago.

I actually started these changes back when I primed the car over into Aluminum paint, but it was a little rough still when I stopped, so time to use my 10+ years of sanding and finishing skills to clean up the plugs on the windows.

I put some tape around the window to help protect the rivets while I was sanding.

I remasked the narrowed window and started cleaning out the full window plug.

More cleanup work on the larger patch.

Application of Surface Primer filling gap along the bottom of the right window.

At this point I noticed that there was a gap on the lower edge of large window patch, so I dipped a small strip of styrene into the Tamyia Surface Primer and applied it to the gap.  Some additional scraping and sanding again to blend it together. 

After the first round of body work, I gave the area a quick shot of Gloss Aluminum to see how it looks.

I hadn't noticed it yet, but there was still a 'crown' to the larger patch panel, which would become more visually annoying a bit later.

Decaling with the Shadowlines

"Dense" Shadowstripe strip for the lower car side, cut to length to fit between door and rivet plate, about 25ft long.

The SFE 1524 seems to have used the as-suggested lighter "Upper" strips and the denser "Lower" stripes as indicated in the Micro-Scale decal set.  However my other project (Santa Fe 1458 Diner) photos show that it used all 'denser' stripes, requiring me to order another set of decals to complete it.  I'm not sure why the paint crews did this, other than the 'dense' shadow stripes may have looked more like the heavier or deeper corrugation of some fluted car versions.

Shadowlining the Aisle-Side

I decided to start on the aisle-side of the car, which has the full length clerestory showing (no A/C duct) and experiment with what order to put the decals on, as the Micro Scale instructions don't really give any guidance on this.

Starting with the letterboard and car number decals?

So on this first side, I experimented with starting with the number and "SANTA FE" letterboard decals with the idea that I would work around them with the stripes and it would be easier to cut the stripes to length if I had the decal in place.  Turns out this wasn't the best idea from my experience.

Next came the lower stripe section on the right side.

You'll will notice that I start to bounce around the carside applying the striping decals while other parts are drying.  I don't really want to have wet decals immediately beside what I'm working on next.

Starting on the upper stripes

Next I went for the upper decal stripes, I decided to put the stripes over the vertical rivet strip next to the door, and then stop when the smooth door molding corner-piece.  Notice the upper decal stripes end at the vertical row of rivets at the inner end of the 3rd window in from the end.

The left end of the car's upper striping.

Here's the upper left stripes.  Notice the missing section of 2-stripe decal above the "S" and the missing stripes below the letterboard too.

Coming together, just a few pieces left.

Here's the whole side coming together.  Notice that I don't have all of the last bits of striping under the letterboard yet, but I have tied together the striping above the letterboard.

The eagle-eyed reader will notice that I have a 3cc syringe in my decaling toolbox now, I found it's easier to put out enough water to get the decals going without having extra water running all over my work area.  Many years ago, I came to dislike using any form of small tray for my decal water.  It was too easy to knock over or hard to get the decals out of cleanly without damaging the wet decal.

It seems I'm missing the pictures showing the application of the center sections of the lower stripes around the car number on this side, so we'll move on to the nearly finished car side.

Completed aisle-side decals

For completeness, here's the aisle-side of the car with all the last bits of decals applied.

Shadowlining the A/C Duct Side

Taking what I learned from the first side, I did not follow the same order and this time.  Instead I decided to keep the letterboard and car number decals off the model until the end, as I found working around them annoying and VERY likely to show that I put them in slightly the wrong place.  Thankfully this didn't happen noticeably on the first side, but I didn't want to risk repeating that when there is clearly an easier way to do it.  

I also settled on the dimensions noted below for the stripe decal lengths working in from the end of the car at the doors.  

Decaling notes:
Lower Shadowline 25ft right end to rivet splice plate.
Upper 23ft right end to "SANTA FE" void space.

Starting the decaling on the A/C duct side of the car now.

Starting in the lower left of the side this time and the lower right stripes are wetted and ready to go on next.

Lower right stripes in place.

This side is going much faster, as I'm getting the four corners of the side's decals in place.

Upper right decal in place.

Lower inboard decals in place

Taking a break from the upper decals, I decided to cut and place the two sets of center lower decals, which form the left and right edges of the car's number plate "panel".  While no actually a separate  panel like the fluted cars actually have, this faux-panel needs to be formed by not putting the shadow stripes across these areas.

Upper left letterboard stripes

The upper left stripes are now placed.

Adding the lower letterboard 2-stripe decal piece.

Unfortunately my lower letterboard 2-stripe decal was a little short, so I'll have to splice it with another piece.  I'm trying to not waste the striping decals, so while I could have cut another longer piece to do it in one shot, I'll settle to practicing my decal splicing, as the Santa Fe Diner 1458 will require a lot of it, which won't be avoidable.

Short lower letterboard splice 2-stripe piece in place.

Here's the next photo with the 2-stripe splice in place.  Not too bad.  I did find that it's better to minimize the overlap of the stripes, this is because the shadowline effect is made by small holes in the black.  I'm not 100% sure if this is an artifact of MicroScale's silk-screening process or if the real Santa Fe cars had this, or if their paint sprayers were actually feathering the edge naturally.  I lean towards the latter for the prototype, which is very hard to model correctly as a decal.  However, if these small holes in the decal don't line up, you get a solid line where the overlap of the two decals ocures. 

Planning the "SANTA FE" letterboard decal.

Checking to see how exactly the "SANTA FE" letterboard decal will fit.  Notice that I'm using the letterboard decal which has the pin-striping around it.  I'm not sure why the Santa Fe was doing this... and then not having the letterboard stripes butt up against the vertical pin-stripes.  The prototype photo of the SFE 1524 seems to show it this way, and with the longer gap in between the lettering and the strips, so I'll do it the way the photo shows it.

Letterboard decal in place.

Here's the "SANTA FE" Decal in place.  On the coach-chair body it fits perfectly with the ends just touching the outer rivet rows over the outer edges of the 2nd window from centerline of the car.

Upper letterboard 2-stripe decal in place.

The upper striping is now completed with the addition of the last 2-stripe decal above the "SANTA FE" letterboard decal.

The center number plate area really stands out in this view of the mostly complete striping.

Time to step back for a moment and look at how the whole carside is coming together with the Shadowline.

Upper number plate 3-stripe decal in place.

I don't think it matters if I start with the upper or the lower 3-stripe decal around the number plate.  I chose the upper, as I could go right along the rivet row below the windows.

Lower 3-stripe decal in place under the number plate.

With this last 3-stripe decal, the number plate's size is locked in.

And time to place the car number.

I'm not sure the MicroScale decal set has the right size numbers.  I believe some of the Santa Fe cars had larger and slightly longer (more extended) versions of the numbers used, more like what the Green scheme cars had, and possibly the steel Pullman later Budd chair cars used.

Completed A/C Duct side decals.

This side of the car felt like it went together much faster than the first side.  Part of it, I think, was that I was getting used to the process of applying these larger decals.  The other is that the change in order of placement allowed me to go much quicker, only having to line up the decals with the hard features of the car and not worry about the placement of the "SANTA FE" letterboard and car number decals 'too soon' in the process, as on the first side.

Masks off!

For the first time in over 10 years, the masking tape came off the windows on this side of the car!  Very cool!

Revised Window Patch Cleanup

Decalling completed on SFE 1524's airconditing duct side.

After looking more closely at these photos, I decided that there was still a budge in the patch which was especially caught the light wrong when painted Aluminum.

Closeup of the 'budge' in the full window patch.

I don't think the photos show it as clearly as in person, but the patch panel looked like it was a different color, almost white, when it was in natural sunlight.  I think it was because of how the sun was catching the Aluminum paint and that the non parallel patch was simply at a different angle than the rest of the body.

So I went back in after all all the decals are complete and spent another 20 odd minutes just scraping across the window patch with a chisel blade at nearly 90 degrees.  I should note that the blade was about 90% of the height of the window patch, so it was a little tricky to keep from catching any of the upper and lower rivet strips.  However, this method is probably the best way to get the 'crown' out of the panel.  I could see after each scraping pass exactly where I was removing the styrene from.  Think of it like a file, but with only one cutting tooth.  Slow, but it is what is required in those moments when you need very precise control over what's happening.

Scraping process, not easy to see with the white styrene, and no it wasn't really possible to pose the blade in the photo.

During this process, I was also checking how close to flat I was able to get the patch with the edge of the Xacto chisel blade before I committed to masking and repainting the patch panels.   Hopefully for the last time!

I also remasked the narrowed window because I was doing some work on the small patch to the left of it as well.

Completed scraping of the patch window for the 2nd time... or is this the 3rd?  I'm loosing track!

I then built a mask to only contact the car body where there was no decals, as I want to be absolutely sure that I don't damage the shadowline decals!  I started with strips of tape over the windows, then cut some cardstock to form shields over the upper and lower sides of the body, taping to the window band tape.  Additional card stock was used to shield the rest of the car body to the left and right of the primary area to be touched up.

Again with the painting and touch-ups.

I shot this section of the window and column area with Gloss Aluminum again, and then Dullcote to match the rest of the car's finish.

The completed and dullcoted patch panels

There's still a little crown in the patch, but it's much closer to flat now.

Underframe Changes

So let's look at what basic changes I did to the underbody.

Underframe with parts removed.

I removed the two battery boxes from the upper left and right bays, and the water tank from the upper center section.  The prototype 1524 had another A/C box in the upper left bay, where I removed the battery box from.

Water tank moved to the other side of the car.

The water tank is moved to the lower-left bay.  I had to notch the two transverse stringers to get the Wather's water tank to fit, but nothing unprototypical.  I also removed some of the floor stringer details so the rearranged parts will be able to mount in their new positions.

I glued the battery boxes together and braced them against my 1-2-3 machinist block.

The prototype has the two single batter boxes combined together and on the opposite side of the car, where the Walthers stock Chair car has the car's water tank.  So I'm moving several of these parts around.

Remounted battery box pair.

This battery box is remounted in the bay where the water tank was originally located.  The prototype Santa Fe cars seemed to have these battery boxes located farther inboard than the SP and Pullman cars usually did.  So I kept these boxes pushed inboard a bit more than normal.

I will still need to sort out what the new A/C box that I'm still missing should be, and probably scratch build it.  At least I should be able to get that sorted out, painted off the car, and then install it later, hopefully during Part 2 of this project.

In Closing

Yes, this post is getting pretty long, but I'm trying to get most of the decalling and changes I've done in this one post.  Then I'll do Part 2 with only the roof changes.

Decaling completed on SFE 1524's aisle-side.

Here's the Aisle-side of the car.  The right five windows will have a safety handrail across those windows, per the prototype photo.

Decaling completed on SFE 1524's A/C duct side.

I'm not 100% sure what I should do with the left windows on this side.  If it's a Dorm area, then the Scotch-Tape (sanded glass) with the lowered window shades would make sense... but if this was more of a pantry or kitchen space, per the Santa Fe 1952 TTG letter suggests, then I will need to revisit this again when I start working on the car's interior after I get some more research reports back from my friends.

I still need to remount the coupler boxes and do some other basic mechanical checks and upgrades before this car could be ready for service.  Plus of course, I need to finish all the roof modifications too, but I am pleased with how well this project has come along in a couple hours of relaxing modeling time.

Now that I have put in my practice on the Shadowline decaling techniques, I'm going to switch back to working on the SFE 1458 Dining car.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

Kitbashing SFE 1456-class HW Diner (Part 1) with a Rivarossi Model and Opening Thoughts - My on kitbashing a Rivarossi HW Diner into a Shadowlined Santa Fe diner, circa 1948.

Kitbashing SFE 1456-class HW Diner (Part 2) - More Body Work and Paint - My Part 2 on kitbashing a Rivarossi HW Diner into a Shadowlined Santa Fe diner, circa 1948.

Kitbashing SFE 1456-class HW Diner (Part 3) - Mechanical Upgrades - My Part 3 on kitbashing a Rivarossi HW Diner into a Shadowlined Santa Fe diner, circa 1948.

Articles from Other Authors:

SFE 1456-class Diner kitbash by Colin Kikawa, along with multiple other interesting kitbashes - Enjoy!

Tom Casey's ATSF_hwt_Diner.pdf - SFE 1404 Kitbashed Diner