I have a NYC Drefuss Hudson on order from Accucraft, and I already had a couple of Aristo NYC Heavyweight coaches. I found another (NOS) at Star Hobby, and bought a set of 3 more from a gentleman here. That means I can claim it is the 3rd section of the Twentieth Century and they ran out of streamliners. (And besides, I can’t afford a set of USAT Streamliners, and their Observation is out of stock.)
After that long intro, if you are still with me, there was only one problem. I ended up with 2 observation coaches. Two of anything else wouldn’t have mattered, but you can’t put an Obs in the set with a coach behind it. Looks weird, especially if there is another Observation on the tail end:
So Something Had To Be Done, as the Fat Controller remarked at lunch. I looked at the coach, and clearly the observation railing and awning were screwed on options on the standard coach. So I went looking for a new coach end. No-one offered me one.
Here’s the eBay tale. I found one there, but for $24. Seemed a bit steep, so I offered him $12. He declined, as it included free shipping, he said. I pondered for a couple of weeks, and then decided to up my offer. He ‘blocked’ me from sending him emails or bidding on his items !! “Sorry, the seller is not accepting bids or offers from you at this time.”
I was/am insulted. Not a great selling posture - I might have reconsidered and gone back with a full price offer. However, he now lists it at $32.00 + $4.75 shipping.
So I decided to make my own, as I had a few weeks to spare before heading out for the winter and the other project (EBT caboose) had ground to a halt. The platform and stuff did come off very easily, and a piece of styrene (0.040" ?) bent onto a couple of tapered end beams gave me the basic shape. I added various trim strips, not attempting to add all the rivets, and made up some doors and Voila:
You can tell is used to be an Obs by the two marker lights. I left them, as the coach is convertible - the Observation pieces are in a bag and can be screwed right back if I want.
Here’s the coach end and doors, next to the opposite coach end that I unscrewed to use as a template:
You will note I didn’t try to make a lattice fence. I’m claiming (if anyone asks) that the coach had an accident - rammed by a diesel - and that this end had to be rebuilt, with new welded seams and a full door.
The doors are just clear styrene with an overlay of thin strips. I masked off the window before painting. I also put some Evergreen 1/2 round strip around the window, thinking it might match the other coach. I think it does. The flexible diaphragms slowed me down for a while, but I finally used a piece of foamcore with a 0.080" frame on the outside end and 1/2 round strip wrapped around it. Brass grab rails and it was done.
Just had to match the paint . . .
I used grey primer and then sprayed it with ‘boxcar gray’ which you can see on the interior in this pic of the door reinforcements.
(I actually finished the outer paint before gluing the doors.) The existing coach seems to be a greenish shade - one or two other coaches are bluish. Just like the prototye - faded. Anyway, I got out the acrylics and a soft brush and started mixing. My dark grey seemed a good enough match for the top and bottom strip, so a couple of light coats, well watered down, did the trick. Then I started masking the edges where the lighter shade was, and mixed a little green and white in with the gray. After that, it was a careful brush with the white, touch the wiondow frames with gold, and it was done - apart from touching up after gluing the doors.
And that was about it. I put it back together, rolled it back on the top shelf, and took the final photos. Here’s a close-up showing the paint.
What goes around comes around I guess if