I want to put interiors into my HO Athearn heavyweight passenger cars, does anybody know if there are any commercially available and who makes them. I was wonder if IHC interiors might work?
Thanks in advance
Gary S in Oregon
I don’t know of any but it might be worth purchasing an IHC interior kit and trying it. Even if you have to do a little “custom fitting” it may be better then scratch building an interior, even more so if you have a mess (southern for a lot) of cars to put interiors in. Ken
Gary,
IHC interiors will work. Basically, just cut off the vestibule ends, then trim as needed from each end. You may have to file the sides slightly.
They should fit in. Before installing, paint your interiors first with flat Acrylic or Solvent paint. Neutral colors are the rule of thumb. (see my thread on Walthers passenger car interiors)
Hope this helps!
Thank you. Antino what do you mean “see my thread on Walthers passenger car interiors”? Old man but new to this asking for help and seeing new phrases? I tried this question on the Bachmann site and got no reply. Thanks again.
Gary
Audreys,
Just click on the “Advance” icon towards the top and do a search for the thread titled "Easy Sharpening up of Walthers passenger Car interiors…
Hope it helps!
Thanks Antonio, I found the thread
Palace Car Co. also makes interiors.Their address is Box 973, Kearney NE, 68848-0973 and telephone is 308 238 5099. Contact them direct. Their kits run about $16. They are not listed in Walthers.
Also check out Train Station and Red Cap for interior details like sinks, mirrors, a***rays and end grills, which are listed in Walthers. Several options on diaphragms depending on your requirements. I use American Limited because I run on 18" radius. There are others that look better but seem to need broader curves to work well. Andy Sperandeo of MR did two articles on passenger cars in the last 20 months. He covered trucks, diaphragms, height and several other things. They are worth getting ahold of though he did it for full length cars. Then there are all the bits for underneath like steam traps, lighting generator, and poop chute which are available from Precision Scale Co.
Finally check out Pullman Project for underneath layout at http://home.att.net/~pullmanproject/index.htm
Should be enough to get you started.
We know the Athearn aren’t scale length but most folks don’t and we’re still able to run passengers on our compressed layouts.
You’re most welcome.
MStein also offers very good info! His suggestion is worth checking out. I checked out the photos of the Palace Car seats. They look nice! I’m going to give them a try. I must admit that they appear much more realistic than IHC’s seat interiors.
Check them out: http://www.palacecarco.com
Nice thing about this forum, good source for learning about options! [swg][tup]
I run Rivarrossi passenger cars with IHC interiors sometimes cut to fit. I also run Bachmann HW passenger cars with their interiors as purchased. All interiors are painted. Since the seats for both of these types of interiors are small, I use N scale people to populate the car seats, particularly for the Bachmann seats. Seperated by a little distance, I use and smaller HO scale people for persons who are standing. It works well for me and few people notice the difference in scales unless I point it out to them.
Welcome Audreys
Just by coincidence, I was doing the very thing you were asking about yesterday. The basic problem with installling an IHC interior in an Athern coach is the Athern is 71’ long and the IHC interior is designed for a longer car; 84’ I believe. In addition, the Athern is narrower, so the interior width has to be shaved as well.
This photo is a stock IHC interior, next to the cut down one I worked on yesterday. The photo shows the major chunks of base I cut out to reduce the length. The best way to do this is with an X-Acto miter box, that way you will get cuts that are square and the pieces will fit together. You want your final length to be between the stairways on the Athern car base.
(Those with sharp eyes may notice the interior is for a lighweight coach, not a heavyweight - but that is what I had available.)
Once the length is sorted out, the best way to reduce the width is to cut away the plastic flange running down the sides of the base. Use a hobby knife with a new sharp blade. Place a piece of sandpaper, around 100 grit, on a flat surface, and sand the sides of the base to reduce the width. Test fit it into the Athern car base until it fits. The original base is on the right. (Sorry for the poor quality of the closeup photo, I forgot to go to macro mode on my camera.)
A final thing depends on just how picky you are on looks. The seats on the IHC
any 1 know where i can get a dineing car interiour in ‘N’
CHEERS
Gav[?]
G Paine,
That is excellent craftsmanship.
You chose a blue color for your seats. Which railroad scheme is your passenger car in?
I use the Pikestuff seats for lightweight cars: a coat of paint of a suitable colour, then I cut them apart into separate seats. This way, they’re easier to line-up with the windows of various makes of cars. I’ve used them in Athearn, and in Rivarossi cars, both lightweights and heavyweights. To make suitable partitions, .060" sheet styrene works fine, and it’s also easy to use styrene to make interiors for dining cars, observation cars, and business cars. I use .010" styrene for window shades - I cement a narrow strip of the same material to the outside face of the shades, along the upper edge, then cement this to the inside of the “glass”, above the top edge of the window opening. If your passenger business is booming, HO scale figures can be sawn-off at the waist (or so) and placed on the seats: viewed through the windows, the torsos look just fine. [swg]
Wayne
That blue is the color that IHC molds the interior base. They seem to use strange colors for all their interior castings. I will be painting the interior, but am still looking into info on the MEC color scheme for heavyweight coaches. Lacking any information, I probably will use a generic brown for the seats and tan or buff for the walls.
I know what MEC & B&M used for their 1946 lightweight P-S coaches, and what B&M used for their “American Flyer” coaches bought in 1937. Info on the older heavyweights is harder to come by.
GPaine, that is strange!
That’s the first time I’ve ever seen a stock blue interior. All of the IHC interiors that I’ve purchased over the past 20 years were molded in the familiar “Tan” color.
You’re right. It’s difficult enough finding interior colors for streamliners, but finding color photos of heavyweight car interiors is challenging. Have you contacted the historical societies in Maine and Massachusetts? They may have some detailed info about heavyweight passenger car decor used by those New England railroads.
A couple of days ago, I had mentioned that the weight supplied in the Athern coaches could not be used if you plan to install an interior. This photo shows an Athern base with the stock weight next to another base with sheet lead installed in the box at the center of the casting.
The one with the stock weight is for a baggage car that will not have an interior; the car with Athern weight is close to NMRA standards. It will be to standard when I install the lighting kit. I will spray the back of the windows with Dullcote.
The coach with the lead weight will be to NMRA standards when the interior and lighting kit is installed. I had to add a small amount additional of lead in the bathrooms of the interior to make the weight.
By comparison, this is an IHC P-S coach shell. It comes with no weights, but needed only a small amount of additional lead once the interior and kighting kits are added.
Lead sheet is available at hardware stores. It is used as flashing around chimneys and other areas of houses. It is soft and can be cut with scissors or lightweight tin snips. Cutting is better than sawing because you will not generate metal chips. If you use lead, just remember that it is a toxic heavy metal. Wash you hands thourghly after you handle it and vacuum the area where you cut it.
The new IHC interiors are blue, pea green, pink, yellow and other strange colors. Check their site for lightweight cars:
http://www.ihc-hobby.com/cgi-bin/bsc.cgi?sn=1927S89518W773K46239H922L121Y9
The book “Passenger Trains of Northern New England in the Streamline Era” gives the interior colors of the MEC and B&M P-S lightweight cars - coach, combine and diner. It also gives the interior colors of the B&M ‘American Flyer’ streamlined cars from 1937. They may give some others, but I am concentrating on MEC and B&M. The book includes information on BAR, CN and other RR in VT and NH. It concentrates on the post WW II timeframe.
Another thing to consider with Athearn cars is the windows that come with the cars: unless you’re installing lighting, you can’t see an awful lot of detail through that thick “glass”. [swg]
To avoid the problem altogether, this is what I do to my Athearn coaches, diners, and Pullmans:
Wayne
In addition to doctering up the IHC interiors there is “Palace Car Company” that makes excellent interiors for most passenger cars. Red Cap makes the sofas and washroom details as well as seats. PSC has some interiors that are for lounge cars and coach seats. Just look around and there should be a kit to fit your needs. Consider passengers too. Adding some passengers really makes the cars come alive so to speak. You dont need to fill every seat in a 46 seat coach but about 18 passengers seated by the windows gets the idea across.
Gary
I have installed “interiors” in a few passengers cars, like seats, lights, and people. I model HO, and because of the size of my layout I use 60’ passenger cars. What would you like to know?
Richard