Project Park Car

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

For those of you who are not in the know, a Park Car is the signature car of VIA Rail, Canadian Pacific and CP Rail. They were built by Budd in 1955 and they were unique to the CPR.

Here is a picture of the prototype.

My intial plan was to purchase a Walther’s Obs/Tavern car and slap Athabasca sides on it with an Athabasca dome, but that plan didnt hold water for a few reasons…

  1. The Athabasca Dome is too narrow for the Walther’s car (buy a good scale foot…too much).

  2. The roof of the Obs/Tavern has too many details that dont belong.

  3. The Obs/Tavern has wrong underbody detail.

So I re-evaluated the project and decided that I would kitbash the Obs/Tavern with an undec Budd Dome car (which I got very cheap off of ebay).

I used the underbody of the Dome car (has the correct underbody) and trimmed it to reflect Observation profile.

I used the roof of the Dome car, including the dome, but cut it just beyond the rear of the dome as the roof level is much higher in the back.

For the rear slope of the roof, I built up the vertical sides with the center of the Obs roof (utilizing the corrigation) and cemented it in place with the cap from the Obs/Tavern. This was then sanded into the proper shape.

Anyways, Ill let the pics to the talking. I am about 80% finished.

[IMG]http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u72/davidmbedard/

2

I’m not really a VIA, or CPR fan, but great job so far, its coming together nicely, i seems like it matchs the prototype.

Keep us updated

Tjsingle

3

David B …

I am thankful you posted this car for three reasons.

  1. I admire good models, and that’s what you have with this car.

  2. I am considering a kitbash of the CB&Q Twin City Zephyr dome/observation and need to employ similar methods.

  3. My wife and rode on one of those cars on VIA Rail. It was quite an interesting trip.

4

that’s a fine bit of bashing. And what did you use to cut the roof? my attempts wound up with string cheese impretions

5

Rail nippers, and a file to clean it up.

David B

6

Rode many trips on the “Canadian” and spent a lot of time in the dome cars, but never made it to the end car( we trash weren’t allowed back here) These cars were decorated with paintings by famous Canadian artists and I believe some of the paintings were actuallly removed and preserved. Park refers to the name of the cars as they were all named after National Parks in Canada, Terrific job on conversion, let’s see some more pics on completion.

7

Incredible job David. How are you going to get the stainless steel look on it? I get to see the real ones every once in awhile and they are beautiful looking cars. Most of them are in Western Canada, correct? Any idea why I see the odd one every once in awhile heading to Montreal?

8

I am looking to use Alcad II Stainless Steel as my last paint coat. I have been doing alot of reading on how to keep it from comming off. Needless to say, I will be experementing with an old crappy box car before I paint this unit!

David B

9

Testors makes buffing metallizer paints, including a stainless steel one.

I’ve never used the metallizers on such a big area though.

10

Excellent work. Please give us some updates as you complete the car.

Most of my CPR “Canadian” is standard Walthers Budd coaches and sleepers as they looked close enough for me. For my “Park” Dome-Observation car, I used the Con-Cor car with a few minor mods.

The baggage-dorm and Chateau sleepers are quite distinctive, so I also used Athabasca sides with Walthers Budd cars as “cores”. The sides fit very well. I found that they are thinner than the plastic sides so I shimmed them with clear styene which also creates the glazing for the windows.

Here are some photos of a CPR Baggage Dorm and Chateau sleeper done this way.