Large Scale Central

Conrail OCS

Modeling Rolling stock
#1

After much peer pressure I am starting a thread on the topic of modeling the Conrail Office Car Special. Some of you have surely followed the construction of Theater Car #9, but that is but one of several cars in the OCS.

I am going to start this thread by discussing the E-8 for my train. We’ll touch on the theater car as well as at least two others I have plans for, perhaps more as time goes on and skills develop.

Aristo makes a nice E-8 and the Conrail OCS used three of them, but the two from the PRR origins had much different bits on the roof, mufflers and fans and what not. But the former Erire loco has the right-looking bits on the roof so less modification is needed to model Conrail E-8 #4022.

Much credit for the E-8 model must go to a helpful friend named Russ who happens to be the president of the Conrail Historical Society.

Starting with an undercoated Aristo E-8 ditch lights were installed:

Then the side port holes were filled in:

A new door for the front needed to be fabricated as the undercoated model had the second lower headlight:

Then more work on the nose could begin to add more grab irons:

Those carefully inspecting the photos should also notice the fabricated horn mount at the top. A new horn was made by first cutting up a brass three-chime horn:

And making the horns point in new directions:

Then the loco was primed and painted:

Then lettered:

At first the can-opener logos didn’t have long enough legs/tracks coming out of them (as seen in the above photo) but I cut some decal pieces and extended them. I also weathered coupler up front to make it a little more realistic. It had previously been shortened to give a better look to the nose.

In the next post I will most chronologically with the build and highlight Mr. Rooster’s fine construction of the Theater Car, CR OCS #9. After that will be #12, then #27, and if you’re all good boys and girls perhaps #3… after that is anyone’s guess.

#2

That’s really nice Charlie. I really like the E8’s and this one looks great in the OCS green.

#3

Looking good Charlie. So how did you talk old Roos into building #9 for you ?

#4

Charlie, I have to ask, did you buy CR4022 from Russ or did he build that for you?

I remember when he was just starting that build.

#5

Just a little memory jog: I found Russ’s original thread over at the Aristo Forum:

http://www.aristocraftforum.com/vbulletinforums/showthread.php?t=11875&highlight=conrail

#6

Those are looking great!

Later,

K

#7

J.D. Gallaway said:

Charlie, I have to ask, did you buy CR4022 from Russ or did he build that for you?

I remember when he was just starting that build.

The loco pictured on the aristo forum as well as on the CRHS forum is the same loco that I own. How it came to be mine is a story beyond the scope of this thread which was on the building of the CR OCS train.

#8

Fair enough. They do look awesome. When can we expect to get pictures of the entire train? Even if they are lacking decals?

By the way, how did you get the paint to adhere to the body? I was told painting the aluminum bodies of these type of cars was not possible.

#9

J.D. Gallaway said:

Fair enough. They do look awesome. When can we expect to get pictures of the entire train? Even if they are lacking decals?

By the way, how did you get the paint to adhere to the body? I was told painting the aluminum bodies of these type of cars was not possible.

I wasn’t planning to continue posting to this thread. I removed the followup posts from me and I made the pictures un-viewable in the original post, but you asked a good question about the paint and that deserves a good answer regardless of my feeling about this board or its users.

I used a self-etching primer to bite into the metal. I picked Dupli-Color DAP1690. That one is green as I figured that color would help with the top color coat(s) especially since I bought the type of Scalecoat designed for plastics.

There is Scalecoat 1 and Scalecoat 2. The “1” is intended for metal and wood and the “2” is for plastics. Since the E-8 was plastic and I was initially thinking of using plastic Aristo cars I bought a lot of the Scalecoat 2 (there are minimum requirements for purchase). Luckily, the theater car was being made of plastic and that went along for the ride. I figured that if my primer method failed, I’d strip the car and buy some Scalecoat 1 to try on the metal shell.

Scalecoat paint is very lite and hard to work with in general. My first color coat looked almost like a camouflage of blotchiness but I didn’t want to have a lot of build up and I feared a run. To me uneven paint, due to being too lite, though properly adhering is better than too thick and runs/drips. The second coat gave it a good look, solid color. I then gave it third, equally lite coat to even things out in case there were tiger stripes or other unevenness.

Due to the groves in the car roof and sides as well as the edges of the windows I worked hard to spray from various angles. to get every spot covered.

The Scalecoat 2 paint used here took forever to dry. It was still very tacky after 24 hours in my heated basement. After a suggestion from Mr. Theater Car I put the thing out in our un-heated (but insulated) Florida Room. Perhaps the drying is more tied to humidity than temperature. The car did get past the tacky stage then in another 24 hours, but when I brought it back into the house it got a little tacky again. I left it inside (in the kitchen) for a final 12 hours and then it seemed dry enough to handle and I began reassembly.

Hopefully that answers your question about the paint and I can consider this thread closed.

#10

C Z said:

I wasn’t planning to continue posting to this thread. I removed the followup posts from me and I made the pictures un-viewable in the original post, but you asked a good question about the paint and that deserves a good answer regardless of my feeling about this board or its users.

Did I miss something? I don’t get it. Why would you delete your pictures and posts?? I guess I need to give Dave a call and get the real poop.

#11

Thank you for the consideration on the paint question, hopefully it prove very helpful with my RDC and smoothside cars.

Please check your inbox, I sent you a PM.

#12

yes, why were the pictures removed? where can we see them?

#13

Greg Elmassian said:

yes, why were the pictures removed? where can we see them?

Charlie has a Facebook page. OCS photos & discussion only available to Friends.

#14

Jon Radder said:

Greg Elmassian said:

yes, why were the pictures removed? where can we see them?

Charlie has a Facebook page. OCS photos & discussion only available to Friends.

So how does that help us here?

#15

Joe Zullo said:

Jon Radder said:

Greg Elmassian said:

yes, why were the pictures removed? where can we see them?

Charlie has a Facebook page. OCS photos & discussion only available to Friends.

So how does that help us here?

It don’t…what’s Facebook?

#16

David Russell said:

Joe Zullo said:

Jon Radder said:

Greg Elmassian said:

yes, why were the pictures removed? where can we see them?

Charlie has a Facebook page. OCS photos & discussion only available to Friends.

So how does that help us here?

It don’t…what’s Facebook?

Ask me in York, or back channel.

#17

Or click on your link?