Great thread on a very cool railroad - some really good modeling here! I've always loved the EL paint schemes. Mark
Aw man, Scott, you're killin'me. That baggage car looks sweet, I painted mine, but was too lazy too move the doors, don't tell anybody. I'm going to wait for Phoebe to be completed before I get into the heavyweights, but I guess I should get some of the MT sleepers. Cool stuff guys, I know there are more of us here doing DL&W/E-L passenger stuff. Let's see some more :w20z6q::w20z6q:
Greg, it was a paint to do but probably not anywhere as big a pain as the tavern lounge car. I got a few of the walthers streamlined baggage cars. They are extremely close to the ex-Erie baggage cars. You would have to do some minor work to the doors to make them "correct". The Wheels of Time heavyweight baggage cars that will be coming out are also very close to ex-erie cars. So, I will have to get a few of those. I am really liking the mix of the two tone green and Grey/Maroon/Yellow on the same train. Mixing the cars in different paint schemes really gives that early EL look. Scott
Ah the fleeting Tavern Lounge. It's so hard to get a shot of it when Phoebe goes by so quickly. Hey and when you do one, you have to fill the holes in the fluted Budd roof !
Yeah Greg, I know. Don't remind me. I am just resolving myself to the fact that I will have to fill in those holes and rebuild the ribs. How did you accomplish that? By the way, the lighted marker lights are a nice touch! LED's? Scott
As a closet E-L fan, this is just beautiful, beautiful work. I've been trying to upgrade my passenger cars skills from simply putting Kato cars out of the box and on the track. That tavern lounge is spot-on. Oh, and one of those baggage cars was 'stuck' in Meadville all the way through the 70's.
Thanks for the "spot on" Randgust. That car was a real challenge, and tested all my patience! I have to blame George (NKP759) as he gave me some information on the car sides that made it more doable. The model is not as "crisp" as I would like, hence the lack of good close photos. Scott, the roof was not as hard as I thought it would be. I filled the holes with putty, and cut the hard putty flush with the top of the flutes with a chisel blade. I cut the valleys using a sharp V file first, and then cleaned it up with an exacto saw, then finally, a single edge razor blade. Tedious, but it worked. The Marker are fiber optics running from the Kato light. I painted the bulb red so the markers shine red. I have the parts from N-gineering to light the tailsigns with micro LEDs. I got some tiny capacitors and resistors to make it anti flicker and constant. I just have to get up the nerve to solder it all together. Here is a shot of the tail end before completion.
Greg: OK, now that makes sense how you are able to maintain the ribs. Good method. I am going to give that a shot on the dining car I started working on. I am in the middle of working on a few more of the round roof baggage cars. You can't just have one of those cars. I am a huge fan of lots of head end cars. The later years of EL through passenger service seemed to have more head end equipment than passenger accommodations. Did you ever do any of the express boxcars which ran on the phoebe? Scott
Randgust, it is funny you mention that baggage car stuck out in Meadville. They always seemed to get stuck out somewhere and left to rot. I remember wandering around abandoned Port Morris Yard in the early 90's and there was a string of head end equipment abandoned on the old receiver track. There was a round roof baggage car in that pile of abandoned cars. These baggage cars seemed to be left everywhere. Very cool. Scott
Scott, I haven't done any of the express boxcars. I Am doing the earlier DL&W Phoebe. I wanted the train to be the clean consist of just GMY. Most of the earlier photos show the train without any headend boxcars, just the "Turtle Tops", and an RPO. I'm using the MT as a stand in for now. I painted a Kato Smoothside RPO just to have a more modern look.
Greg: Gotcha. The "clean" phoebe snow was a really sharp looking train. The late EL phoebe was more of a junker. I love em both. The modernized DL&W RPO's are quite unusual. I have been looking around to see who makes a car that is a suitable starting point. The options are sort of limited but I figure between the two of us, something will turn up. scott
Scott, do you know of any good pictures of the modernized DL&W RPO? I seem to recall having problems finding a good picture.
Greg: Here are two shots for you. The EL color guide has a shot or two in there also I think. Probably the DL&W/Erie color guide too. These were the only two that I could find online. The window and door patterns are bizarre. I love the roof line. Anytime you put heavyweight trucks on a streamlined car you just have a win!. Scott
Thanks, Scott. I have seen pictures of these cars, I think I'll just put a round top on the micro trains RPO. It's close to one of the RPOs in the 1800 series
Greg: I keep looking at that MT RPO. It is close to something but I am not sure what. The Erie and DL&W both had strange head end cars. I think it is close in a few regards to a few different cars. I think it is a good starting point. Of course, one of the great benefits of modeling the late EL is that there is a large pool of passenger stuff to work from. Scott
On page 77 of the Erie/DL&W Color Guide is RPO 1805. Although shorter, it resembles the MT enough to be a temporary stand in. You're right on with the E-L, as the erie brought lots of strange stuff into the mix. Most of DL&W's was pretty unique.
DL&W 1807 baggage - mail (a design common with the C&O and Wabash) http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/dlw1807.jpg DL&W 1817 mail http://rr-fallenflags.org/el/pax/dlw-rpo1817agd.jpg
Thanks Jerry, It was 1817 that I was thinking of. Not exact, but it's a short RPO. BTW Your site has been a big help with my train, I have it bookmarked for quick access!
