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Topic: Old wooden passenger car kits (Read 1662 times) |
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photoman475
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Posts: 870
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I have two old Varney wooden passenger car kits, with the printer plastic-acetate?-sides.
These two are unbuilt kits. It appears the parts are there to build them, except the usual truck and couplers.
I know this is a sort of subjective question, but are these kits still "buildable"? Given the age of the kits, I'm concerned about warpage and the ability of the acetate sides to withstand handling during construction.
Anyone out there tried building an old wooden kit? Any pitfalls to watch out for should I start building them next year, like I want to?
Alan
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petey
Former Member
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Hello Alan,
My two cents worth is 'go for it'.
I believe they are well past any warpage issues.
Even if the celluloid strips don't hold up, substitute something else.
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photoman475
Historian
Posts: 870
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You've suggested something there I hadn't thought of-I might be able to substitute brass car sides if the originals are too far gone-thanks!
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moocow
Posts: 482
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a couple years ago i built a couple old Binkley passenger cars where the cardboard sides had pretty much destructed. i made new sides from northeastern sheetwood, drawing the window openings onto the sheetwood.
my advise is: go for it
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steve b
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toptrain
Historian
Posts: 2484
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Good luck with your wood passenger cars. I have a few old wood passenger cars just they are made of plastic. Also kits shouldn't be just wood. Should allow some metal castings, or this will be the shortest topic posted here.
frank
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| « Last Edit: Feb 19th, 2013, 7:27am by toptrain » |
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toptrain
" Its A Heck of A Day "
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petey
Former Member
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Here are pictures of wooden passenger cars .
These are LaBelle models.
Click Image to Resize
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TAB
Historian
Posts: 1909
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Hello petey....That's a great job you did in rounding those roof ends. How did you get such beautiful results?....Tom
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Moderator...Scratchbuilding and Kitbashing
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petey
Former Member
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Hello Tom,
Thank you. The radii were mostly factory done.
These are nice to look at; so many models, so little time.
I do like shorty cars, because of my small layout. 
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toptrain
Historian
Posts: 2484
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A old kit combine of the CNJ.
frank
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| « Last Edit: Feb 19th, 2013, 7:28am by toptrain » |
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toptrain
" Its A Heck of A Day "
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toptrain
Historian
Posts: 2484
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The other side of CNJ combine 312
frank
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toptrain
" Its A Heck of A Day "
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toptrain
Historian
Posts: 2484
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Re: Old wooden passenger car kits
 Ambroid_3_door_wood_baggaga_car_kit_-_Copy.jpg - 35542 Bytes
« Reply #11 on: May 26th, 2012, 9:19am » |
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* I have a old all wood Ambroid 3 door baggage car for passenger service. This car can be seen in need some restoration. Ambroid stoped making the 3 door version long ago, replacing it with a 2 door car. Someday I will get to it.
frank
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| « Last Edit: May 26th, 2012, 9:20am by toptrain » |
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toptrain
" Its A Heck of A Day "
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toptrain
Historian
Posts: 2484
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A old B&O Royal Blue Baggage Car Kit.
toptrain
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| « Last Edit: Jun 5th, 2012, 3:06pm by toptrain » |
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toptrain
" Its A Heck of A Day "
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Marty_Feldner
Historian
Posts: 475
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on Jun 5th, 2012, 3:04pm, toptrain wrote: (Click here for original message)A old B&O Royal Blue Baggage Car Kit.
toptrain
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Nice- a Westwood kit; I wondered if you had any of them in your collection. I have the matching Royal Blue RPO that I built for my father years ago, and a partially built Pennsylvania Limited observation.
Ambroids were great, LaBelles were better, but to me the short-lived Westwood line was about the best of the wood passenger car craftsman kits- their use of 'modular' window and door castings was innovative for the time. Too bad they didn't last, but in this day and age actually building craftsman kits seems be a dying part of the hobby.
Maybe I've just been around too long
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toptrain
Historian
Posts: 2484
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Marty ; I didn't know that their name was the Westwood line. All I had to do was read this other lable. The box has 2 labels the one on the box top that I had shown 2 posts ago and this one. I missed it.
frank
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| « Last Edit: Jun 7th, 2012, 10:12am by toptrain » |
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toptrain
" Its A Heck of A Day "
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Piglet
Historian
Posts: 519
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I would go for it. Ok it might not be quite as fancy as some of the off the shelf prebuilts but to me, being able to say "I built it" out wieghts any other considerations. If the sides are warped just slide in some bracing to straighten them.
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we learn from the past
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petey
Former Member
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Piglet,
The pluses for building your own are: less expensive--satisfaction of having put it together,
a certain charm provided by the older wooden car models, being able to acquire certain models not being made by the RTR manufacturers---
the minuses are: not having the skill, or patience to build a model to the level of the RTR guys, inability to provide the finish required for 'plated' cars(although this doesn't apply to old wooden cars), lengthy, tedious effort to build these kits, and the disappointment of not achieving the desired result, the requirement of finding and paying for tailsigns, interior lighting, appropriate paints---
In my opinion 'building it yourself' doesn't outweigh ALL other considerations, but being able to find the exact prototype, would be the deciding factor in 'building it yourself'.
[/i][i][b][/b]
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toptrain
Historian
Posts: 2484
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Allen ; Here is a photo of a Varney Pullman car " RANGER " with acetate sides. It is still holding up but can use a good cleaning, and new paint.
frank
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| « Last Edit: Feb 19th, 2013, 7:29am by toptrain » |
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toptrain
" Its A Heck of A Day "
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toptrain
Historian
Posts: 2484
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* Here is a Pennsylvania full baggage. I dont know who made it.
toptrain
edit ; I think the Milwaukie Road also had port hole windows or baggage cars for their name trains.
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| « Last Edit: Jul 7th, 2012, 8:13am by toptrain » |
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toptrain
" Its A Heck of A Day "
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Piglet
Historian
Posts: 519
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Petey, your right in many ways. Building it yourself to a really good finish is one of those things you work up to by building lots of kits..........oh yes, they are hard to find now days so fewer get the chance to do that. I have been building models of all sorts for (I hate to admit) almost 50 years so have learned a lot of little tricks. I have a few model building friends younger then myself who crib notes from what I do and I learn from their newer "techie" view of things. I have always found if Im not sure about a part of the build, I will do a trial build just to rough out ideas. The fact I have worked on the real thing (museums are a great place to see how they did the real thing) is handy as you can in some cases scale it down to our own scale. The rtr cars of today are fantastic and have a good number myself but I still like to poke around with any kits I can find. The great thing about building things yourself is that you get exactly what your wanting.
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we learn from the past
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