How does one built streamlined Passenger cars

NorthwestGarrattGuy

NorthwestGarrattGuy

Some young foamer from seattle
Country flag
i want Great Northern/Northern Pacific streamlined cars but i don't really wanna spend $200 on a single passenger car that i am gonna remove the interior anyway so i wanna make some but i have never scratch built any models before
 
Greg Elmassian said:
Fluted sides are tough, but why not buy used? They are a lot of work with the fluting and the windows to make from scratch.

I forgot minimum curve radius/diameter you are planning on, that will help you determine length of cars, shortened like Aristo or full length like USAT.

Greg
Click to expand...
well i really don't want to pay $200 for a car that i will have to remove all the interior detail just to not be able to get one in the exact paint scheme i want
 
So how much would you spend? This is not fun as a guessing game....

Why are you going to remove the interior detail? That's not as difficult as making the car with fluted sides look good.

Looks like the GN streamliners (or at least some of them) were smoothsides).... so you can print them up on a 3d printer.

I doubt you are going to find a step by step on how to build a passenger car, but I think there are some posts here and more likely on a US-based forum like MLS or LSC.

Greg
 
Maybe you could find some used and abused but I don't think that inexpensive streamline cars come up often.

I purchased 3 Aristo-Craft aluminum streamline cars 6 months ago for roughly $70 each which sounds like a cheap deal. HOWEVER, they all came with the worst paint I have ever seen on a train. Each car has taken me at least 2 days to strip, clean, polish, re-detail and re-wire. In hindsight, I would probably have been better off paying $125-$200 plus shipping to get cars that did not need that amount of labor.

Greg has a good suggestion. If you could 3d print a smoothside passenger car (I would like to know more about the files and process to do that) then that would be your most cost effective way of getting passenger cars. AJ the Teacher
 
AJtheTeacher said:
Maybe you could find some used and abused but I don't think that inexpensive streamline cars come up often.

I purchased 3 Aristo-Craft aluminum streamline cars 6 months ago for roughly $70 each which sounds like a cheap deal. HOWEVER, they all came with the worst paint I have ever seen on a train. Each car has taken me at least 2 days to strip, clean, polish, re-detail and re-wire. In hindsight, I would probably have been better off paying $125-$200 plus shipping to get cars that did not need that amount of labor.

Greg has a good suggestion. If you could 3d print a smoothside passenger car (I would like to know more about the files and process to do that) then that would be your most cost effective way of getting passenger cars. AJ the Teacher
Click to expand...
i could probleby 3D print bits and assemble them into a Great Northern passenger car but my PLA printer is a kinda small and Can't print big bits
 
NorthwestGarrattGuy said:
well that is a factor but i just want some great northern railroad passenger cars
Click to expand...
Hello NorthwestGarrattGuy.

I understand about wanting specific passenger cars or locomotives. (especially at a reasonable amount of effort or cost) I have recently started modifying/scratchbuilding trains so that I could obtain items that were financially out of my reach or unavailable.

I don't have a chemical habit (besides caffeine) but I really spend too much time trying to get passenger cars. I feel like I need to join a multi step program of fellow G scalers that can't sleep because they are searching for the missing puzzle piece for their collection. Currently I am losing sleep looking for MTH RailKing One Gauge Southern Pacific Daylight smoothside observation and passenger cars. (I passed on several lately and I am STILL kicking myself.)

I have two aluminum streamline passenger trains that I am running on my main tracks. A silver Santa Fe A-B-B with aluminum Aristo-Craft cars and a Southern Pacific Black Widow A-B-B with aluminum Aristo-Craft Sunset Limited cars. It has taken me months of pouring over Craigslist, eBay, private ads and driving from the Houston Area to Dallas to purchase 3; plus many more hours of making them what I wanted them to be. (for example, changing from the bad Milwaukee Road paint job to shiny Santa Fe) In my opinion it has been a learning experience and time well spent.

I am finding out that it pays (literally) to be patient, take my time, ask good questions and weigh the advice of other G scalers that that are WAY more knowledgeable than I. I am hopeful that in time I can add more passenger cars to my Southern Pacific Daylight. And get more sleep. But I am sure that something else will come up to build or search for.

Enjoy our hobby. AJ the Teacher
 
NorthwestGarrattGuy said:
i want Great Northern/Northern Pacific streamlined cars but i don't really wanna spend $200 on a single passenger car that i am gonna remove the interior anyway so i wanna make some but i have never scratch built any models before
Click to expand...
Coaches are perhaps the trickiest build to do, particularly Streamliners. I have built quite a few carriages in sundry scales but would seriously ask about my sanity to accept such a challenge. But first why not try the odd wagon or two, then perhaps a simple straight sided coach to hone your skills till you feel confident to do the big one. Not impossible, but there is no magic bullet to building these things, you just have to start.
 
NorthwestGarrattGuy said:
Can't print big bits
Click to expand...
The tricky part of a coach is the windows and doors. The rest is just plain material.

One approach would be to 3D print a window (or two) down to the belt line midpoint of the side. Then print some more identical ones and mount them on clear acrylic or styrene strips the size of the coach side. Below the belt line midpoint you can use a long strip of styrene.
 
ok to make something clear it doesn't really have to be streamlined just some kind of great northern passenger cars though i thought it would be easier to make streamlined then heavyweights since i am not going to make interiors and they will be smooth sided sort of like these
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2021-12-23 1.45.34 PM.png
    Screenshot 2021-12-23 1.45.34 PM.png
    549.9 KB · Views: 1
NorthwestGarrattGuy said:
well i think i will built an NP vista dome and an empire builder coach since there is no fluting that i can see
Click to expand...

Please, PLEASE, just build something. All this faffing around telling us what you want, but seemingly lacking the way to even begin to think about what you need to scratch-build anything is driving me nuts.

And baffled.

Have you ever build a kit of anything? If not, get ahold of any kind of a railroad car, and take it completely to pieces. Then, duplicate the bits using Evergreen styrene shapes, styrene sheet, wood from your local hobby store and ingenuity.

Only then will you have an idea of what goes into making ANYTHING. let alone a large-scale railroad car.

Better yet, buy a large-scale railroad car kit and build it.

This was the beginning of a 16mm scale narrow gauge caboose -

1644250621135.png
THIS was the end, after about three months work -
1644250677672.png
 
tac foley said:
Please, PLEASE, just build something. All this faffing around telling us what you want, but seemingly lacking the way to even begin to think about what you need to scratch-build anything is driving me nuts.

And baffled.

Have you ever build a kit of anything? If not, get ahold of any kind of a railroad car, and take it completely to pieces. Then, duplicate the bits using Evergreen styrene shapes, styrene sheet, wood from your local hobby store and ingenuity.

Only then will you have an idea of what goes into making ANYTHING. let alone a large-scale railroad car.

Better yet, buy a large-scale railroad car kit and build it.

This was the beginning of a 16mm scale narrow gauge caboose -

View attachment 295179
THIS was the end, after about three months work -
View attachment 295180
Click to expand...
ok but i can't find any kits i have been wanting to try getting something for refrence but we are on a super tight budget
 
Making a large modern car the first time will be very difficult, any misalignment or out of true will be immediately evident.

Building a caboose as suggested would be easier and can "accept" more imperfections, which, being human and new you will SURELY have.

I'd even suggest a plain boxcar to start, or customize a cheap Chinese knockoff to make it look better, roofwalks, grab irons, stirrups, etc.

I'm with Tac, and this would let you start off without the other "spinning topic" of making track, or working outside in the winter, etc.

Greg
 
Greg Elmassian said:
Making a large modern car the first time will be very difficult, any misalignment or out of true will be immediately evident.

Building a caboose as suggested would be easier and can "accept" more imperfections, which, being human and new you will SURELY have.

I'd even suggest a plain boxcar to start, or customize a cheap Chinese knockoff to make it look better, roofwalks, grab irons, stirrups, etc.

I'm with Tac, and this would let you start off without the other "spinning topic" of making track, or working outside in the winter, etc.

Greg
Click to expand...
actully my plan was to make a box car and customize my newqida cars (i already adjusted them to fit around tighter curves) but plans keep changing because of many factors outside my controls and the workshop is STILL not ready and its too cold to do anything in there right now
 
NorthwestGarrattGuy said:
ok but i can't find any kits i have been wanting to try getting something for refrence but we are on a super tight budget
Click to expand...

My caboose was built using a thousand or so coffee stirrers from three different providers - they cost me a big fat zero.

AFAIK, nobody makes US-style passenger car kits for standard-gauge models in any of our preferred scales. In any event, the trucks for anything you might eventually build are going to cost, so are the couplings.

The caboose was built using the excellent plans from Garden Railroad magazine - they even give you the size of wood to buy. The metal parts like balcony end rails and so on came from Ozark Miniatures, truck are a pair of Accucraft, but Bachmann are just fine - you are not going to see much of them anyhow. The rest is up to you to do yourself - like this -

1644251610266.png
1644251641502.png
1644251677819.png
1644251710533.png
1644251766562.png
1644251820301.png
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom