RPO,upgrade and finished,,finally!!!!

[Riograndad]

This project has been sitting around for over a year,so time to look at it, tidy up the inside and a few more details added.First job was to change the colour of the interior from sand to caboose green,the interior walls simply scribbed to give a board effect,some staining of the mailbags(coffee)to take the colour back from plain white,only paper moulds so easily done,some frieght / boxes made up for the baggage end together with a few more newspaper stacks just to give some effect when the doors are open.The end doors now filled in(security issues)so the only way along the car is via the roofwalk,a `bag catch` mechanism knocked up over one of the small doors and holding eyes set up on the other side,the arm on the 1:1 car was removable and reverseable to allow for eitherway car movements,interior light is a LGB item,the wiring is taken up through the stove to keep it all nice n tidy.as for the exterior,light weathering and the lettering faded back,looks like someone has cleaned up some of the dirt off the lettering at some point in the past but alas the dirt is comin back again, :`(Now I can say that the Varnish consist is now complete,RPO,baggage,combine and a selection of passenger and observations,(not forgetting my private and pay cars

 

[dunnyrail]

Super attention to detail on the inside of this car. Did other Countries do RPO Bag Snatching on the run. Would not surprise me, just never heard of it.
JonD

 

[Lobethalbahn2]

Hi Jon,

This is a clip of a standard gauge mail exchange at the Illinois Railway Museum.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=19XZQDjTA8M

And a lovely bit of coachwork Riograndad.

 

[trammayo]

Yes - lovely detailing. Very nice indeed!

 

[dunnyrail]

Hi Jon,

This is a clip of a standard gauge mail exchange at the Illinois Railway Museum.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=19XZQDjTA8M

And a lovely bit of coachwork Riograndad.

Great stuff, my education has been enhanced. Many thanks.
JonD

 

[Bill Barnwell]

This project has been sitting around for over a year,so time to look at it, tidy up the inside and a few more details added.First job was to change the colour of the interior from sand to caboose green,the interior walls simply scribbed to give a board effect,some staining of the mailbags(coffee)to take the colour back from plain white,only paper moulds so easily done,some frieght / boxes made up for the baggage end together with a few more newspaper stacks just to give some effect when the doors are open.The end doors now filled in(security issues)so the only way along the car is via the roofwalk,a `bag catch` mechanism knocked up over one of the small doors and holding eyes set up on the other side,the arm on the 1:1 car was removable and reverseable to allow for eitherway car movements,interior light is a LGB item,the wiring is taken up through the stove to keep it all nice n tidy.as for the exterior,light weathering and the lettering faded back,looks like someone has cleaned up some of the dirt off the lettering at some point in the past but alas the dirt is comin back again, :`(Now I can say that the Varnish consist is now complete,RPO,baggage,combine and a selection of passenger and observations,(not forgetting my private and pay cars

Very nice detail, if it were mine I would have to run it with the roof off. I did a LGB car and added some detail using some playmobil parts then added windows so you could maybe see the detail and finally gave up could you still couldn't tell that I had done anything, but at least the lights worked. Excellent !!!! work, thanks for the share, Bill

 

[PhilP]

Awesome!

 

[Riograndad]

Thanks for the comments.Smart car Bill,I like the livery,I thought these pics were long gone,(computer upgrade)the car has since been repainted and relettered in gold although the interior remained the same as the crew wanted to keep the Yvonne De Carlo pin ups

 

[Bill Barnwell]

Funny you said you ran the wires up thru the stove as I did the same in my kalamazoo combine kit bash of a drover caboose, only difference is I ran mine down and had 4 yellow/red flickering LED's in the stove, so at night the stove lights the cowboy section with a flickering fire light and caboose has a white light separated by a bulkhead

 

[royale]

Beautifully done.

 

[Riograndad]

Funny you said you ran the wires up thru the stove as I did the same in my kalamazoo combine kit bash of a drover caboose, only difference is I ran mine down and had 4 yellow/red flickering LED's in the stove, so at night the stove lights the cowboy section with a flickering fire light and caboose has a white light separated by a bulkhead

I caught up with the build thread Bill and as I said there I like those flickering lights in the stove,good idea,there are a few things on my RPO that didn`t get done,I should have put metal plates along the bottom of the car body(security)and I was going to fit door guards in the baggage end but never got around to it,,,not going to bother now 3yrs on!

 

[stevedenver]

Love the roof railing too, for a different look.
Love the interior too.

Not sure narrow gauge used a mail bag grabber, but its a nice touch for the rpo feel.

 

[Fred Mills]

Canadian railroads had RPO's too and did mail pick-up, and drops...

The former LGB Noth American representative, and I tried to get latest LGB twit to look at producing one, but the German attitude was that "He knew best" and would not even consider the idea. Most of the existing moulds could have been used, with just a few new ones needed...oh well; repaints and junk is all the North American style LGB efforts are these days. Sad, Sad...
It would have been of rather good interest to those that had the rest of that equipment, and might have stimulated interest in LGB in North America, to say nothing of others that have the equipment elsewhere...I would have purchased two of them. In the mean time, we built one using a B'mann car or two as bashing stock.
Fred Mills

 

[Fred Mills]

D&RGW did mail pick-up and drops on its NG lines... several of their old NG RPO's are preserved and are used as "Refreshment cars" on the Durango & Silverton.
Fred Mills

 

[stevedenver]

Thx fred

 

[beavercreek]

As usual Rio, you have proved yourself a master of detail.
Beautifully executed.

 

[dunnyrail]

Canadian railroads had RPO's too and did mail pick-up, and drops...

The former LGB Noth American representative, and I tried to get latest LGB twit to look at producing one, but the German attitude was that "He knew best" and would not even consider the idea. Most of the existing moulds could have been used, with just a few new ones needed...oh well; repaints and junk is all the North American style LGB efforts are these days. Sad, Sad...
It would have been of rather good interest to those that had the rest of that equipment, and might have stimulated interest in LGB in North America, to say nothing of others that have the equipment elsewhere...I would have purchased two of them. In the mean time, we built one using a B'mann car or two as bashing stock.
Fred Mills

There are a bunch if guys that show their layout on the Great Central Railway Midelling Event that demonstrate a Mail Pickup on a 16mm line with I think 45mm Track. Pity you did not have this vid to show the M/LGB guy. The richters would have been al over it!