As I about to head for Florida for the rest of the winter, I suspect progress on this will cease next week. And therefore I am posting this so I don’t forget where I got to in Oct '24. 
You may recall I made 2 long coaches from 3 standard Aristo Sierras, leaving me with 2 spare ends.
Respone was mostly positive, so I kept thinking of how to use them - and Dave Marconi came up with this junk coach body:
(Note it is missing an end!) I had already found an old LGB chassis, so I added some 1:20 metal wheels.
A bit of photoshop cemented the idea of a single compartment coach.
And so the chopping began.
It then transpired that I had 5 oval windows - 2 from each end piece and one from another end of Dave’s coach. He had enclosed one, and also closed a side window, so I decided to put an oval in the side. Not as easy as it looked.
I kept whittlin’ away, filled holes, added a trim ring, and it became more of a 5’ view item instead of 15’. Then one of the existing windows decided it was brittle and broke.
Ah well, an easy fix, if you have the right glue. I tried the stuff I used on the other coach and it didn’t work. (But one of my Plastruct liquids did.)
I kept thinking how things would fit, ripped out the toilet so I could move it, and came up with a big compartment for a Big Cheese and his (Lady) friend.
You can see the corridor around the compartment, and a repurposed door into it. I also added a grill for the stove, so the Big Cheese could keep warm but also private.
I found another pair of big lounge chairs - Bruce will recognize them when they get installed as they were resin cast for his ET&WNC coaches.
And that’s the state of the coaches today. Glued into one unit:
Here’s the window side. There are some lovely ‘etched glass’ clerestory window glass in Dave’s original which will fit when I paint the roof. Most of the silver strips are removed so I can paint the yellow sides. Crack filling under way:
And this is the corridor side. No need for too many windows.
The end platforms and steps are done, and the floor underframe is flattened to sit on the LGB chassis. Hopefully I’ll get time for another photo before the end of the week.
