I’ve been looking for a marker light casting or housing for a Santa Fe Hi-Level. The photo below shows the marker light above the drumhead. The drumhead is a snap with Tomar, but I haven’t found anything suitable for the marker light.
I might have found something after a long Google search, but I think it’s for a Canadian RDC, and it looks too big for what I need…but I’m not sure as the photo is a bit blurry. See for yourself: What I found. I’ve also searched the Walther’s catalog, and website without success. But I could have passed over something that might work.
Of course I’d like to light it, probably with a red LED. I just need the housing for it, and can’t seem to find anything that might work. This type of marker was used on most Santa Fe passenger trains when the rounded observations were removed in 1958, so you’d think something is available. I’d imagine other roads used a similar marker as well. Any suggestions?
Are you familiar with MV lenses? I recently purchased a pack for an HO Rivorossi Observation car.
My LHS has a large assortment and I’m certain I saw a large red lense that, IMHO, would fit the bill here, however, as for the housing you may have to fabricate it out of tube styrene that would be slightly larger in diameter than the lens.
A friend of mine has had success with MV lenses on HO locomotives. He drills a tiny hole in the back of them and installs the light behind it or runs a fiber optic cable from a light source to the lens. Nice effect!
I’ve got small plastic “panel mounts” designed to hold small LEDs on control panels. I use them for indicators on my own panels, but I think one of these with a LED in it would be just what you’re looking for. Cost per unit is listed in pennies, too.
I have been looking for these myself and have come to the determination that I could only do one of two things, build one out of tube styrene (using either an LED or MV lens), or buy a business car. I took the business car route.
Something else that picture reiminded me about (I meant to mention it to you in the review thread). I really wanted to get those control boxes (the ones near the stirrups) added to my hi levels. I found that these are the perfect fit and type to fill the void… http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/732-477
I will do anything I can to fill un those sometimes unsightly underbody areas, and overall beef up the look of the car. I also want to fill in the first level floor on the underbody. I think once they are painted, it should make a huge difference.
Thanks for the ideas. I was thinking about MV lenses as they are nice and look realistic. Shouldn’t be too hard to make a housing for one out of plastic tubing.
Smitty,
I like the idea about adding boxes. According to the books I have these were battery boxes…so I’m guessing they held batteries. Possibly for limited backup power?
For the lower level flooring, as I previously mentioned in another post, the Warbonnet magazine (Volume 5, No. 3, 3rd Quarter, 1999) LINK has just what you may be looking for. There is an article with great how to photos detailing how you can use some Evergreen styrene (templates included too!) to make a lower level floor, truck bolsters, structural supports, and other easy tricks to super improve the reliability and tracking of the HO Hi-levels. An interior would have to be modified though to fit with the correct lower level floor height, and sectioned so as to be removable, but may be worth it to get a correct lower level, and much more realistic looking underframe.
Smitty, if you are interested I can send you some scale drawings I have of the Hi-Levels which are a great help for interior details, exterior details, and they even show the locations of the “battery boxes” too. My email address is SouthwestChief@gmail.com if you or anyone else is interested.
I have all kinds of different battery boxes at the house. When I get home tonight I will fool around and see which one would be the best fit, although that control box seems to be as close as it gets. I am also going to fool around with using the TSP passenger car stirrups for the stirrups on the truck openings. I don’t know how well it is going to work, but I have plenty of extra sprues of those, so no loss either way (just something else I can break off later down the road).
I don’t plan on modifying the floor itself (especially since the interiors are already installed), but I am just going to add styrene to the underbody for cosmetic reasons. I noticed that when everything is painted, and you are looking at these cars from the right angle, there is a nasty wide open gap where there should not be on the underbody. I might also try to hide some more weight under there.Thanks for the input. [:)]
So many neat ideas for upgrading the Hi-levels. Like the idea of using extra stirrups for the over the truck steps.
How about this one?
Have you come up with anything for the lower level window shades? I’m guessing cardstock, tape, or the other usual stuff would work, but there is a little slit near the top. Also the coaches have car number spaces in one of the lower windows. Any decals small enough for these numbers, and further any idea what the Santa Fe numbered these cars? I’m guessing these differed for east and westbound trains. And likely differed when it was the El Cap, and then combined Super Chief/El Cap. These are sort of like the car numbers used say for sleepers on the Southwest Chief. Eastbound are 0430, 0431, and if needed 0432. I can kind of make out a number in this picture (looks to be 806 or 306):
I was using cardstock for shades before, and the results were acceptable. I am going to try styrene strips fairly soon to see how that turns out. I would think they would be easier to paint (I am just using a dull silver), easier to glue into place, and last longer than cardstock. I would think that humidity alone could do a number on the cardstock shades. One thing that is going to present a pain in the rear is the split pane windows on the upper level. I am going to try to have the shades at different levels on a few of the windows, but that is gonna be some real careful cutting.
I have run across the numbering for the hi level cars somewhere, but where is the question. I can’t remember if it is my stuff, or elsewhere. There were a few factors that came into play such as which direction, day, and so on.
The problem has been this for me. I am trying to detail my cars too much, and am not making a whole lot of progress on getting the train as a whole running because
Here are some sample headrests I printed out for the interior coach seats. It’s going to take forever to cut them out and glue in place, but I think the results are worth it. I did this on for my other Hi-Levels, and I didn’t go nuts so I think I’m up to the challenge again. The headrests look especially good in an empty car parked in a coach yard awaiting servicing.
The herald is clearly oversized, but if I made it to scale you’d never see it out the windows. The headrests in the picture aren’t glued yet so they may be a bit off centered, but it gives the overall look I was after:
Top notch quality work! Thanks for posting the photo.
Hopefully you’ve been taking step-by-step photos. Have you considered submitting your work to MRR magazine? IMHO, we definetly need more streamlined passenger train detailing articles; especially now since passenger train modeling has been gaining popularity.
Thanks for the compliments. If anyone would like the Santa Fe headrests I can send you the file. All you have to do is print the sheet out in color, do a bunch of cutting, and then glue them to your interior seats. If interested send an email to SouthwestChief@gmail.com
I have thought about doing some articles for MRR, but never for passenger car detailing…I was thinking more on a kitbash I did to a Bachmann motel to make it look a lot better.
I was planning on an article for Garden Railways…I made a scratch built Silver Vista (scaled to LGB cars), and it may be topical now that the Durango and Silverton are remaking this classic car:
