I am about to finish the current passenger train that I am working on, and then going to start the Sunset Limited. I have started to do a little research and came across the below site. It has some great pics of the Budd cars and it appears that more will be added. I just like to pass on info when i come across it.
Thanks Smitty!
Always great to see good passenger car reference material. Worth downloading.
High Greens.[:)]
Apperantly the owner of the site will be adding more pics as he gets them. I also found a good resource for interior colors and design of the Budd Sunset cars, so if anyone is interested, e-mail me.
If you can find a Simmons Boardman 1953 Car Builders Cyclopedia there are several pictures of the Sunset Limited and the PRR Congressional Limited cars as well as some of the Phoebe Snow. Some of these (not the PRR though) were smooth side cars and there are some good shots of the back end of several of the observation cars with the square end. Budd must have had to do some kitbashing on the roofs in that area as there are numerous sheets of overlapping buckled stainless steel riveted or spot welded in place to form the compound curves there.
All of the original Budd cars delivered for the Sunset were corrugated Budd cars. Later on (towards the late 50s), they added a smooth side 4-4-2 sleeper.
I am going to have to do a bit of kitbashing myself to get the blunt end 10-6 sleeper done. Most of the passenger cars that I build are built from the gorund up anyhow, so it just adds to the fun. Train Station Products makes the roof end for a blunt end car, but it looks like it doesn’t have any seams, so who knows.
Smitty, You are correct that the Train Station Products “blunt” roof end is smooth. It certainly will work easier for me for subsequent cars than my first “blunt end” smoothside 10-6 for the Cascade (done with TSP cores and USP sides). I can’t remember how Budd shaped the roof end on their version of a 10-6. It, too, may have been smooth vs the rest of the corrugated roof. Have you checked out Union Station Products car sides? I know they ended up doing Sunset Limited car sides in the past couple of years. The corrugation panels are applique’s. I’ve contemplated ways to get the corrugations around the corners of a “blunt end” Budd 10-6. Best I’ve come up with is using a round file to shape around the curve, between flat panels of corrugations. It’ll be a bear of a job though, as stainless finishes are very unforgiving… Let us know how you come out!
I am using the USP sides along with the TSP core kits. The only car that I did so far using USP sides was the P/S built Santa Fe baggage dormitory, and had a really good time with it. It was a few years back before the release of the TSP core kits, and I used an Eastern Car Works core kit (those things are terrible), and noticed that the sides were a little short for those core kits. I suppose that the TSP core kits have tighter tolerances, so they should be a better fit for the sides.
I was still planning on using the blunt end roof from TSP (regardless of what the prototype roof end looked like), and trying to use Evergreen HO scale passenger car siding for ther corners. The door shouldn’t be a problem. Another thought as I am typing this response, is that you can purchase the corrugated styrene strips seperately from Union Station Products.
I have already ordered a set of Precision Craft Daylight PA-PB-PAs with sound and DCC (my first locomotives with either one), and can’t wait to get them. I am modeling a late 50s train, so I will also have an excuse to have a smooth side 4-4-2 sleeper in the consi
I you can find one, The Coach Yard model would work. By the way, what is Union Station Products web site?
The Union Station Products site is simply www.unionstationproducts.com, and I looked around for the Coach Yard car, to no avail. I tried mixing brass with plastic before and didn’t like the outcome (although I still run brass business cars).
I will say this, any “home brew” of a Budd 10-6 blunt end sleeper is gonna require the lighting (marker lights) assembly that the SP used on several of it’s business and tail cars. That seems to present a challenge in itself. Does anybody know if this assembly is commercially available in HO scale??
Edit: here is a pic…