39 - O Scale Trains Magazine Online

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Are You Expired? Your subscription expiration is now printed on your mailing label! www.modelbuildingservices.com Coal Mine by K&P Brick & Building Co. Model Building Services Models built by Stu Gralnik 264 Marret Rd • Lexington MA 02421 Ph: 781-860-0554 stu@modelbuildingservices.com Assembled buildings from any manufacturer’s kit. Kitbashed, painted and detailed... “Just Like Real!” 26 • O Scale Trains - Jul;y/Aug ’08
Researching the Prototype A recent passenger car project left me in the mood to start work (finally) on a set of old Kasiner fluted side passenger cars that I had collected over the years and stored in their partially assembled state on a display shelf. It had been my intention since the start to build and detail these cars to represent the Frisco streamlined passenger equipment built by Pullman Standard. Actually the location and purchase of two sets of Microscale O Scale decal sets for the Frisco E-8s brought this project from the “Around to it Bowl” to the workbench. With excuses laid by, it was now time to locate my old research information (photos, notes, etc.) and start the search for any new data available. It has been my intention to organize my magazine and book collections onto an easy to locate shelving system around the perimeter of the layout. This project is currently 80% complete and I’m finding books, magazines and O Scale parts that had become misplaced in the organized confusion over the years. Starting the new reference search, Google and the Internet yielded good results. Some of the web sites appeared familiar with new information and photos posted. Then, I remembered looking at a book during the 2007 Indy convention of passenger equipment of the Southwestern railroads that had builder’s photos of the Frisco streamlined cars, which I didn’t purchase. Well hindsight is said to be 20/20 vision, but I will be looking for the same book at East Wind ‘08. Getting started, with nine different kits on hand, it was decided that the streamlined RPO car would be the first project with a coach and baggage-coach combine to follow. At least we can operate local passenger service until the crosscountry train is completed. The Frisco RPO # 251 Normandy is a Pullman Standard design of the 60 feet plus type (photos only to work from). With two Kasiner kits to choose from, the Shorty 56 scale feet or a longer 84 foot version. I choose to use the Shorty. Although too short to be an exact match, I believe the completed car will capture the feel and look of the prototype. Construction started with the basic assembly of the kit. I decided to add external details to best represent the prototype car. The fabrication of new ends from styrene and the installation of Kiel Line detail parts were a must, as well as the replacement of the underbody wood parts with scratchbuilt styrene components. This is where I started running into problems. The photos I had were not that sharp in showing the details of the underbody or car ends. Back to the library, I found several good photographs and drawings of various passenger cars in many of the 1950’s issues of Railroad Model Craftsman. This information helped but I was still undecided as to how everything on the underside of this car worked and should be positioned. Time for a change of pace to clear the mind. A trip to the local Radio Shack for lighting components was in order. The route to the store just happens to go by a private collection of prototype rail equipment, including a Southern streamlined coach, all of which I had forgotten about until I drove by. After doing a U-Turn on the 4-Lane (no police in sight), I parked at the exhibit and walked up to the fence around the coach. Within a matter of minutes of looking at the details of the coach (no camera or tape measure), I had answers to my problems concerning the RPO model. When in doubt, there’s nothing like the real thing to get you going again. I’ll not get into what problems I encountered as it may create cause for alarm. The moral to this story would be when building a model of a prototype, sometimes it helps to see the real thing. Working from a set of plans or scale drawings is certainly the way to go. Photographs give us the ability to view equipment that is no longer around and in certain cases dimensions and other construction methods can be determined from the photos. Having access to a prototype car is in itself an opportunity that should not be overlooked. By just looking at this Southern coach, it was easy to see many construction details that you can’t see in photographs or scale drawings; how the real fluting and panels were installed, how the ends were assembled and the diaphragms installed and how they operated. This coach being built by Pullman Standard, it seemed logical that the underbody compartments and appliances were standard items used by P.S. and only their placement varied from car type to special order versions. My hat is off to the scratchbuilders in O Scale. I only wish that I had the time to devote to an exact quarter-inch scale model of a prototype locomotive or car. Until that day we’ll be content to kitbash and detail, expand and organize our library and add notes and photos from our travels. You never know when the urge to build that special engine or car you remember from years gone by will strike. Until the next time, “Keep em on the rail.” u July/Aug ’08 - O Scale Trains • 27
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39 - O Scale Trains Magazine Online

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