Mt Nebo (Part1) 10-Section-Obs-Lounge

Don't overlook that "old" or "cheap" passenger car model!

That's the lesson I learned from building the Mt. Nebo.

Pullman's Mt. Nebo, right side, as completed before lighting

Pullman's Mt. Nebo, left side, as completed before lighting.

About two years ago a friend sent me a photo of a model he was looking at in a hobby shop.  I pretty quickly identified the model as a 10-Section Observation Lounge, which I'd been keeping an eye out for modeling the Owl and West Coast, as well as the SP 120, San Joaquin business car.  After confirming that the La Mesa Model Railroad Club would have use for such a car, he bought it and sent it to me to be upgraded to club mechanical and detailing standards.

New in-box of what the Mt.Nebo started life as

It turns out the model was a late production old metal Walthers passenger car kit.  These models had stamped metal sides, wood floor and underbody details, and the late production models had an injection molded roof.

Parts in-box, notice the stamped metal sides.

I didn't get any good photos of the car before I started working on it.  Recently another old metal 10-Section-Observation Walthers kit has come into my possession, so I am including the photos of it here to show what the construction of the Mt. Nebo looks like if I'd been the one to build it up from the kit.

Here's the parts spread out for what will become the 10-Section Observation "Mt.Breckenridge".

This new kit that I have, I plan to eventually build into a model of the "Mt. Breckenridge", which was a historically accurate 10-Section-Lounge-Obs used on the Owl when it derailed at Lerdo in 1947 (Link to my Modeling the Owl - Part1).

Repainting and Researching the Mt. Nebo

The built-up model was painted in Pennsy Tuscan with Pullman lettering.  The paint wasn't holding up too well and the decaling work wasn't anything to write home about.  So the car was obviously going to need to get a new coat of paint before being put back into service.

I did some poking around and already knew that the La Mesa Club could use a 10-Section Lounge Observation car.  The Superintendent of the San Joaquin Division had his car, the San Joaquin (SP 120), kept in the Pullman Shed at Bakersfield.  The SP 120 was converted from a 10-Section Lounge Observation, however further research showed that the SP 120 was heavily modified and would be a major project to convert this stamped metal sided model to represent.

A bit of research into the cars retained by the Pullman Pool after 1948, showed that the prototype series of 10-Section Observations (Plan 3521) were of some interest.  Many of the cars in this lot were never sold off, and stayed in the Pullman Pool until the early 1960s.  I like choosing long lived prototypes, so that if someone wanted to run a late 1950s train, it would still be plausible that the car could still be around in the earlier Green scheme.  Many extra Pool cars were kept in Government storage until they're release from the Pool and sold for scrap in the 1960s.  One car name in the Mount-series stuck out to me in particular, the "Mt.Nebo".

The Mt. Nebo was a Plan 3521A 10-Sections and Lounge Observation built in Lot 4998 of 30 cars in November and December 1926.  The Mt. Nebo specifically was retained by the Pullman Pool in 1948, and was sold for scrap in June 1961.  One advantage of staying with a Pullman Pool car is that in modeling the car in the 1948-1954 era the we can use the car for a Korean War troop train (MAIN Train) on either ATSF or SP, extra passenger service on either the SP or the ATSF, or we could use the car for a 1947 Owl consist.

I also had another reason to choose this car name, the La Mesa Club's original layout was built in La Mesa California a building called Nebo Hall, I decided it would be a good name for the rebuilt car.

Work on the body of the car was started by repainting it with a mix of SP Dark Olive Green and Engine Black paint by StarBrand.  This mix is a close match to Pullman's Green, which is not the same as SP's color.  The "Mt. Nebo" was decaled with pieces from the various other car names in the UP Tourist Pullman decal set (87-????) from Microscale.  I used the same set's "PULLMAN" for the letterboard.  While the set has car names and Tourist Car numbers for cars that were historically run or assigned to the UP, the set is really good for making 6-8 HW tourist sleepers for troop trains and other trains needing Tourist Cars.

Mt Nebo after repainting and with A/C ducts installed. - Notice the old Pullman 1910-trucks under the car.

Starting at the Top

Work on the roof of the "Mt. Nebo" started with taking it off.  The roof is held on by a very long screw (about 4-40 thread) through from the bottom center of the underframe.

Unmodified roof from the kit that will become the "Mt.Breckenridge"

The roof was of the clerestory type and did not include A/C ducting, which most cars of this type had after the mid-1930s.  New England Rail Service A/C ducks would be fitted and the roof painted a custom mix of my "off-black" which has a bit of gray to represent sun light faded roof paint.

Mt Nebo with the roof off showing window glazing being installed.

By this photo I had already reinstalled the glazing after the car was repainted.  At first I was a bit concerned that the stamped metal sides wouldn't hold up against scrutiny with higher level brass and injection molded HW passenger cars.  Most of those concerns were unfounded after the car was repainted in Pullman Green there's not much light that will actually bounce off the details of even the nicest models.  The challenge of gluing the glazing in with canopy cement will probably be better on the future kits like this that I build up from kit form.  I plan to include a interior superstructure of styrene inside the metal sides to which the glazing can be mounted.

Underframe and Mechanicals

For a time I thought about completely rebuilding the underframe of the car with my standard plastic version, however the original builder of the car did a VERY good job attaching the stamped metal parts to the wooden core.  Even after 30-40 years it was still holding strong.  The car sides near the front vestibule were slanted in slightly, but this wasn't worth trying to fix, and the stampings did flex somewhat.

Original trucks removed and new centersill and bolster for use with modern Walthers Trucks installed.

The original metal trucks that do not meet the LMRC's mechanical standards were removed and a new section of centersill was fabricated from strip styrene to mount the Walthers Pullman 242 trucks.  The old coupler boxes which were mounted too far out for use with the new diaphragms were also removed to be remounted.  The original floor was kept and for the moment the wooden underbody details are also retained.

Forward end of the Mt.Nebo's underframe rebuild mostly done.

Completed rear end of the Mt.Nebo's underframe rebuild, ready for installation of the trucks.

The bolster screw locations were worked backwards off the size of the trucks and the offset mounting holes that I drilled in them to clear the vestibule steps and underbody detailing.

The car weight is plenty with the wood and metal construction and the additional interior and Walthers 242 metal trucks that will be installed.

I did my usual rebuild on the Walthers trucks to get them to roll really well and also regauge the wheelsets slightly wider in gauge.

Here's the Walthers 242 Trucks completely disassembled and ready for upgrading.

The axle bearings in the sideframes are usually painted over by Walthers and are also a bit too narrow on gauge, especially when I regauge the wheelsets, which makes the tip-to-tip of the axles about 0.015" longer than stock.  Usually I need to ream about 0.010" out of each sideframe to get the wheelsets to roll properly in the trucks (and much better I will add).

Reamed bearings in sideframes ready to be reassembly

Even if the bearings don't need to be made wider, I usually would take a pass on them on metal trucks to make sure there isn't anything in the end of the bearing or paint on the pickup surfaces of the bearings.

I almost **Never** have to do this work on plastic trucks of freight equipment, because the engineering plastic truck sideframes with metal wheelsets is an ideal bearing already.  Only ream engineering plastic truck bearings if there is flashing inside the bearing from the injection molding process, and then keep it to a minimum.

Center marking and drilling new bolster hole for 2-56 screw.

With the trucks reassembled, I can now mark the new bolster screw location on the truck for a 2-56 machine screw.  The trucks are painted with the same mix of "off-black" that I use for the roof and underframe, this includes the wheel faces.  The painting is then followed up with a small Q-tip dipped in thinner to remove the paint from the treads and flanges of the wheels.

Note: Many manufacturers don't clean the cutting oils from their wheelsets any more.  This "dirty" oil doesn't help the pickup of the models or the layout on which they are run.  Make sure to clean the wheels of your new cars before running them!  This can be as simple as dropping the wheelsets out and washing them in dish soap for 10 minutes or running them through an ultrasonic cleaner before painting.

Interior

The interior sheet styrene floor marked for the various partitions and 

The majority of the work on the "Mt. Nebo" was spent on the interior and rebuilding the truck and coupler mountings on the wooden underframe.  The interior is made on a sheet of 0.015" styrene from Evergreen.  The lounge seats are Palace Car Co. and partitions, mirrors, and men and woman's salon/lounge were salvaged parts from an Athearn-Genesis 77-C-3 that unfortunately melted in a car for about 2 days in the heat.

The melted Athearn-Genesis 77-C-3 frame and interior next to the new scratch built Mt.Nebo interior

Looks like the Athearn bathrooms and men's and woman's lounges will transplant nicely!

I decided to salvage as much of the wrecked 77-C-3 interior as I could.  The men's lounge walls were pretty badly warped and as the 10-Section-Obs car's men's lounge was a bit smaller and different configuration, I decided to scratch build those walls.

Some of the salvaged parts from the Athearn car.

I started on the new interior with the forward vestibule wall and womans toilet. The sinks, walls, chairs, and curtain from the woman's lounge that I removed from the 77-C-3 frame were going to be reused on the new car.

Woman's lounge and toilet, the vestibule wall is to the left, and the 10-sections to the right.

I fabricated sheet styrene walls for the sections that the salvaged walls wouldn't work for.  Marks on the floor of the interior showed where the walls were to be glued.

3M Scotch Tape used for the etched glazing on the toilet windows.

I didn't bother with installing the toilets because the windows to those rooms would be covered with 3M "foggy" Scotch Tape and not be visible anyway.

Women's Lounge and forward isleway complete with fabricated walls.

I then moved to the men's lounge and toilet area of the interior.  One section of the wall I was able to salvage had a nice little radius section to it, so I reused it.  I also shortened the wall section as shown in the photo below.

Starting the men's bathroom section.  The main Observation Lounge is to the right in this photo.

Here's the completed men's restroom-lounge

The sofa from the Athearn car's men's restroom was also reused and a new rear wall was fabricated to adjoin the main lounge area.

In this view the partitions are all in place, but the seats have not been installed.

I had a set of 30 Lounge Seats from Palace Car Co. #5004-30 which I picked up several years ago.  I've been using them on various projects over the years.  The Mt. Nebo floor plans call for 12 Lounge Seats in the Observation section of the car.

Lounge seats from Palace Car Co. - Only 12 needed in this project.

In this view not much is left from the 77-C-3 salvaged car, what remains will go to a deluxe chair car someday.

I flipped through some of my reference materials of what HW Observation Lounges looked like and settled on Sea Foam (light green) for the interior walls of the bathrooms and isle ways, tan for the sleeping section of the car, and in the lounge a deep red with brown, gray, and seafoam green lounge seats.  I painted the walls of the Observation section a light tan color as well.

Here's the completed main lounge area, with writing desk and stationary.

Just before painting the interior I read the note that stated that the partitions in the lounge were not full height and cross checking some other photos showed that the walls stopped just above the backs of the lounge chairs.  Correspondingly I cut down the partitions and prepped the interior for paint.

Window Treatment

At the time I didn't have any extra section seats in the middle of the car, so lowered the window shades to hide that fact.  Also with open sections, the screw holding the roof on would be completely exposed with no good way to hide that.

Window Shades for the sleeping sections marked and ready to be cut out.

A ruler and pencil is used to lay out the size and heights for the window shades.  I usually then use a metal rule and No.11 Xacto blade to cut out the shapes.  I try to keep the pencil lines on the inside of the car to keep from being visible on the exterior of the car.

Windows in the sleeping sections installed with Tamiya Painting Tape

The window shades are made from manila file folder stock cut into approprate sized pieces and taped in place with Tamiya brand masking tape.  The lighting I install is pretty dim compared to many HO Scale lighting kits.  I find that the use of the thicker file folder material is enough to absorb most of the light when the car is lit, so that even the light colored shades will not be translucent.

Window shades in place - Left Side

Window Shades in place - Right Side

The final window treatment is fabricating the two sections of safety bars that keep people from being slammed into the windows along the isle ways of the car while traveling on rough track.

Safety bars installed on the isle way windows.

I bent some 0.015 phosphor-bronze wire for the safety handrails that were standard appliance on all isle way windows in passenger cars.  The railing was glued in place with Testors Canopy Cement.

Detailed view of the finished parts on the Mt. Nebo, including the Walthers Pullman 242 Trucks installed.

Diaphragms

The Mt. Nebo is almost done at this point, but the car needs to have a diaphragm installed on the front end of the car.  My standard now is made by Hi-Tech Details.  As I have a couple of HW observations to finish, I am not worried about "breaking up a set" of diaphragms and only using one.

Hi-Tech Details #9003, used for the Mt Nebo's front diaphragm.

I have covered the use of these kits in the past on several other car builds, I'll show a few photos I took of the installation on the Mt. Nebo here.

Here's the coupler and the front end of the Mt Nebo after the old paper Walthers Diaphragm was removed.

Hi-Tech Diaphragm about to be installed

After the Diaphram's installed, I then marked the crosslines for the center for the coupler box.

Mounting the coupler after the diaphragm installation is better because then I can mount it at exactly the right position compared to the diaphragm striker plate.

Here is the Diaphragm and couplere installed on the front end of the Mt. Nebo.

Conclusion of Part 1

That pretty much covered the major rebuilding of the Mt. Nebo and preparing it for service.  I will cover lighting of the car, marker lights, and possibly adding more details to the underframe in Mt. Nebo (Part 2).

Right Side of completed Mt.Nebo

Left Side of completed Mt.Nebo

Mt. Nebo sitting in the Pullman Shed at Bakersfield, California Dec 24th, 1952.

Jason Hill

Links to other related pages:
Mt. Nebo (Part 2) - Lighting
Kitbashing SP 6102 from MDC/Athearn Parts (also rehabbing a 18 year old model).
Modeling Index for HW Pullman Cars
Kitbashing Pullman 16-Section Tourist Sleeper 4242
Modeling Indec for HW SP Cars

MDC/Athearn 60ft Baggage (Part1) - Mechanical

I've hinted at the process for upgrading the Athearn/MDC (35 year old tooling) Harriman Baggage cars before, but let's have a more in-depth look at these cars that still can be made to look and work very well.  For more information on what models are available and other classes of cars check out my blog page Modeling SP Heavyweight cars here.

SP 6047, one of my 60-B-9/10 class cars made from a MDC/Athearn Harriman Baggage

Like many of the models that I'm discussing in this blog, the models that I'm looking at are upgrades of models I've had for a long time and occasionally a new model as well.  The SP 6233, T&NO 611, and SP 6190 were all built in the late-1990s with very sketch information about numbering.

Here's an MDC kit still in the box

Let's look at the old Roundhouse or Model Die Casting (MDC) kit for a minute.



These parts assemble into a car that looks something like this below...

Note the truck are short and WAY too far from the ends of the car compared with the corrected car below.

Here's my 2016 rebuilt SP 6233, with correct trucks and bolster centers.  (I've not installed the diaphragms in this view).

Let's look at the prototype cars briefly -

Prototype History

Southern Pacific and Union Pacific during the early 1909 began upgrading their head end express baggage cars with all-steel cars.  These arch-roofed cars became generically known as "Associated Harriman Lines" cars in general even though cars built after 1913 would technically not be "Harriman" cars because of the breakup of the Associated Lines.

Here's a typical SP Mail Train with a mix of Harriman 60-Bs, ex-EPSW 70-B, and an RPO, followed by two 60-C coaches.

The orders for new all-steel baggage cars included about 487 cars by the end of "heavyweight" car construction in the mid 1930s.  The orders for 60ft cars amounted to 300 new steel baggage cars with several more being converted back and forth between different combinations of Baggage, RPO, and RPO-Baggage.

60-B-1 thru -8 (60ft Baggage, 1st thru 8th Class) - about 233 cars built

My original kitbashed MDC 60-B-1/8 class Baggage car before repainting in 2016.

In 1909 the SP's first of eight classes of 60ft baggage were built to almost the same standard.  Externally these looked almost identical, except for the roof fittings, conduits, etc.   SP controlled the orders for the Central Pacific and the Oregon & California in addition to itself during this time.  That is the reason the SP's baggage cars are scattered over 3 number series for the same class of car.  In the late 1920s the SP consolidated the reporting marks (O&C and CP) under SP marks.  Thankfully the number series were originally planned so there were no conflicts in doing this.

Of the SP's 300 60ft baggage cars built, over 85% of cars had this arrangement of two 4'-10" doors on each side.  Only 37 cars were built to the MDC/Athearn standard of one large and one small door, and 5 of those were rebuilt as RPO cars.

While my model of the SP 6190 is a kitbash and works out pretty well, the main problem is that only using MDC parts you can only make one of these from two kits.  The second can be turned into parts for other things.  So to replicate the 85+% of the 60ft baggages on the SP and get a good represeation of the headend fleet a fair number of Southern Car & Foundry #1003 resin models will be needed.

60-BD-1, -4, -6 (60ft Baggage-Dynamo) - 15 cars built

The SP also ordered several classes of 60ft Baggage-Dynamos with generators for the early use of electric lights in the passenger trains.  These were later phased out when all the cars in the trains had their own battery boxes and axle generators on-board each car.  The 60-BD-4 and 60-BD-6 were built off the 60-B-4 and -6 standards respectfully but with partitions and the generator installed at one end.

The 60-BD-6 cars had a single window at one end on each side for light next to the generator.  Most had differing ventilation designs in the roof that changed the look from the standard 60-B-1 class cars.

60-B-9 & 60-B-10 (60ft Baggage, 9th and 10th Class) - 37 cars built

SP 6233, a 60-B-10, built almost out-of-the-box MDC kit from about 1995.  Repainted and detailed 2016.

The last two classes of SP 60ft Baggage cars built with arched roofs were the 60-B-9 and -10.  Again these two classes were spread between the OC, CP, SP and two for the T&NO.  These cars only account for about 12% of the SP's 60ft baggage car fleet.  Actually less because of rebuilds of other types of car to follow the earlier door design and the rebuild of 5 cars to 60ft RPOs of 60-P class.

Unfortunately while these models are easy to come by, only about 1 car in 10 should be of this class on the SP.

Other Road Cars - UP, C&A, IC

UP 3008, MDC/Athearn RTR, modifed - not correct because it should have 4 of the single doors & none of the double ones.

Several of the other Associated Lines ordered baggage cars of the Harriman 60-B-1-type design, or modified the designs to suit their needs after the breakup in 1913.  I will not be covering these in this post.  The mechanical and detailing aspects of course will transfer to cars of other paint schemes.

What Cars to Model?

I quickly didn't like the colors that MDC offered the cars in during the 1990s.  While it actually wasn't a bad color, it didn't match at all with the other colors I could paint other cars.  This first batch of cars were repainted several times over the years.

SP 6233 in MicroScale decals & Floquil before repainting in 2016.

My early cars (SP 6233, T&NO 611, 6190) addressed this based on the SPH&TS's reprint of the 1933 SP Passenger Car Roster & drawings book.  These were VERY rough reprints of the rough dimensions of the various SP passenger cars in service as of 1933.  They did not cover the upgrades in the mid-late 1930s with A/C being installed, many cars still had gas lighting, and only a few had electric lights at that time.

T&NO 611 after "weathering" attempts to correct Floquil Pullman Green to SP Dark Olive.

It turns out that T&NO 611 is a bad number for me modeling 1940-1955.   My research now shows the T&NO 600-604 would be better numbers for a 60-B-9/10 T&NO car.  As of October 2016, I'm not sure exactly where I got the T&NO 611 number even.  The MLT (T&NO) had Nos 113 and 114 both as 60-B-10s, and no other cars until the 600-604 group were reassigned Pacific Lines cars in 1931.

Another example of modeling with what data you have was SP 6190.  Everything was fine with that car in 1933 according to the SP Roster...  It turns out that it was wrecked and written off by the mid-1930s.  So for my 1946-1955 modeling date, this number doesn't exist anymore.  As far as I can tell no other baggage car rebuild or renumbering placed another car in the SP 6190 slot before 1955.

As of this writing, I've not yet decided a new number for the 6190.  T&NO 611 is to be repainted as the SP 6236 and one of the future MDC cars, sister to the SP 6047 will become the T&NO 601 to keep my Texas Lines modeling up!

Basic Mechanical

Again I feel I should mention that the majority of these models I'm discussing were started about 20 years ago.

All of these cars have Kadee Couplers mounted to the body.  I would highly recommend following my descriptions on how to install Diaphragms first before installing the couplers.  Because these models were either built a long time ago (20 years) or acquired from other people, they don't reflect my current standards on order of assembly regarding passenger car couplers, diaphragms, etc. but is meant to show options of how to rebuild the truck mountings.

Mechanical Changes - Option I - 1990s Modeling Choices

The cars as offered by MDC had a wheelbase between truck centers that was too short (based on a design for a coach with end step wells).  So that is the most offensive thing I've seen in the "stock" models.

I redrilled a new bolster hole outboard about 8ft from the ends (at the corners) of the car.  This helped but the shorter MDC "Harriman" trucks - really more of an Express Truck - with a 7th wheelbase looked really WRONG.  The longer 8ft wheelbase was really needed.

I then retrucked the cars with ECW 8ft Pullman trucks.  These trucks lasted less than 5 years before they were worn out and dropping wheelsets.  The trucks were made of plain styrene and not engineering plastics.  While they kept the cars running I was looking for replacements by the early 2000s.

Mechanical Changes - Option II - Walthers I

Walthers 920-2124 Pullman 8ft Truck

The next option that came up was Walthers' new 8ft Pullman 4-wheel trucks (now 920-2124).  These look great, and roll well... but have a funky bolster design to match the Walthers plastic HW passenger car line.

Here's the rebuild bolster on SP 6190 with a Kadee No.5 Box Lid and Evergreen tube bushing. (Note the old bolster)

The early mechanical rebuild for these cars worked converting to the Walthers trucks.  I added a strip of styrene about 0.100"x0.188" to the center of the underframe and redrilled the bolsters.  New slices of Evergreen styrene tubing where used to form a bushing for the much larger Walthers bolsters screw hole and a telescoped tube inside to keep the 2-56 screw.

Wheel clearance patches ground down with burr tool in my Dremal - This car doesn't use the Kadee Lid bolster.

On one of the cars, I guess the plastic was thinner or something, but I needed to grind away some of the floor as I could see rubbing marks from the flanges of the wheels and the car wouldn't roll.

Assembled Walthers Truck under T&NO 611 after repaint into SP 6236 during 2016 rebuild.

I didn't like the fact that I had to use a Kadee fiber washer to keep the larger holed truck on.  This was not a design I've repeated after I found the newer methods to do this better.

Here's an overview - or underview of SP 6236 (ex-T&NO 611) showing 15 year old underframe strip styrene

While the simple strip styrene underframe beams are rudimentary, they do work mechanically and can be upgraded later with additional brake and underbody detailing.  Also as you can see, these Walthers Trucks have been in service now over 10+ years and have nicely polished wheel treads.

Mechanical Changes - Option III - Walthers II

SP 6047, a 60-B-10, finished except for Diaphragms & Stirrup Steps.

The SP 6047 is an example of a newer model.  I acquired this model from a friend who build a new underframe from scratch in styrene.  I usually don't go to this effort as it's not visible during operations and sometimes if not planned correctly can later hurt car performance.

If I were assembling a kit today or rebuilding one of the R-T-R Athearn models I would probably heavily gut the underframe mechanically and build a simple one like the SP 2701 Chair car has on my blog from a last month.

Underframe rebuild & weighting on SP 2701

Walthers Truck modified with block of styrene for SP 1005 Coach on the MDC Baggages I use 0.02-0.03" Styrene Sheet

The above photo shows a truck modified for use on SP 1005 and on SP 2701, where I needed a thicker block of styrene on the truck.

Mechanical Changes - Option IIIa - Walthers IIa

Some underframes need deeper centersills than others.  One of the options that I'm using concurrent with the above option is keeping the sheet that I glue to the Walthers 4-wheel truck thinner, only 0.025-0.030" thick and building up the underframe more.  I don't have a handy photo for this technique on a 4-wheel truck, but imagine the same as above mixed with the look of the SP 5199 Bolsters, but with a thin sheet on the truck bolster instead of a 0.080"-0.100" thick block of styrene.  I will add a few picture the next time I build this thinner version.

SP 5199 Bolster

New "Thick" bolster being installed on "old" Walthers Metal passenger car underframe for customer.

On the SP 6047 car, a new bolster was built that was designed to use the current version of how I build the bolsters.  Instead of using the large hole and trying to get a bushing for it.  Instead I glue a plate of styrene over the opening.  Then mark a center point with my Carbide Scribe and then drill for clearance over the screw and Kadee No.5 lid.  These lids make great bolster hat bushings ready made if you can afford the extra 0.02-0.025" hight in the bolster.

Athearn's R-T-R Models - a Brief Overview

Athearn R-T-R Model, slightly modified, still with original Express Trucks. As far as I know, no 60-B-9 or -10s were ever painted in Daylight.  The only 60ft baggages were Daylight were the earlier 60-B-1 thru -8s with two smaller 4'-10" doors.

The prior owner of the newest Athearn cars I acquired modifed the underframes enough that I can't really show what the new Athearn underframes look like stock.  They're basically a dressed up version of the original MDC floor, but with substantially new tooling on the details and bolster bosses for truck placement... however they still didn't fix the truck center issues!

On my stand-in UP 3008 (I know, I don't have a photo of it handy) I was able to fix this by reversing the 6-wheel trucks that car was rebuilt with and made it look pretty much correct mechanically.  Athearn actually did their homework on that and put 6-wheel MDC trucks under the car!  The other car, UP 908 that they offer in the TTG scheme, I think I basically used one of the coupler pivot holes and made a new frame/bolster block to accept the Walthers Truck as on the SP 6047 and SP 2701.

Correct Walthers 8ft Pullman Truck 920-2124 (Left) and Athearn 8ft Express Reefer Truck (Right)

Here is a quick look at the differences in the trucks.  On the left is the replacement Walthers Truck, on the right is the R-T-R Truck that comes with the Athearn model now.  The Athearn truck is really belongs more under a 50ft wooden arch-roof express reefer.... which is another build altogether.

Roof opened to show the neat magnets to snap the roof on!

I like the magnetic attachment of the roof.  However on models I'm going to do complete rebuilds on, they're too hard to make line up again after splicing the bodies and roof sections.  Also I am usually using cheap E-bay MDC kit parts not new $40+ Athearn R-T-Rs for kitbashing fodder.

Closing

The Mail Train heads off to deliver the mail and express to points far and near, rider cars are SP 1005 and SP 2701.

 I will leave the MDC/Athearn 60ft Baggage Cars (Part 1) - Mechanical upgrades here.  When we rejoin this project we will look at installing the diaphragms, remounting the couplers, and other upgrades to underbody detailing and the roof vents in Part 2.

Jason Hill