I believe they were kit bashed from some weird Tomix Japanese prototype passenger cars that I cut the sides off of and fitted them with some US prototype box car roofs, ends and floors. I had a bunch of stuff in a junk box I bought at a silent auction at some NTRAK convention.
Just finished my Santa Fe #2602 "Fast Mail" rider, with guidance from Santa Fe experts Russell and Rick from here. Magnetic reed switches are used to manually switch the marker lights from front to rear and visa versa, so when the train is backing (or the locomotive doing switching moves while the rider is stationary, while in mixed train service) the marker lights on the correct end stay lit instead of bouncing back and forth. There's also a homebrew flicker-free circuit, interior lighting and CV trucks in this lowered Rivarossi car. On my layout, the story is that as the Post Office started cutting back on the mail on the trains, Santa Fe relegated this to mixed train service. John
Old one from 5 1/2 yrs ago: http://www.pbase.com/atsf_arizona/gp7b_construction Hope soon in 2014 I will be active to get the layout out again and actively resume work on it. Happy New Year to all.
Josta and of course everyone tuned in here. One fine Santa Fe, rider car. These cars did see service as cabooses, Ie., on the Super C., and certain mixed freights. Great to see the finished product, here on TB. Also some really fine shots of other railroads and train equipment. Nice!
Here are the cars I finished over the weekend! Eastern Car Works 1958CF ACF Covered Hopper, added airlines and A-Line Sill steps, painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red paint and lettered with Herald King decals. In contrast to the Athearn "Foobie" here is the proper Branchline #1100 50' Boxcar kit, used the Despatch Roof and Ends, A-Line Sill Steps, painted with Scalecoat II Boxcar Red paint and lettered with Greg Komar Decals. IMRC 4750CF PS Covered Hopper kit, painted with Scalecoat II MofW Gray and lettered with Herald King Decals. Thanks for looking!
My Trix ATSF Ce-3 rebuild is pretty much done, including the replacement Kato frame, etched walks, ladders, all wire handrails, and a really nice Richmond Controls lighting kit that does the interior and changes directional lights on the ends. The Ce-3's were equipped with yellow cupolas to distinguish them from normal Ce-1 and 2 cabooses in the freight pool. They did not have the sealed windows, shock-control underframes, etc. and were restricted to local service. That colorful yellow cupola marked the car for local service only.
I also like those Richmond Control units. Really great to get a nice piece of modelling and a history lesson wrapped up together!
I drove over to Burning Springs on Saturday and caught the regular extra train with a mine run heading up the branch towards the mine. I was stunned when I found a rare CC&CI BL2 in consist. Often considered as an ugly locomotive, the CC&CI BL2's, riding on AAR Type B trucks, are considered to be especially hideous and unpopular with train crews.
Well, a little late. Probably still the weekend somewhere. We had fun run on Sunday at the club. Jack Siegel's Seaboard watermelon train. Jack said that in season, these trains were 100 cars long.
