I am wondering if there are any modelers on this forum who have experience with replacing the plastic window glass included with HO Athearn HW passenger car kits.
Some years back on eBay I bought a set of Athearn HW cars produced by Bev-Bel of the, Orange Blossom Special. The car body’s are in excellent condition but, there are missing parts from most of these kits and this includes window glass in some.
I was thinking about using strips of clear styrene & attaching these behind the window openings. If anybody here has successfully experimented with this idea or if there are some suggestions as to what can also be used as replacement window glass then that would be of help to me.
Biggest problem is the thickness of the old BB Athearn car sides - just putting “glass” behind the windows wouldn’t look too good. Your best bet would be to find some Athearn HW cars at a train show/swap meet. You don’t have to worry about the road name or whether they have trucks or not, since you’ll just be cannabilizing the window strips. You can usually get them for 4-5 bucks a car… Failing that, you could use some Testors Window Maker and Clear Plastic Parts cement and make you windows that way. That option is also good if you don’t plan on putting interiors in the car, because of the optical distortion of that type of window…
Good luck with the project. The old Athearn (or Bev-Bel) BB cars track beautifully, and are very smooth riders. Post some pics when you get them done!
If You can find some original window sets, that would be the best way to go. Regardless of which window “Glass” you end up using DO NOT use CA, or plastic cement/glue, instead use Krystal Klear (their spelling) by Micro Scale, the same company that makes Micro-Sol and Micro-Set for doing decals. CA can Fog your windows, even if it doesn’t end up some where that You didn’t want it, Krystal Klear wont Fog and dries clear and un-noticable if some gets where it wasn’t wanted.
Another suggestion for the Athearn HW cars, is to get “The Tool”" journal reamer and tune up the journals on the Athearn trucks, then replace the axles with Kadee 36" wheel sets, the difference in mine was Amazing.
Doug - Is that your layout in the picture? If so, or not, is there a site with more pictures of it? And also…seem to be a few dead guys in the front there. Is the guy in blue running to get help?
No, that is not my own layout, but rather the one at the club that I belong to, the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club, http://www.cgmrc.com/ (CGL reporting marks), here in Portland, OR. We model the Columbia River Gorge, from Portland, OR to Wishram, WA plus the Oregon Trunk from Wishram to Bend, OR. and also a very Nice and complete Logging Division. I WISH that I had room for a layout like this (and the the Time and MONEY too [swg]) At 4200 square feet (60x70) the layout room alone is more than 4 times the size of my house.
When fully staffed, like during our November Public Shows,(the last 4 weekends in Nov this year) it takes 37 (preferably more available) to cover all the staffing needs, which includes more than just operators, and dispatchers.
The Club includes many interesting features like a working Rotary coal dumper (single car version) a working Log Jammer at the Mill Pond, and our model of Portland’s Steel Bridge works just like the prototype, with the lower deck (rail deck) lifting first independantly of the upper deck (road deck) then both decks lifting together. This bridge is the only double deck bridge in the world that the decks are not rigidly/permanently linked together and lift as one unit. This separate lift ability has the advantage that if river traffic can pass safely with just the rail deck lifted, road traffic is unaffected. A second less important advantage is that the bridge did not need to be built quite as tall overall to achieve the same river clearence at full lift.
I made up a nice 13 car ATSF consist with the Athearn heavyweights, adding diaghrams, metal wheels, KDs, and repainting/decaling as necessary. I had windows to replace, and I called the good folks at Athearn and got replacements fairly inexpensively. Check your instruction sheets for parts number, and give them a call or email for payment instructions.
glazing fitting flush. 2. getting indidual shades @ all at different heights.
It ends up being a lot of individual work to be realistic.
A strip of genneric plasticover window openings doesn’t do it, and window shapes & size’s varies car/car and road/road. Window shades may ne the same color, but are are only all in the ‘up’ position when leaving the car cleaning yard, and passengers haven’t reset them.
BEST answer with Athearn cars is to order EXTRA formed widows and cut shades individually. (2) Use a glue that dries clear.
Gary, Doug, Don & Mobilman44 - thank you all for your help with this problem I was encountering - your ideas and possible solutions I know are going to be of immense help to me.
Gary - when I have re-assembled the “Blossom” cars I will place them as a train behind a steam locomotive, probably the light pacific I captured at a railroad swap meet and attached to it some Cal-Scale detail - take some pix and post them here for you y’all to see - I had better get a move on this as summer is fast approaching and the beaches are beckoning. Your club layout is stunning - thanks for posting - very impressive indeed.
