Lately I have been caught in a little bit of a dilema.
As most of you know I model the Great Northern railway during the 1967-70 period Known as the “Big Sky Blue” era. Also I have been slowly assembling a complete Empire Builder Consist in Big Sky Blue paint using brass cars Made by Balboa.
However, while Balboa makes most of the neccicary cars I need to assemble a fairly accurate Empire Builder Consist. (IM going to have to comprimise a little with the Baggage Dorm Car, Balboa didn’t make a Baggage dorm so Im substituting their RPO. However. my major dilema is Balboa never made a Full Dome car. And the Full Dome is a rather Prominent feature of the Empire Builder. I have three options at my disposal.
The First is to buy a Brass Full Dome from another company. However The balboa cars have been costing me around $75.00 each. and the Dome Cars when available run in the $300-$450 range depending on maker, and wheather or not they are painted.
Option 2. Buy a Brass Car Sides GN Full Length DomeSide and Overlay it onto the Bachmann Pies of Junk Full Length Dome (at least the one I have is) and detail it to match.
Option 3. Buy the Brass Car Sides GN Full Length DOme Sides and Scratchbuildthe rest of the car out of brass.
At anyrate. The most expensive option would be to get the brass Dome. However the Bachmann “core” I feel needs such extensive modification that It might be just as easy to start from scratch and the sides.
James, Unless you’re comfortable with scratchbuilding in brass, I see Option 2 as your fastest & cheapest. I have a Bachmann full length dome and I swapped out their wheel sets with Central Valley 36" wheel sets then removed their coupler box & replaced it with Kadees. It’s not great on detail but it hasn’t given me any operational problems. Good Luck…regards, John
I think you have more options. If you think about it the Bachmann is just a hunk of plastic. It can be refitted with better trucks, couplers, etc. It is not so hard to make it into a good runner. That leaves only the detail. If you like the brass sides then go that route but you can redo the existing windows, add some fluting and TA-DA. My “big dome” is of this origin - however it is not in Big Sky Blue.
As I recall there was an article about this way back when - searching the “Index of Magazines” at the top of this page… Ah Ha … here it is:
Great Domes, modeling the Empire Builder’s big dome car
Model Railroader, September 1975 page 48.
Also don’t forget, Walther’s is doing an Empire Builder run similar to the Super Chief run. I am not sure if they are doing the full dome, but I don’t see how they can get around it.
What detail? The corrugated roof and dome are the only parts that will show. (OK. and the ends). The deep sides of the car hide any underbody details. If you object (understandably) to the Bachman trucks, Train Station makes the correct style. Have at it.
By the way, why would you need 5 consists. I have 2 Olympian Hiawathas and 2 Afternoon Hiawathas, but they’re all from different periods (1942-1953). If you’re modeling a specific time frame all the consists will be the same.
The Bachman Silver Series full domes are very nice…you could probably get away with or without brass sides on one of those. They come with a coupler pocket that can handle Kadees, have good trucks, and are nicely detailed overall.
Although you need to make sure that you get a SILVER SERIES and not a regular because the regulars probably wouldn’t be up to your standards.
If you have a resistanc soldering machine. I would say build it yourself. If makes working with brass so much easier. if not I would say either work with styrene or use and existing car. That sounds like a project that would an interesting project to build.
Build it out of brass would be very difficult. The Budd roof would be a bear to fabricate. Using the Brass Car Sides on the Bachmann car is the best path to take…
i didn’t say building it out of brass would be easy. i said working with brass is easier if you have the right tools. IE Break, shear, a resistance soldering machine, and a rivet maker. I have made most of these tools myself. (my dad made the resistance soldering machine) and i use the shear here at school when I need to cut a straight edge. Rivet makers and breaks are easy to find and/or make. I like working with brass personally.
Another option would be to look for an old Soho ATSF full dome and scratch the smooth fluted panel and add to the dome. All full domes on the Empire Builder are the same as the ATSF 506 series domes. I understand the cost of the brass cars. I recently paid 419.00 for my ATSF full dome #60 from Overland models. I do know that Railway Classics has some GN full domes in stock but, would need to be stripped and repainted. Where did Walthers announce the Empire builder?
Ch
Texas Zephyr, The new “Empire Builder” was given numbers 1 & 2 and began operating On June 10, 1929. The old Oriental Limited was re-numbered 3 & 4 and continued in service until March 29, 1931 when the name was dropped. This info is from the book “Some Classic Trains” by Arthur Dubin…regards, John
jpwc50 is correct, but in addition, the Oriental Limited was resurrected
for four years upon the inauguration in 1947 of the new streamlined
Empire Builder. The old heavyweight EB equipment was reassigned
to this service, which ran under the OL name until 1951, when the GN
purchased the Mid-Century Empire Builder consists and reassigned the
'47 cars to the new Western Star. By the way-Walthers is solving this
problem (of the dome-lounge) even as I type this. The upcomeing EB
by Walthers is now in the catalog for pre-order-and they list the
Dome-Lounge View-series cars.
Sorry. Im commited to the Era Dec. 1969. Kind of has me locked into Big Sky Blue (My favorite color of course) SDP45s. (Trying to figure out how to afford the kit bash) and Dome Cars.
I am still considering the Walthers Option. I am wanting a “pure” brass consist though so I might end up with one Balboa-brass full dome train and one walthers train.