I’ve been searching E-bay for heavyweight passenger car interiors. 99%+ of what is listed are IHC interios for CS and SS cars. Only 2 for HW. I did find 2 listings for Rivarossi interions, one 1920 and one 1930. Can I assume 1920 is HW and 1930 is CS or SS. Can the CS & SS interiors be adapted to HW cars?
I think I have several Rivarossi interiors packed away in my basement; I think they are HW. It may take a week or two to find them; when I do I will send you a message.
If you search on ebay, there are a couple of vendors who make and sell 3-D printed interiors for AHM/Rivarossi, Athearn and other passenger cars.
Palace Car Co. makes kits for passenger car interiors, the ‘floor’ is a metal weight made to fit in that particular type of car, then you glue the seats, dividers, etc. in place yourself.
In Rivarossi-speak, “1920” means heavyweight, “1930” means lightweight (streamline).
That depends on what you mean by “adapted”. If you mean “with a little work”, probably not. The internal and external layout of the cars usually don’t match. If you mean “cutting up to get lots of little bits and reassembling many of them”, then it’s a probably. Sort of.
Take a coach, for example. To an extent, seats are seats, especially when you’re talking about the little blobs that are used in this case. But you might have too many or too few in a row. And then there’s the remaining interior walls. It’s probably easier to build your own walls out of styrene than to re-use the ones you have. Unless, of course, it isn’t.
Sleepers and observations are a LOT worse. Lotsa walls, all in different places.
I suspect that, unless you can find the exact drop-in parts, you’ll essentially be building your own.
In that case, check this out:
http://www.palacecarco.com/categories.php
Ed
I don’t get too wound-up about passenger car interiors, as there’s not a lot that can be easily seen in a passing train. I have a few Rivarossi cars that came with interiors (seats and partitions), but the majority of them (Rivarossi, Athearn, and MDC) were devoid of interior details, most of them bought second-hand.
I bought some seats from Pikestuff/Rix…they come in a variety of colours and in blocks of six seats. Since window spacing on different models vary, I use a utility knife to cut the seats apart, then use solvent-type cement to affix them to the car’s floor.
I seldom worry about what colour the seats might be, as it’s easy to paint them in colours suitable to your particular railroad.
The majority of my passenger cars are coaches, even though many were originally Rivarossi Pullmans, as my railroad isn’t long enough to need sleepers. I do, however, have a couple of interchanges with other railroads, so “foreign-road” sleepers do make occasional appearances in my passenger trains.
In addition to the seats, I use sheet styrene to make partitions for the washrooms at each end of the cars, and also add window shades. Currently, ridership is extremely low.
Some photos…click on them for a larger view…
This is one of the Rivarossi Pullmans, with some added underbody details, and air conditioning ductwork from New England Rail Service…
…and the interior, with custom-cast lead weights in the washrooms…
…the partitions for the car’s vestibules are in the roof/window casting, and the diaphragms are from American Limited.
This one is a Rivarossi observation c
I make my own seats on the radial arm saw. Take a piece of reasonbly clear pine, dado out the sitting down portion, saw the “seat stick” off the board, and cut it up into seat size sections. Paint and glue into the car. Add passengers. Paint the inside of the car a light color so people can see in.
“wjstix” is right. Last year in one of my many projects (which is still in progress) I needed 2 interiors for an older Blue Box passenger car. I went on E-Bay and found some close fits but not what I needed and accidently found a 3D printer MR parts vendor during my search. I ordered the pair I needed and they turned out good. If I remember correctly, they were reasonably priced.
Found them; three 20’s and one 30. Of course I forgot to write down what they were. They are branded IHC which at one time had the Rivarossi molds. Or vice/versa. I will try to get information for you tomorrow.
The plain gray or white ones can go for as little as $5-10. There are some for around $20 that are pre-painted with details cast in (like plates on the tables of the dining cars). I see there are even a couple interiors available for Athearn cars that have passengers 3-D printed in place in the seats!
Note that IHC cars are not identical to the old AHM/Rivarossi cars, so generally the interior of one isn’t going to work in the other without some modification or acceptance of things like wall partitions in the middle of a window.
I’m a cheapskate and build up my interiors.
Chairs are Mel castings.
Chairs are from Shapeways.
Mel mold of a IHC interior, casting is from the mold. I cut up the castings.
Precision Scale passenger seats, made molds of those too.
Chairs are Mel castings, figures too.
More Mel castings.
I’ve done a total of 27 passenger car interiors, it’s a blast!
Everytime Mel publishes photos of his lighted car interiors, I am reminded just how talented some of this forum’s posters are.
Mel, you’re an inspiration to other modelers!
Thank you John
Model railroading has been with me since 1945, HO since 1951. I love model railroading.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
Just turned 84, aging is definitely not for wimps.
PM sent to OP.
And Mel didn’t even mention the coolest part about his lighting system. He installed an uninterupted power source on his trains so the lights never flicker. In other words, his lighting is better than on the prototype! [:D]
Maybe he can be coaxed into describing how he does it here on the forum…