SFE "Surprise Valley" Pullman 6-6-4 Shadowline Sleeper (Part 1) - Painting & Decaling Right Side

Santa Fe's "Surprise Valley" as modeled with Walthers 6-6-4 Pullman Sleeper.

A friend of mine and I about 15 years ago were talking about modeling the Santa Fe's "Shadowlined" 6-6-4 sleepers, which was used between 1947 and 1952 on many of these cars.  He had a solid-gray 1960s-era Walthers model.  

Excerpt from Santa Fe Historical Society website on Shadowlined cars, June 1952 letter.

He wanted me to build a model of the Santa Fe's 'Surprise Valley', which remained in Shadowline scheme until very near the end of the scheme in 1952.

 One of Santa Fe's 6-6-4 with removed skirting in stock Walthers Two-Tone Gray (TTG) paint "Chama Valley".

Unfortunately, his model, like my "Chama Valley", had their skirting removed as offered by Walthers.  I'm not sure when the Santa Fe started deskirting their 6-6-4s.  So his solid-gray 6-6-4 will probably end up receiving a dark gray stripe and the two white boarder strips to turn it into another TTG model like the "Chama Valley".

Santa Fe's "Surprise Valley" Project

Right side of Walthers 6-6-4 which will become SFE 'Surprise Valley.'

Therefore, we decided recently that my friend's model would not be suitable for the "Surprise Valley" in the pre-1952 Shadowline scheme.  I was able to find another undecorated Walthers model on Ebay and picked it up.  So this will be the story of the "Surprise Valley" (Take two).

Disassembly

The body of the Walthers car comes apart by twisting the body fairly agressively.

I started this project with an Undecorated Walthers 6-6-4 Pullman Sleeper.  The model is molded in neutral light gray plastic.  The body of the Walthers car comes apart by twisting the body quite aggressively to get the roof clips to release.

Walthers pre-war Pullman trucks, inboard direction is to the left.

The Walthers trucks are removed and painted Gloss Aluminum.  I will also give the trucks some black washes to bring out the spring details, etc.

Bolster Modifications

Stock Walthers 6-6-4 underframe.

As with all my Walthers cars, I removed the stamped steel 'pickup springs' because they cause the trucks to bind up.

Bolster modifications.

The plastic sections of the bolster are also removed as the truck brake cylinders catch on them too.  These modifications allow the trucks to rotate smoothly and sit a consistent height.

Masking & Prep Work

Right side of the body with blue-tape masking from the interior side

I decided to keep the body as assembled as possible.  The interior is molded in light tan, but I don't want Aluminum to get overspray into those parts of the car.

Left side of the body with blue-tape masking from the interior side

The interior mask is done in several smaller pieces and then connected over the top and tucked into the sides to be sure the paint can cover all of the areas needed.

Blind-end of the body with masking.

The ends of this car will have some weathering, so I'm not too concerned about getting 100% full and perfect coverage in those areas.

Vestibule end with masking over interior of the body.

I'm not sure what the vestibule interior color was on these cars.  So I'm not really worried about it at this point.  I probably will set up an OwlMtModels Tailgate Marker on the vestibule end of this car, as any of my 6-6-4s on the Santa Fe may be called on to operate as the end car in the Santa Fe's Grand Canyon (North).

Color Sanding

At this point I sprayed the body with Tamiya Gloss Aluminum spray paint.  The paint layed down pretty well, but there were a few flaws in the finish.  Either a bit of blown debris (Nevada has some breeze and dust airborn) or pinhole sized bubbles in the paint resulted.

"Color Sanding" with 6000+ grit sanding pads with a bit of water.

I used very find sand paper pads to sand them down smooth.  But there were slight difference in the luster of the metalic color.  I lightly dusted on a bit more paint to help cover that up.

Shadow Stripe Decaling

The lower left stripes applied with some water drops still on the carside.

Again, like on the SFE 1524 HW Coach, I'm starting with the lower stripes from the end of the car to the edge of the car name/number faux panel.

Close-up of my small pencil marks to indicate where the faux name panel will start.

I made some small marks in pencil on the carside on the skirts, including a center mark, and then two end marks for the faux name panel.  I also put two marks on the side above the stripes, at the bottom of the windows.  Unfortunately the one on the left is a little too heavy, and it penetrated the paint, so I'll have to touch that up later.

The lower right stripes applied betweenthe faux name panel and the vestibule door.

I ended up with a little bit of extra length on the decal stripes, which I allowed to spill over onto the door post.  Unfortunately, the decals set a little too well and I couldn't easily lift it off after the fact.  So I'll probably just mask and shoot a little bit of extra Aluminum paint to cover the door post again.

Faux-name plate area kept clear of shadow stripes.

I found out doing this side that this method that worked well on the HW chair car and Diner, doesn't work well on a car that doesn't have the belt-rail.  On the other side I started with the center lower 3-stripes, which then I tied in the two end strip sets, which seemed to work better on this type of car.

Planning the car name position.

For the "Surprise Valley" lettering, I decided that about 9ft would be a good length for the name panel needed to remain after the shadow stripes were applied.

Completed faux name-plate panel striping above and below completed.

The striping is cut down to only 3-stripe to apply above and below the name panel.

Overview of the whole car with the faux name plate decals completed.

From this distance the faux fluting looks pretty good.

Car name applied and centered up on the faux name panel.

I decided that about 12-14" looked good as the space between the panel end and the end of the car name lettering.

Overview of the carside with the car name in place.

I made another small mark in the very upper edge of the carside, which will be under the overlap of the roof when it is in place.  I measured the center faux-letterboard to be 24ft long, thus 12ft to each side of my center mark will be the end of the upper stripes.

Upper Striping

Upper left 'light' 5-stripe decal applied, with the 6 upper berth windows.

I applied the upper stripe decals over the upper berth windows in the Sections, as I need to keep the stripes straight.  The decals can be cut out and wrapped into the window openings afterwords.  I decided it would be better to cut down the upper stripes to be only 5-stripe tall.

Upper right decal stripes applied.

This section of decal was able to fit very accurately, between the faux letterboard panel and the door post at the vestibule.

Upper berth windows opened.

I punctured the decal over the upper berth windows.  Then with the MicroSol to soften the decals I folded the decals into the window openings.

Window openings are now cleared out.

Here's a closeup of the upper berth windows.

Touched up the lower door post with a touch more Aluminum paint.

I made a quick mask out of some tape, with a blind (non-sticky area) right over the decals, so as not to damage them, and resprayed the lower door section and door post.

Starting on the upper single stripe over the letterboard panel

I cut a couple of stripes down to one strip wide.  I may do some photo-shoping and see what this car would look like with two stripes above and below the letterboard, more like what I have on the SFE 1524 and 1458.  While I kinda like the look of the larger letterboard, I'm not sure this is the way Santa Fe would have done these cars.  Both my previous Shadowline cars, done off photographs of the prototypes show the letterboard only about 9-10" tall, basically only one stripe missing from these 'sparse' spacing shadowline stripes.

Lower single stripe in place.

Now the letter board space is framed, time for the Letterboard decal!

And there it is!

I evened up the positioning to have equal space to the left and right end of the "SANTA FE" decal on the faux letterboard panel.

Overview of the right side of the car.

Here's a nice overview of the first completed side of the Surprise Valley.

In Closing

Right side of the "completed" Surprise Valley decaling work (at least for now) and the roof put back on.

This blog post is going to get VERY LONG if I throw in the left side of the car being decaled, so I'll call it here and cover that side in the next blog post.

The Chama Valley in TTG and Surprise Valley in Shadowline certainly make a striking mix of cars in a train.

I'll probably start doing a bit of research on what color interiors these cars had.  As I expect to be doing the regular slate of interior work, including safety handrails along the aisles, window shades, etc.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

SFE 1458 Diner in Shadowline scheme

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.

Kitbashing SFE 1456-class HW Diner (Part 4) - Shadowlines - My Part 4 on kitbashing a Rivarossi Diner decaling the car into Shadowline scheme.

SFE 1524 Snack-Coach Diner in Shadowline scheme

Kitbashing SFE 1524 (Part 1) - Shadowlining a HW Chair Car - My kitbash of Walthers 3060-class HW Chair car to a Shadowlined Snack-Lounge/Coach car. In Part 1 I am focusing on window changes and decaling the car.

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