I have seen photos of the Finger Lajkes Railway passenger cars online and would like to give my B23s something to do. I figured either the Concor or Bachmann smoothside coaches would make reasonable stand-ins for them and the two-tone grey is classic NYC....
Just reading up on Wikipedia, (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_Lakes_Railway) there were originally 4 cars, 2 with electric (canadiagua and Cayuga) and the other two with steam heating. (Galena and Seneca) One of the steam cars (Seneca) was converted to electric in 2008. It did not appear to be in operation before then. Galena might not have ever been operated. The page said it was in bad shape, with damaged windows and interior. They were bought from VIA in '98 and began operation in 2001. In '05, a baggage car was added, and in '07 two N&W heavyweight cars were purchased. The passenger car service stopped in 2013. In between, it appears that they have acquired others as well. What year you model will decide what cars you make. You can make all of them, or just the first two. Wikipedia also says that the cars were operated on two separate parts of the railroad. The heavyweight and smooth side did not appear to mix. The smooth side cars all look to be of the same class. On RRpicturearchives, I found three of the four cars (not Canadiagua) and searched "VIA smooth side" on google and found a similar car in the VIA scheme. (5499) All four are ex-Cn. The Passenger Car Index by our own Jerry LaBoda has a good page with all(?) the Finger Lakes cars. http://passcarphotos.info/Indices/E.htm#FGLK I think the Kato smoothside coach is pretty close. It has he same general feel: 2 windows, then the coach windows, then one window, then the door. It might be hard to find these not in the box set, so my second choice would be the Bachmann one. It is already de-skirted, although the windows towards the ends of the cars is a bit different. They are probably can be found cheaper as well. I would not go with Con Cor. They can be a bit sketchy. I have only really seen their HO superliner up close, and did not have good first impressions. It was in the box upside down, and the trucks were off of the car. Plus, the car has skirts, which Finger Lakes does not. If you can find a Bachmann NYC, that would be the best. (I have not seen any) even if you need to repaint, I would still go with Bachmann. It is a compromise between prototypicalness, even though none are exact, and cost effectiveness. Overall, it should work out fine. Modeling short lines gives you something that not a lot of other people have, and I think that is pretty cool.
I just realized that this was in the Special Runs section. My response did not really make sense then. I thought you were looking to go and build these cars yourself. If it is in special runs, then I'm assuming it was more of a comission proposal or suggestion. My post didn't really get anything done, so if any moderators want to delete it and this one, go ahead.
I thought the same as you Trainiac. I looked up the Finger Lakes Railway and it's one serious regional, with 167 Miles of line, nearly 90 customers and 19 locomotives. Looks like they have dropped passenger excursions.
I am new here, so excuse my question if inappropriate. Is there a place where a member could look for commission work either to offer work or to offer custom build service? For example I designed and made high end custom jewelry for 37 years, and am a very skilled modeler as well, winning many many custom car best of show awards for my original extremely detailed plastic kits. I am a very meticulous craftsman doing only first class work, and am skilled in electrical and electronic work as well. For example, I could relatively easily replace the coach window panels in the Kato car with new panels having the correct number, size and shape windows, smooth them in and repaint and letter the car per the prototype. I could also rebuild the interior configuration, populate it with painted people and install dcc lighting. If this is not the correct place to put this, moderators please move it to where it belongs.
I would think that someplace like the swap meet (our classifieds) would be the best place. https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?forums/trainboard-swap-meet.151/ Or you could also do a thread or a few of your work so we can see your skills and in the threads you could mention that you would be willing to take commissions for similar work. I am not sure you are going to get anyone right off the bat without something to show us. It's one thing to say things, and another to show. Just my $.02
