I recently added a new combine to my Blacklog & Shade Gap Eastern RR for use on the daily mail & milk run. I used a 3D printed car body & floor, and trucks for EBT combines 16 & 17 from the Friends of the East Broad Top (FEBT) Co. Store (URL: FEBT.org). All other pieces-parts must be supplied by the modeler. For more on the B&SGE, see my layout tour topic elsewhere in ModelersForum.
Because I like to avoid having to model truss rods, which - let's be honest - are mostly hidden in the shadows on an operating layout, I sanded off the queen posts and retrofitted a vestigial fish-belly steel center sill and angle cross braces bracketing the cross bears.
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Brake cylinders were salvaged from a long-ago abandoned Model RR Gen'l Store/E&B Valley D&RGW combine kitbash-in-a-box project that went bad when floor and sides developed a bad hog-back. End railing kindly formed on a jig by the kit's developer as a personal favor. Brake wheels from a small bag with missing label found in the spare parts box.
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For color, after test spraying on a primed styrene blank, I went with Tamiya "British Green," which I find is a close match to the EBT's tourist era (1960-present) passenger livery. Common carrier-era EBT passenger cars were, well, greenishy ... a baggage door removed from combine 14 or 15 and stored ca. 1960 when the cars were being readied for tourist service was found in its forgotten resting place ca. 1990, and it's color was close to Pullman Green, FWIW.
Decals were custom made by RailGraphics way back in the 1980s. The decal film, by the way, is in pretty darned good shape after all these years. I only had one tear to deal with, and that was luckily between the "&" and the "S".
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So, here is B&SGE Combine 8 pressed into service before window installation. I was undecided between Micro Krystal Klear and clear styrene. I think I'll try Krystal Klear everywhere but in the baggage section, where the security bars might look better with clear styrene.
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The historical fiction backstory to this car: rather than being destroyed upon retirement in the early-1930s, which was its historical fate, Combine 17 was sold to, and its undercarriage upgraded for, the B&SGE, which connects to the EBT via the EBT's former Shade Gap Branch. This car's twin, EBT Combine 16, by the way, ended up at the New Jersey Museum of Transportation, where it is in bad condition but at least indoors.
I'll post an update when the "glass" is installed.
'best,
Vagel
Nice looking car! I'll be interested to see how the Crystal Clear stuff works on passenger car windows.
dave
Great job on the changes you made. A very nice car.
Jerry
Thanks for the compliments. Finishing up this thread, here are the results of Micro Krystal Klear window panes. The first image shows the milky color of the stuff while wet. While waiting for it to dry I started on my next rolling stock project, a presidential parlor car (an old NWSL brass OR&W parlor car that I scored on EBay already painted and weathered. Decals from my stock of custom Rail Graphics sheets made back in 1993. That short project thread is forthcoming in HO/HOn3/HOn30 Line.
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When dry it looks like this.
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The camera is not a forgiving observer; even the opti-visor doesn't do as much truth telling as an iPhone camera. It's difficult to avoid getting some of the KrystalKlear on the window frames, and it leaves a glossy film. But it can be gently rubbed off when dry with a toothpick.
And I went with Krystal Klear in the baggage area windows, as well, and the results show I should've gone with my original thought. Try as I might I wasn't able to touch up the bars with flat black paint and fine brush as well as I'd've liked ... too shaky and not good enough eyes anymore. Frankly, it's been several years since I've undertaken finely detailed work, and the loss of vision (although my prescription is unchanged) due mild cataract onset is startling. I'm not THAT old, fer cryin' aht lahd!
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Oh well. It's good enough for viewing while operating on the layout. I did use thin clear styrene for the windows on the B&SGE's presidential parlor car, though.
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Vagel,
The combine looks fantastic, very well done.
Tom
Thanks, Tom. :-*