SP 2701 (Part 2), 60-CC-1 from a Model Power Coach

Well, some progress has been made on the SP 2701 since Part 1 of the build.  I will also mention that I've done some improvements to my SP HW Passenger Car Index page with new example photos and a few new car classes represented now.

Interior & Walls

Leading this update is the construction, painting, and installation of the chairs and some partitions around the toilets, and painting of the interior.

Interior added to SP 2701 - Note the dark green window shades.

I should first mention that I used dark green manila filing folder material for the dark green window shades on this model.  Some SP coaches, All-Day-Lunches, and News Agent cars had this.  Best to look at photos to see which cars had it, and which had a light tan shade.

Similar strips of PSC seats prepared for SP 1005.

The seats are Prescision Scale Co. 33312.1 (Chair Car) seats, they are injection molded in pairs with small legs on them.  I started with the uncolored gray seats, and painted the floor strip of .400" x 0.020" strip styrene a nice shade of "Seafoam" green from StarBrand, which is actually a pretty good match for the interior color used on Athearn's Streamlined 77-C-3 chair cars.

I then masked the floor and painted the seats with a mix of Freight Car Red (FCR) also StarBrand.  This again was a pretty close match for the colors used on the MTH and Athearn Genesis Daylight chair cars.

The seats were glued to the styrene strip 0.460" apart.  At the front end of the car there will be a set of seats looking back, however I did not install those at this time.  The lighting bar-strip was not glued in and I removed it for this part.  Checking the drawings I glued the seating strips in to get a good location compared to the windows of where they line up.  This is really a matter of choice, as the Model Power is missing one large window.  So in the middle of the car you can either let the seats not line up with the windows and have the right number of seats, or you can have the wrong number of seats, but line up with the windows.  I chose to have the right number of seats, and oh well about the windows.  I might have decided to go the other route in hindsight... but it's too late now! - (More on my thoughts of changing models after the fact).  At this point it's not reached a high enough mark on the "Really Annoying" Meter to worry about.

Photo from before the interior was installed - Notice the major hole... WATCH YOUR STEP!

Styrene sheet was added down the middle of the car as well to cover the major holes that were left in the Model Power body tooling.  This will help hide the holes as seen in the photo below.

SP 2701 with interior mounted and partitions around the ends of the seating area.

The partitions are 0.02" sheet styrene cut 36" wide and even with the top of the carside.  Notches are cut in the edge nearest the carside for the roof flange to clear.  Extra scrap squares of sheet styrene are glued over the "end windows" in the car interior.  I am not sure why both MDC and Model Power (copied) have these end windows into the toilets... Not kosher for 1910 certainly!  Probably they did one set of tooling for the end windows in the end wall of the observation car and put them in all their models as a general endsill wall.

The left end window (bottom left in the photo above) is also is covered with non-"Magic" Scotch Tape, which causes the "fogged" look, usually associated with the toilet windows on coaches and chair cars not fitted with expensive "etched" glass or prismed windows.  This can also be seen below.

Another view of the interior, also we can see a bit of the roof with the vents painted.

The soldering tabs can be seen above at the end of the LED strip.  The wires from the trucks and markers will attach there.

I'll end this update with a photo of the car showing what the car looks like without installed marker lights.

Non-marker end of the SP 2701

In some ways installing the markers after the HiTech Diaphragms are installed is more of a pain, but on this model it will need to be done.

That does it for now for Part 2 of the SP 2701 build.  In Part 3 I'll be showing the installed OwlMtModels marker kit and finishing the underbody frame and installing assorted detail parts.

Jason Hill

SP 60-C-5s, (Part 1) SP 1005

In this series of posts, I'm working on some Soho 60-C-5 coaches.  The first two are both the same class, yet quite different cars as examples of what happened to SP and T&NO's large fleet of 60 foot coaches over the years.  Both the SP 1005 and the T&NO 777 are based on the Soho model of a 60-C-10.

SP 1005, 60-C-5 Chair

SP 1005 with window shades and replaced roof vents.

SP 1005 started life as Northwestern Pacific (NWP) 401 and was fitted as a "smoker" coach with a partition mid-car.  The NWP 401 spend her early carrier working north of San Fransisco Bay until 1935, when it was transferred to the SP and renumbered 1005.  Like all 60-C-5s it was built with transom windows of colored glass and end windows.

Here's the SP 1005, before I changed the roof vents.  The end-window can be made out in this photo as well.

In 1940, the SP was short of cabooses, so SP 1005 was reassigned and numbered into the caboose series as SP 998.  Mid-war it was decided that the SP needed more coaches to deal with the crush of the troop movements and was short passenger capacity.  SP regained her status as a revenue passenger car in 1943 by having 60-seats worth of second hand chair seats installed.  Only a handful of the SP 60ft coaches were equipped as chair cars instead of coaches, but didn't go all the way and get air conditioning.

SP 1005 lasted through the war and was one of the few cars that still retained its gas lighting in 1945.  I've not really tracked down any more data on the 1005 as it kicked around between various unknown assignments until it was photographed in Oakland in 1947 by E.R. Mohr, Pg 120 in SP Passenger Cars Vol1., by the SPH&TS.  The green glass of the transom windows were still intact in the photo, by 1950 most SP coaches and chair cars had these plated over.  The last being covered in 1952.  This was mostly because of problems with leaking in the transom windows.  The 1947 photo was only 6 months to a year after the SP changed to "Southern Pacific" lettering above the windows, so it's very understandable that this car wasn't a priority to repaint.

In 1952, the SP 1005 was retired.  A year later, it was reactivated as a caboose for the second time as SP 953.  Another car had taken over the Caboose SP 998 number.  By 1954 the 953 was retired again and what happened after that is unknown, it was probably scrapped at that point.

Modeling the SP 1005

Here's a Soho 60-C Coach in similar starting point to where the SP 1005 started

I started this project with a Soho 60-C-10 with transom windows.  My problem is by 1948-1952, when I model most of my equipment, these transom windows were becoming VERY rare.  I chose the 1005 because of it's somewhat unique history.  It would also fit well into my Tehachapi Mail (Nos.55/56) consist to mix up the regular 60-C-coaches, or in other mixed assignments typical of the "wandering" SP non-A/C coach after WW2.

Soho SP 1005, 60-C-5 in-process - Note the green glass in the transom windows.

I'm modeling the SP 1005 after its 1943 conversion to a 60-seat Chair Car, this means I do have to make some modifications to the "early" Soho Coach.  The car is painted Dark Olive Green and my standard mix of off-black gray for the roof and underframe.  "SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES" decals are used on the car to show another car that hasn't been repainted since 1946.  Also, remember this car is pretty clearly not in the best condition.  It's been retired once already, and but for the needs of WW2, it would have stayed as a caboose.

Here's a photo to show off the Tamiya Clear Green painted glass transom windows

Windows were installed using clear sheets of styrene.  I masked off everything except the top 18" of the windows.  This leaves what will be the transom windows exposed.  I used Tamiya Clear Green to tint the upper glass a lovely green color.  Be sure to tint the inside of the windows!  This will help prevent scratches to the tint and also keep the mounting glue from de-bonding the tint as well.  Once dry, I installed the window sets with Testors Canopy Cement.  Be extremely careful to have the green glass and clear glass change fall behind the narrow header of the main windows.

The diaphragms are again from HiTech.

Underframe

Basic Underframe

John Ruehle made me a new underframe for the car.  John used a piece of 0.040" sheet for the main floor.  Then C-channel 0.185"x 0.150" was used for the main centersill.  Crossbeams of .070"x 0.050" I-beam were glued on to represent the floor supports.  This underframe doesn't have any of the diagonal bracing that the 69-BP-30 (SP 5199) or the rest of the SC&F kits have.

John mounted passenger brake "UC" type gear on the bottom of the car.

Electrical Generator was already fitted to the underframe

Looking at the SP 1005, with its "rare" gas lighting by 1947, certainly rare by 1952, I will be adding the gas tanks.  However, I will probably add a battery box, because I'll be adding the OwlMtModels 10002 Gyralite Marker Light.

Styrene shims added to bolster of Walthers 920-2124 on SP 1005.

I shimmed the bolsters and installed a sheet of 0.02" styrene across the top bolster of the Walthers 8ft Pullman 4-wheel trucks to result in the right coupler height.  I plan to fit the car (in Part 2) with my standard LED lighting strip and OwlMtModels Pyle Gyralite marker and tailgate kit for end-of-train service.

Window Shades

Completed window shades installed in the SP 1005

Window shades for the 1005 are made from manila card stock file folders.  One folder will do about 30-50 sets of window shades.  I don't use normal 3-5lb paper because, unless painted, it is too translucent for use with the LED lighting installed, even at lower settings.

Cut a strip of card stock a scale 24"x 50'6" and make pencil markers where the window columns are across the full shade.  I then mark where I want the window shades to be cut off at.  This will be on average, make the shade 12" high, however I like to make somewhat random cross cuts with a Xacto to show passengers using the shades and moving them to where they want to be.  These horizontal cuts are then connected with small vertical cuts to make a prepared window shade.

Abbreviated shades to keep the green transom windows clear. Tamiya tape used to mount the shades.

Remember that cars freshly out of the coach yard should have all their shades nicely trimmed 1-3" below the top edge of the window, or whatever the railroad considered "standard dress" starting position.  A car ending its trip will be all over the map, some shades high, some low, some in the middle, some unused if the seats were empty the whole trip.

Once trimmed to length (This time I was also making standard longer ones for my SP 1050's window shades) I used 1/16" wide by about 1/4-3/8" long strips of Tamiya Masking Tape to hold the shades in place.  The tinting on the windows was actually thick enough, once the mask was removed to make a nice stopping ledge for the shade material to catch on.  The tape was then applied with the end of a knife blade vertically where the window columns are.

Bathroom window covered with Scotch Tape

The toilet annexes will have etched glass or prism glass, I use standard Scotch Tape (not the magic clear stuff), so that when I apply it to the clear plastic windows it will remain foggy.

"Globe" Roof Vents

Here's the 1005 with new MDC "Globe" vents

I removed the Soho stock Utility Vents over the main seating area.  I still need to remove the vents over the car ends.  There was a slight mishap and I scratched the roof paint pretty badly there in the center of the car.  When I do the additional end vents I'll touch up any other scratches.  The square holes left from the old vents were roughly in the right place on the roof, so I used my ~0.085" drill bit in a pin vise.  As always drilling through brass sheet, be careful when 'breaking through' with the tip as the drill will tend to catch.

The MDC vent pieces were easily glued into the holes with ACC.  Make sure not to put the car floor back on for a day or so after gluing.  This will allow the glue to "gas-off" and not fog the windows.

Interior

Here's the SP 1005 with the seating strips of PSC 33312.2 Chair Seats

Because the SP 1005 was pulled back into service as a chair car, she lost her original 72-seat coach configuration.  Instead a 60-seat chair plan was used, probably from second hand chairs from other 60-CC-1s upgraded in 1941-42.  Trying to find exactly the right seats is a bit challenging.  For this car I'm using Precision Scale Co. #33312.2 chair seats were used and mounted to a strip of 0.03"x 0.188" strip styrene was used to space the seat pairs apart.  The inside of the car sides have flanges, which add strength, however they do make the installation of interiors a bit tricky.  Once glued up, these strips of seats will be able to be easily mounted to the inner ledge of the car side.

The 15 rows of seats are evenly spaced every 3.28 ft over the 50'4" length of windows.  In laying this out I come to find out that the car is about 2 feet too short, all in the toilet windows section of the car.  That doesn't really effect the modeling of the interior though, just interesting to note.  The last pair of seats are showing in the floor plan reversed.  These would have been the walk-over type seats, possibly from the A/C'd 60-CC-1s, which new seats in 1942.  SP had a way of reusing second hand seats on older cars.

The center isle will be purposely left open for access to the lighting strip in the roof.

LED Lighting

An example of a car I installed this type of lighting in

I don't plan to mount the interior seats strips until I have the LED strip installed and lead wires for the trucks and marker light are installed.  As a sneak peek, here's the light strips that I make myself.  I use 0.100" x 0.250" styrene strips as a backing support for the LED light strip.  The leads are easily soldered onto the ends of each 3" section of LED strip.

LED lighting components

In the center of the LED coil, is a 3" strip for the SP 5199 project I'm working on, and above that are two 6" strips for the 60 and 70 foot coaches I'm working on at the same time.

Beauty shot in closing here

That does it for this part of the SP 1005 Build.  In SP 60-C-5s, Part 2 T&NO 777 I cover building a car without the green transom glass windows and more detail of the underframe construction.  Please follow to be notified when I post the next blog update!

Jason Hill

Related Links:
Of some interest is Sunset Import's new announcement of plastic 60-C-5s coming to HO, follow this link to my blog post with my thoughts on it. GoldenGateModels Harriman Cars in HO

Or you can follow this link to my blog on building the SP 2701, a 60-CC-1 (Part 1) from a Model Power Coach

Modeling SP 2701, a 60-CC-1, from a Model Power coach (Part 1)

Model Power many years ago produced a "Harriman" 67ft Coach with arch-roof.  These cars are still a good stand-in for several classes of cars.  I'll be covering the options of how to use the MP Coach as a stand-in for both the SP's 60-CC-1 Chairs and 60-C-3/4 Coach class cars.

SP 2701, 60-CC-1, modeled as it appeared in Oakland during March 1953 with a stand-in Model Power 67ft coach.

The cars were 60 feet long over the "Endsills" which were the inside of the doors.  The vestibules, doors, steps, and end sheets of the cars were never counted in SP and UP Common Standard Designs. Only the usable floor space inside the car was counted and used for the Common Standard class.  This is why the Model Power car shows a length of 67 feet, is they're counting the length to the end-sheets of the model, over the doors.

Here's a cheap Ebay grab for more MDC kitbashing fodder!  I usually cut them up for other projects.

Model Die Casting (MDC/Athearn) 60 foot coaches are not correct in that they're measuring over the 60ft body length, not frame length, so these models are 7 feet too short!

Prototype Car History

SP's first two 60ft steel coaches, SP 1806 and SP 1845 were built in July 1906 and July 1909 and assigned to class 60-C-1 and 60-C-2 respectfully.  These cars continued the SP's wooden coach design of a single 29.25" window at the "West" end of the car, then eight 4'3.5" windows in the middle of the car, followed by two 29.25" windows on the "East" end of the car.

SP 2810, ex-1806, the first steel passenger car on the SP.  Also the only 60-C-1, became 2810 in 1953 for express service.

The next two classes of Common Standard coaches (60-C-3 and 60-C-4) were built to the same standards as the 60-C-2.  These car orders totalled 219 cars for the Pacific Lines and 35 (60-C-4) for the Texas Lines.

SP 2310, an example of the later 60-C-5 through -10 class cars.

Following 60-C-series Coaches for the SP were of paired window design and will be covered later.

The 60-CC-1 Chair Cars were built in 5 lots of cars starting in 1909 for the IC and UP.  The SP's 52 cars were in the fourth lot, Lot 3840, delivered between November 1911 and April 1912.  These were in two number series on the SP roster.  SP 2500-2530 (31-cars) and CP 2700-2720 (21-cars).

The 60-CC-1s had 9 large windows with 12.25" columns between them and only single smaller windows at the ends of the car.  SP's following classes of 60-CC's were of paired-window style construction, not the picture-window style of the 60-CC-1s, and will not be covered here.

Model Power 67ft Coach part way through rebuilding as a 'stand-in' 60-CC-1 as SP 2701.

The MP car is actually a couple of feet longer than the KenKidder (SP 2810) or Soho (SP 2310) cars shown above.  This is one reason I try to number my odd-ball "stand-in" cars as other than 'general service' cars where you'd be seeing them next to more correct models.  I'll cover modeling the SP 2810, ex-1806, in another post in more detail.

Getting Started

The main issue with both the MP and MDC models is that the manufactures basically mixed the dimensions of the windows and columns between the 60-C and 60-CC class cars.  This results in the MP car having no room for the second single window at the East end of the car if it was to be a 60-C-3/4 and only 8 large windows if it was to be a 60-CC-1.

Because the look of the car appears to be more of a 60-CC-1 without the second East end window, I've elected to number my stand-in model as one of these, ignoring the missing 9th large window.

Starting with the Model Power car out of the box, I disassemble the whole car into its basic parts.  A very long screw-boss extends from the center roof of the car through the interior, weight, and underframe to hold the car together.  It also is visible in the interior of the car, through the windows.  I don't care for this 'feature' at all.  So one of the first things I do is cut that out.  This leaves a hole in the center of the floor.  There are also several other holes in the floor, just inboard of where the trucks bolsters will mount.  Again, I'm not too worried about those at this time.  Later interior and underframe construction will cover those.

The window glass comes out and the trucks pop out of the rudimentary underframe, leaving the body and roof.  Model power cars are what I consider a "budget" model.  These should be able to be found on Ebay for maybe $10 at a good price.  Swapmeets are the other good place to get them.  Perhaps estate sales at your local hobby shop.

Painting

Once the car is stripped down to basic components, I tried to strip the "US ARMY" lettering off the model, this has some success, but I was also trying to avoid getting into the poor quality plastic carbody.  Old Rivarossi HW cars, such as their 12-1s and ATSF Diners and Cafe-Observations have this problem too.  The old Model Power paint hopefully will help protect it somewhat from the lacquer StarBrand Dark Olive paint.

I painted the body pretty early in the rebuilding as there wasn't a lot to change on the body.  I decided on this stand-in model not to replace the grab irons.  The steps would be black, so I left those off until painting of the body was done.  The roof as well would have the vents repositioned and then painted off-black, so those would wait as well.

The body was painted StarBrand SP Dark Olive and then gloss coated for decalling.  I chose to model SP 2701 as an interesting car to model because of it keeping the "SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES" lettering into the 1950s.  See page 58 of SP Passenger Cars Vol1., published by the SPH&TS, for a nice view of the SP 2701 in Oakland on March 16, 1952 by W.C. Whittaker.

The SP 2701 is also interesting in that it didn't get air-conditioning, and kept the lettering as "CHAIR" under the reporting marks into the 1952 photo.  Most SP Chair cars were upgraded to "Deluxe Chair" during the period between 1936 and 1941 for service on premier and higher rated secondary trains like the Owl and West Coast.  The seating in the 2701 still looks like it has the nicer seating with head-rests, so it would appear that the SP 2701 is still internally a non-A/C'd chair car.  Also it did not warrant get repainted after the June 1946 change in lettering until at least March 1952.

I plan to use this car in various assignments, anything from a rider car on a special Pullman movement to a rider on an SP Mail & Express train.  It could even show up on a regular mail train (Nos.55/56, the old "Tehachapi" Mail for example) in place of a standard non-A/C coach.  The non-A/C'd chair cars were defiantly in a weird place in terms of assignments after WW2.  I could also see them being assigned other 3rd rate passenger trains and locals, such as the Rogue River, Shasta, Suntan Specials, and other short haul trains that wouldn't rate getting nicer A/C'd coaches or chair cars.

Mechanical Changes

The partly rebuilt underbody showing the basic mechanical changes.  (Left to Right: weight, bolster & frame, steps)

I started with the mechanical changes to the car.  Once painted, I glued in the end steps from a cut up MDC coach.  These were cut off about 18" inside the endsill of the car, so it would 'key' into the sides of the car for a good joint.  ACC-gap filling glue was used for this, as the plastic wasn't a tight friction fit.  The joint at the endsheets to the end of the underframe sections was also glued at this time.  The floor of the car is pretty high, as the original Model Power underframe encased a steel weight above it.  I scrapped the steel weight.

After weighing the parts of the car with the Walthers (920-2124 - think that's the current number) Pullman 8ft 4-wheel trucks that will be used, I get a rough idea of how much the model will need to weigh.  I use the La Mesa Model Railroad - Car Weight Standards chart for this.  - "A 70ft car of non-metal construction should weigh 6.25 oz. if it rolls on a 1.5% grade."  Checking against the weight for the same car if metal construction shows it could be as high as 8 or 9oz.

This is worth checking because as a passenger car, it might be run with other 'heavy' brass cars.  The lighter car should be ok, however with diaphragms the cars are actually in sprung, physical contact with eachother.  Plastic cars in those situations I've found need to weigh a bit more than the standard "Non-Metal" car weight.  The 1.5% grade figure is pretty easy to get with the Walthers trucks and being sure to lightly dress the bearings with an axle reamer.

A new sheet lead weight is cut to bring the car up to a weight of 6.9 oz without the interior parts or underbody detailing.  This weight is 1/8" sheet lead, 1.3" wide (just fitting between the lower side sheets of the model), and 4.25" long.  In this configuration the weight fits cleanly between the wheelsets of the trucks.

Kadee 0.015" Washer and coupler box installed.  The car sits low, so I don't want the weight over the trucks.

The next step is to layout the centersill of the car.  I use 0.250"x0.150" styrene strip for this.  The strips extend from the inside edge of the MDC frame ends to the weights in the center of the car.  I stopped the frames on this car short of the large holes in the MP floor.  That will be easier to cover later if I don't have frame bits in the way.

Top view of Walthers (920-2124) Pullman 8ft 4-wheel truck with styrene block added for standard 2-56 bolster mounting

Bolster Center marks are scribed into the floor a scale 45' apart, or 1.625" in from the end of the car, over the door frame.  Standard center punch, drilling and tapping for 2-56 truck bolster screw is done and a Kadee 0.015" fiber washer is added to the bottom of the bolster to provide a good pivot and bearing surface away from the styrene strip frame.  The trucks are modifed with a 0.115" thick block of styrene to adapt it to using a 2-56 screw.


The wheels have also been regauged and axle reamed lightly to ensure they can roll easily.  ACC used to secure the wheels on the axles after regauging.

Bottom view of Walthers 8ft 4-wheel truck with styrene bolster block added.

I will go over more about that trucks when I get into the lighting and interior.

Diaphragms & Couplers

End detailing was mostly limited to installing the Hi-Tech Diaphragms - ideally use Common Standard or Western Short diaphragms.  The diaphragms were a bit too tall to fit solely on the car end, so I went with a styrene extension to the end of the car.  This was a 0.550" long piece of 0.135"x 0.030" strip styrene (Evergreen) ACC'd above the end of the car to catch the upper leaf spring of the diaphragm.

Diaphragm installed with upper support of styrene to "catch" the upper leaf spring.

The couplers were mounted next in my standard method of finding the right coupled length.  This is done by mounting the coupler after the diaphragm and using the inside of the pulling face of coupler to set the distance back from the end of the car.  Then drilling and mounting the coupler box with a 2-56 screw.

Slightly more of a side view of the Diaphragms and coupler.

I usually mount the Hi-Tech diaphragms with the leaf springs "legs" or body mounting side a bit (about 0.03 or 0.04") closer together than the instructions call for.  This creates more arch in the leafs and pushes the striker plate (moving part) of the diaphragms out farther, giving more flexibility to the diaphragms while tracking around curves and coupling to cars with tighter diaphragms.  Some models don't have enough flexibility in the diaphragms.  If they "Go solid" this will cause many derailments and other problems.

Couplers and Diaphragms when viewed from below

The couplers are standard Kadee Whisker Coupler versions of the old No.5 with the new No.242 boxes.

Roof Modifications

Because this car does not have air-conditioning, it is both easier and harder to model.  It's easier in that I don't have to deal with all the extra A/C equipment under the floor of the car.  However, this does mean that I need to work on the roof vents.

Original positions of Model Power centerline roof vents, before remounting them.

The default Model Power car comes with a line of vents down the centerline of the roof.  Some of SP's 60ft cars did have this, but not the 60-CC-1s such as the 2701.  These roof vents were removed with a pair of flush cutters, so most of the original holes were plugged with the remnant of the centerline vents.  Some light filing and sanding was required to get the plugs even with the contour of the roof.  On two holes the flush cutters tended to pull the vents out, leaving a hole.  A bit of styrene and putty works to fill these and then re-sand and file to shape.

I measured off of an MDC roof where the offset roof vent lines should be.  They look about right to my eye.  Then scribed a line lightly between the pairs of rivet rows from the side of the roof 0.480" to 0.485" up onto the roof with my calipers.  I in fact, tried to keep these scribes very short to hide under the roof vents when mounted.  These vents were only fitted between the pairs of large windows on the side, centered on the columns.  Because the MP car is one window shorter than the prototype car, there will only be 7 pairs of vents offset from the car centerline.  There were also vents over the end-isles, just inboard of the endsill wall to the vestibule.

Filled and sanded Centerline Vents and new SC&F vents installed.

I chose to use my supply of extra SC&F resin Globe vents on this car.  MDC/Athearn has a nice selection of Globe vents included with their cars.  As I've built a fairly large number of models, I have a fair supply of vents from swapping them between different projects.  My next vent rebuilds will have to use the MDC ones.  Other Globe type vents are available in brass.

Crosshair scribes were made centered between the rivet rows over the window columns with my carbide scribing tool and then at the crossing point,  I used the scribe to press in a center mark for drilling out the holes.  A No.50 drill bit works nicely to make the holes for the SC&F vents.

New Roof Vents mounted

The vents were glued in place with ACC.  Keep an eye on the angle of the vents to the roof and also take care to keep them in a good straight line.  If the holes were a little bigger than the part, that helps to adjust one or two of them to keep them in line.  I also had one or two holes that wandered... so again, use a No.11 Xacto blade to move the hole over slightly to line up that vent.

Lighting

I plan to do subtle lighting in this car, so I made a reflector of 0.005" white sheet styrene to bounce the light back into the interior of the car.



Using another piece of 0.100"x 0.250" styrene strip to make the "spine" for my home-built LED lighting system.  I then ACC the sections of LED Lighting Strip to the spine, which is then glued into the endsill walls at the end of the car's main seating area.

Night shot of a car I equipped with the same type of LED lighting as SP 2701 will have.

That does it for the SP 2701 for now... Next time I'll work on adding the rest of the interior parts, such as bulkheads for the restrooms, longitudinal seating benches, and main chair seats.  The underframe detailing will be addressed, as the battery box, electrical generator, and brake rigging will need to be added.  Also, I'll be installing the pickups to bring track power up to the lighting strips and an OwlMtModels #10002 "Tailgate Gyralite Marker kit for operating the car at the end of the train.



That does it for now.... Enjoy this picture of the real SP 1919 at Niles Canyon from 2009!
Follow this link to Modeling SP 2701 (Part 2).

Jason Hill

Follow this link to my SP 1005, 60-C-5 (Part 1) build blog.

Building SP 5199 (Part4)

In the previous posting, Building SP 5199 Part 3, I put down the final coat of Dark Olive Green paint and decalled the car.



Today we will cover installing the Hi-Tech Diaphragms (Western Short in this case) and installing the couplers at the right spacing for close coupling.  These two steps are highly critical to the operations of a passenger car, primarily to ensure there is no fouling of the diaphragm or binding which often cause derailments.

Diaphragms

Left-to-Right: Striker (etching), Plastic Strikers (right one with installed bellows), Bellows sprue, rubber leaf springs, etc.

Diaphragms are fitted to any passenger car in which persons must cross between while the train is in motion.  They have bellows on each side made out of rubber or heavy canvas.  A Striker plate which is designed to rub against the striker plate of adjoining cars or engine Buffer Striker.  The striker plates are sprung with leaf springs top and bottom.  Some diaphragms are also fitted with anti-rattle bars which apply spring force to the left and right edges of the diaphragm to ensure the striker doesn't pivot left and right and risk opening up a gap between the strikers, which would highly dangerous.  Often the diaphragms between two coupled cars are made safer by connecting across rubber aprons from the door frame of one car to the door frame of the other car to ensure no fingers or hands are caught in the press of the two strikers plates.

Hi-Tech's diaphragms are very nicely rendered in multiple materials.   On this car I'm using the Western Short type diaphragm kit.  Hi-Tech also offers a Common Standard profile as well.  The kit includes plastic inner striker plate, and bellows to mount to the car end and another set to mount to the striker plate.  There are rubber leaf springs.  Once the springs are glued they don't allow the striker to fall off the car.  There is also a pair of stainless steel etchings for the actual striker faces.

Partly assembled Hi-Tech Diaphragm kit.  Notice broken section at lower right.

I've installed at least a dozen of these diaphragms so far.  The particular set I pulled out for this car had some breakage on one section of the bellows.  This isn't a real problem as the break happened on a piece that will be glued together and will be plenty strong when complete... Just don't loose the parts until then!

Prior Prep Work

On my SP 5124 and SP 5069 builds I found that it's ideal on Southern Car & Foundry passenger cars to have extra clearance for the inner bellows of the Hi-Tech Diaphragms for more retraction of the bellows into the car-end while negotiating curves.  I start these modifications by marking out the area to remove with Dremal motor tool with a burr-type bit.  Burr cutters are ideal for this as they have multiple cutting knobbs and will always keep several cutting edges in contact with the work, reducing chatter.  Normal fluted endmills, even 4-fluted ones tend to chatter too much for free-handed cutting.

ALWAYS BE CAREFUL using any type of motor tool for cutting.  I always rest my forearms, palms, etc against solid objects during this operation to keep the work and motor tool steady..



Double Check that the area to remove will be enough for the "outer bellow" to still fit.



Rough milled end of car.  Some cleanup with a file and No.11 Xacto blade follows.



Small amount of filing at the top of the car end to flatten it so the bellows will fit flat and properly.  Testors Canopy Cement is used to glue the outer bellow onto the end of the body.

Assembling the Strikers

The I start by removing the diaphragm bellows from their sprues.  There are two parts; one which is a thinner part with a flat back, this mounts to the plastic striker.  The other is a full form of one scallop of folded canvas.  This glues onto the thinner part to form one-and-a-half folds of bellows on the striker part of the diaphragm assembly.  This assembly telescopes into the bellow half that is mounted to the car end.

Because of the broken thinner bellow part, I mounted it to the striker first.  Then I glued the broken fragment in place with liquid plastic glue.  Once this is done, the fracture can't be seen.  The full bellow piece is then glued on top of the thinner one.  There is a front and a back to this part.  Make sure that it sits properly into the thinner part before gluing.

 

There's some glossiness from the liquid glue on the back of the striker.  This will all be covered with paint later so it doesn't matter.  Notice there are two small nubs at the bottom of the plastic striker.  These are to mount the anti-rattle bars, if used.  Most of SP's older Harriman/Arch-Roof HW cars didn't have the anti-rattle bars.  A few of the diners and lounges upgraded in the late 1930s seemed to have been fitted, but it was a car-by-car basis.

The Etched Striker Plate is glued to the outer face of the plastic Striker with ACC glue.  I "painted" the etching once installed with Sharpe markers.  I generally use black (grease) and brown (rust) colored markers.  Sometimes I'll do a little bit of paint as well, but whatever you do, Don't make the striker sticky.  They must slide effortlessly on one another while going around curves, etc.  The Sharpe will tend to rub off if there's any serious contact or scraping.  Which actually looks realistic as there would be some bare metal parts of the diaphragm strikers where the friction rubbed off the rust and grease.

I trimmed a small amount, about 0.015", off the bottom of the striker bellows to ensure that they will easily fit into the car end bellow.

Mounting the Strikers

The rubber leaf springs hold the striker to the car body.  There are two ways I do this.  The Hi-Tech recommended way is to drill holes for the "legs" of the leaf springs to be mounted into the car body.  On car bodies that I can easily drill into this works.  On brass car bodies, I prefer to cut off the "legs" and ACC the rubber leaf springs directly to the car end.  Since this is a resin car body, I drilled No.61 holes at the top and bottom of the car end bellows.  I've found that I like to go slightly narrower with these holes than the instructions state.  Making them narrower will force the leaf springs out farther from the car end.  This is good on the models because it will keep the bellows from "going solid" against the end of the car body.  This is why I milled out the inner profile of the bellows on the car end several steps previously.  Also this extra space gives the diaphragms extra movement for tighter curves etc.

The upper holes are drilled just below the eave-line of the roof.  On some models there's no option but to make a pad higher on the roof line and mount the upper leaf springs higher.  The bottom holes are drilled about half way between the bottom of the car-end bellow and the bottom of the end sheet.

I always mount the diaphragms before the couplers so I can adjust the coupled length to the actual diaphragm length.

The leaf springs have a small tab which is designed to fit into the square hole in the back of the plastic striker.  Usually I ACC glue the leaf spring to the striker.  On this car with the legs still on the leaf springs, I reversed this and mounted the leaf springs to the car end first.  The trick is always mounting the second side, whichever way you have started.  I put a small drop of ACC glue on the tab and then carefully pressed it into the hole on the striker.  This is a bit trick, as it has to be done accurately the first time.

One slight problem was that when the upper leaf spring was glued it, it took a downward set.  This will cause it to sag down against the coupler.  I plan to fit a piece of phosphor-bronze wire as a spring to keep the diaphragm pulled up.

Shaking Hands... Coupler

The ideal place for the couplers to be mounted is with the inside pulling face of the knuckle fingers should be even with the face of the striker or slightly proud of it.  I do this by assembling a coupler in it's box and measuring the spacing from the center of the coupler screw mounting hole to the inside face of the coupler knuckle.

I trimmed back the centersill members and filed the remains down flat with the frame.  I don't glue the box on at this point, I expect that I will need to change the ride height of the car and the coupler still.



As seen in this photo above, the inside face of the knuckle is even with the face of the striker.  Perhaps 0.005-0.010" proud of the striker, this will allow a slight gap between the diaphragms.  Some cars will be even or slightly tight.  Keeping it slightly proud will also help when attempting to uncouple a pair of cars without a stick to pull the magnetic pin to the side.

Also per LMRC standards I rotate the uncoupling pin off about 15-20 degrees further to the side.  This will allow the car to couple to engines with pilots without fouling and causing uncouplings.

Starting the Interior & Weighing the Car

I cut a section of sheet plastic for the bulkhead between the RPO apartment and the baggage sections of the car.  I measured the distance between the two side walls as far up in the body as I could with my calipers.  Then scribe transferred this measurement to the sheet styrene with the calipers.  Next I measured up to the first step where the body narrows behind the letterboard.  I roughed out the roof contour and cut the marked bulkhead from the sheet plastic.

Bulkheads placed temporarily in the interior of the car.

Weight becomes an issue now that I'm working on the interior.  I measured the width of the floor, coming up with a width of 1.125".  Weighing the car on a postal scale at 3.4 oz., the car would need to weigh about 7 to 7.25 oz.  A quick check of brass bodied cars of equal length show at least 9 oz.  This means I need to add between 3.5 and 4 oz of lead to the car.

Styrene pads for mounting the body, can't let the weights foul these.

The weight was cut to length to provide the desired weight.  I then cut the weight in half.  It is desirable to have the weight as low as possible in the car and also over the trucks.  On some of my baggage cars I have the weight concentrated down the center floor.  However this car I plan to do more interior than most baggage cars, so I'm staying with the sheet lead and keeping it away from the various body mounting screws and pads.

Weights and RTV Silicon for mounting.

I mounted the weight halves with RTV Silicon.  Note the blue lines to keep the weight from getting too close to the coupler body securing pads.

RTV Silicon used to mount the car weights.

This is what the weights look like installed.

Weights glued in and drying.

I wanted to make the interior removable for painting and detailing.  There will also be lighting to install.  Remembering that I had glued pads into the ends and mid-sides of the body shell, I need to keep those spots clear of the extra thickness of the weights and interior parts.

Interior and weights coming together. - The holes for the screws to hold the body on are visible in the 0.015" interior floor

The interior will have the various details yet to install.  The small gusset strip styrene support the bulkhead and will form the base for the letter sorting case.

The notch in the top of the bulkhead is for the lighting installation

The preparation for the lighting has started already with the notch in the top of the bulkhead, it will be installed to have some light in both sections of the car.

Almost There...

Right side in sunlight at this point in the build.

Left side in sunlight at this point in the build.

At this point, the car's nearly done.  I could finish up the couplers, put on the glosscote and install the windows in the doors and call the car done.  However, there's still the interior detailing and the lighting that I want to finish.  In my next post in the Building SP 5199 (Part 5), I will get into the interior, lighting, and working out the coupler heights.

Jason Hill

Related Articles

SP 5199 Part 1

SP 5199 Part 2

SP 5199 Part 3

SP 5199 Part 4

SP 5199 Part 5

SP 5199 Part 6

SP 5199 Part 7

SP 5124, Modeling San Joaquin Daylight RPO (Part 1)

SP 5069, Modeling San Joaquin Daylight RPO (Part 2)

Modeling SP HW Passenger Car Index Page