How-To guide for building a new dome structure on your passenger car

Nice job and excellent write up! What type of paint is it that you got from Home Depot? Just curious, what a great idea!

Outstanding!!!  THANK YOU!!!

Very nice work and progressive instructions!

custom fit!!!!! That's a pro job, way to go. A+ from the Art Teacher!!!!

Nice job.

I made my own end cap because I did not want to purchase a whole car just for the end cap. Then I'd have to go through the trouble of selling the rest of the leftover car. 

Great job. Great write-up. Did you airbrush the paint?

AGHRMatt posted:

Great job. Great write-up. Did you airbrush the paint?

Thanks Matt, 

I’m new to the hobby and have not purchased an air brush set up.  But I read its possible if you thin down the Home Depot paint with water it will work in an air brush.  Hopefully an air brush would give better results also.

For those that don't want to cut windows into the back of a Rock Island, Golden State, Golden Divian, K4632-0479, 18" passenger car.  You're welcome to just paint that Golden State car Armour Yellow & Harbor Mist Gray with a red stripe and it will still be historically correct. 

During my research I found out Union Pacific's City of San Francisco ran that exact 10/6 sleeper car (SP car number 9040) on the end of there 1954 train.

Thanks,

Really great job and a good writeup on what you did and your perseverance -- not to mention your 'obsession' with the fidelity to the prototype.  At some point in the late '50s/early 60's I rode in one of UP's blunt end observation cars -- don't think it was the dome version.  It was on the connecting train UP ran between Seattle and Portland, timed to meet the out-bound City of Portland.  I don't recall UP having boat-tail observation cars -- at least not on the two City of (Portland and SF) trains on which I rode.  My recollection is that the last car in the consist was typically a sleeper that had a 'portable' Mars light stuck in the vestibule before the diaphragm, along with a waist-high 'gate' to prevent someone from falling out of the car should they have managed to get by the disabled pneumatic door at the end of the car.

I have in mind a similar project -- the CA zephyr at one point sported a dome - observation car (a 'boat tail' version), in fact I think one of those cars still exists.  American Flyer (S gauge) made a four-car Aluminum passenger set -- combine, coach, dome and observation car.  I have extras of the dome and observation cars purchased with the idea of removing the boat tail on one and attaching it to the dome car.  In this case, its gonna require some cutting of the end of the dome car to get the truck position correct.  The only way I can see to do that - since I don't have a milling machine and I'm certain I can't make a straight enough cut with a hand saw - is to fire up my radial arm saw with a non-ferrous metal cutting blade and see if I can get a straight and square cut that way.  I've seen a picture of someone else's attempt at this - which was well done - but no details on how they did it.  Since these are 'generic' passenger cars, there are few true prototype details, so this will be, at best, a "if you squint your eyes, it looks pretty good" effort.

Outstanding, both in terms of explanation of what you did and the result.

Regarding the UP red striping, I have seen the original color duplicated accurately on decals. It is not easy to cut and apply decal striping in long straight lengths, however, and then it has to be overcoated with clear (usually Dullcote) to make sure it sticks and does not flake off. But even that would not be a guarantee of matching the K-Line color, which was probably applied over the yellow used for the car sides.

Anyway, it all depends on how the car itself looks to your eye. This page, on how UP engine and passenger car colors come out on the internet, was an eye opener to me in terms of trying to match what you can see in photos: http://utahrails.net/up/up-paint-html.php

richs09 posted:

Really great job and a good writeup on what you did and your perseverance -- not to mention your 'obsession' with the fidelity to the prototype.  At some point in the late '50s/early 60's I rode in one of UP's blunt end observation cars -- don't think it was the dome version.  It was on the connecting train UP ran between Seattle and Portland, timed to meet the out-bound City of Portland.  I don't recall UP having boat-tail observation cars -- at least not on the two City of (Portland and SF) trains on which I rode.  My recollection is that the last car in the consist was typically a sleeper that had a 'portable' Mars light stuck in the vestibule before the diaphragm, along with a waist-high 'gate' to prevent someone from falling out of the car should they have managed to get by the disabled pneumatic door at the end of the car.

I have in mind a similar project -- the CA zephyr at one point sported a dome - observation car (a 'boat tail' version), in fact I think one of those cars still exists.  American Flyer (S gauge) made a four-car Aluminum passenger set -- combine, coach, dome and observation car.  I have extras of the dome and observation cars purchased with the idea of removing the boat tail on one and attaching it to the dome car.  In this case, its gonna require some cutting of the end of the dome car to get the truck position correct.  The only way I can see to do that - since I don't have a milling machine and I'm certain I can't make a straight enough cut with a hand saw - is to fire up my radial arm saw with a non-ferrous metal cutting blade and see if I can get a straight and square cut that way.  I've seen a picture of someone else's attempt at this - which was well done - but no details on how they did it.  Since these are 'generic' passenger cars, there are few true prototype details, so this will be, at best, a "if you squint your eyes, it looks pretty good" effort.

Thank you Richs09 for the support.  I have read the Union Pacific stopped using the Sun Valley boat tail observation car in April 1955 for the City of Los Angeles train when they got there dome cars.  I have not researched when the UP stopped using the Nob Hill (City of San Francisco) or the Ogallal (City of Denver).

Also, since I'm only modeling the City of Los Angeles train I have not tracked down the history of the other City trains that used flat end observation cars.  I know the Union Pacific still had flat end cars like the Baldy Mountain, Russian Hill (aka Hoover Dam) that got used well into the 1950's.

The California Zephyr observation dome car you are looking for is named the "Silver Solarium".  Yes, it's a great car an still exists today.

Thanks,

Jeff78rr posted:

Nice job and excellent write up! What type of paint is it that you got from Home Depot? Just curious, what a great idea!

Thanks Jeff.  The paint was Behr 8oz samples. I asked for a flat finish in the Armour yellow and matte finish in the Harbor Mist gray.  Although the gray roof of the K-Line passenger car has some shine on it, I was worried a satin finish would give too much gloss.

richs09 posted:

                                              ***********************

I have in mind a similar project -- the CA zephyr at one point sported a dome - observation car (a 'boat tail' version), in fact I think one of those cars still exists.  American Flyer (S gauge) made a four-car Aluminum passenger set -- combine, coach, dome and observation car.  I have extras of the dome and observation cars purchased with the idea of removing the boat tail on one and attaching it to the dome car.  In this case, its gonna require some cutting of the end of the dome car to get the truck position correct.  The only way I can see to do that - since I don't have a milling machine and I'm certain I can't make a straight enough cut with a hand saw - is to fire up my radial arm saw with a non-ferrous metal cutting blade and see if I can get a straight and square cut that way.  I've seen a picture of someone else's attempt at this - which was well done - but no details on how they did it.  Since these are 'generic' passenger cars, there are few true prototype details, so this will be, at best, a "if you squint your eyes, it looks pretty good" effort.

Rich:  (1) can you remove a dome from one of your extra cars; and, (2) do you have an extra observation car?

I did basically that with a PW LIONEL 2531 observation car using a donor dome from a 2532 vista dome coach many years ago using a beater obs car and beater dome.  Actually, the cut in the roof was done by a buddy--I just gave him the aluminum shell and the dome.  Worked just fine.  Even offset the dome towards the rear of the obs car, rather than center it.

My suggestion would be to find a "buddy" with a mill and have the job done right.

Good luck with the project. 

Hancock52 posted:

Outstanding, both in terms of explanation of what you did and the result.

Regarding the UP red striping, I have seen the original color duplicated accurately on decals. It is not easy to cut and apply decal striping in long straight lengths, however, and then it has to be overcoated with clear (usually Dullcote) to make sure it sticks and does not flake off. But even that would not be a guarantee of matching the K-Line color, which was probably applied over the yellow used for the car sides.

Anyway, it all depends on how the car itself looks to your eye. This page, on how UP engine and passenger car colors come out on the internet, was an eye opener to me in terms of trying to match what you can see in photos: http://utahrails.net/up/up-paint-html.php

 

Wow, great link to Union Pacific paint information Hancock.   I feel much better about how my paint colors turned out after reading that link.    

Also, last week the Union Pacific just ran an 25 car excursion passenger train through the Cajon Pass with the Big Boy in the lead.  After studying the photos I noticed the Harbor Mist gray on the roof of the 4808 (City of Los Angeles diner car) in the front is much lighter than the following dome car 8008 (Colorado Eagle).  Even the blanked off window section in the middle of the 8008 side are a slightly darker shade Armour Yellow than the rest of the car in this photo.

I still have to wait another week for my next K-Line 8003 project car to arrive.  Once it does I will keep you updated on the progress to make it into the 9003. 

T. Albers -- thanks for the info on the various UP observation cars -- quite a variety, including - indeed - boat-tail cars.  Who knew... (not me in any event).  The last one you show with the round windows looks very "Art Deco-ish", I wonder if it was designed by Keene, who had designed some motor cars with, IIRC, round windows (and a tapered tail).

One of the current UP tail-end cars (the only one??) -- the Kenefick -- as it appeared as part of the 4014 tour (note the drumhead) - we saw it in southwestern UT a few weeks ago.  This picture was taken in the big town of Modena (pop. 21), where there must have been over a 1000 people trackside waiting for 4014 (it was a 'lubrication' stop).  This picture was taken 'downstream' of the crowd as the 4014 was headed out of town.

Indeed, the old CB&Q CA Zephyr vista dome/observation car is the Silver Solarium (apparently the only one remaining out of seven built).  Its now owned by a private company that does rail charters.  It was built in 1948 and refurbished a few years ago (my aspiration doesn't extend to doing the interior...).  Here's a link to some nice interior shots  http://www.libertyship.com/LA_.../Silver_Solarium.htm  and more detail.

Carl -- my original thought was to do as you suggest, cut a hole in the top of an existing observation car and insert the dome (even easier with the successor passenger cars to the Al ones, as they were made of plastic).  But I like the 'more authentic' look of the smaller windows (where the passage way goes around the stairs going up to the 'real' dome) and, of course, having the dome offset.  The smaller windows are only available on the Al cars -- the later plastic versions all had identically sized windows the length of the car.   The pictures below show what someone else did (a nice job IMHO).  When Gilbert built the Flyer Al passenger cars, the ends of the cars, including the boat tail, were cast Aluminum with a small flange that fits inside the Al car body and is held in place with the screws shown in the top views (hardly prototypical...!).  The geometry of the window placement and the wheel 'well' forces one to make a cut just before the last window of the original dome car - even though the wheel well is a bit elongated.

The other thing that these photos show is the good job the person did in polishing the Al (I don't remember where these photos are from -- eBay I think) -- I have a jar of Mother's Al and Mag wheel polish all ready to go...

Rich, thanks for the photos, especially the dome observation car--I agree, the fellow did a very nice job.  And thanks also for the detailed description of your choice and plans.  Looking forward to following your progress.

In my case, I was premature with my project by about a decade since LIONEL eventually produced a dome observation car that was included in a four-car Santa Fe Super Chief set of 15" shiny cars around 2001. 

T.Albers posted:

Also, last week the Union Pacific just ran an 25 car excursion passenger train through the Cajon Pass with the Big Boy in the lead.  After studying the photos I noticed the Harbor Mist gray on the roof of the 4808 (City of Los Angeles diner car) in the front is much lighter than the following dome car 8008 (Colorado Eagle).  Even the blanked off window section in the middle of the 8008 side are a slightly darker shade Armour Yellow than the rest of the car in this photo.

That same color difference is evident in various photos of the actual Overland dining car that is part of Lionel's current Excursion Car offerings. Here is one example of it in an Excursion consist:

I put the difference down to either wear and tear or a different paint used on the roof because of the presence of diner kitchen exhaust vents. Notably, in fine scale brass HO Excursion Cars, the paint difference is not replicated. Frankly, the HO researchers' approach is good enough for me and on the Lionel 21" Overland StationSounds diner I am working on I don't propose to change the stock roof color, which bis the same as all the other cars in the set.

I've had problems in the past with trying to paint yellow over gray primer, the color comes out too much chartreuse.

Lou1985 posted:

Nice job.

I made my own end cap because I did not want to purchase a whole car just for the end cap. Then I'd have to go through the trouble of selling the rest of the leftover car. 

I tried sacrificing a K-Line Golden Divan for my Lionel dome and it truly was a "sacrifice" because nothing lined up.  I whittled away at it but couldn't get the profile or the guts to line up, ruined the end cap, threw in the towel and started posting a Topic on the Forum.  My belief that K-Line copied Lionel exactly was debunked and I now have the leftover parts, per Lou's speculation. 

However, inspired by your fine work and Lou's great success, my next attempt will use a standard Lionel car end casting as a platform on which to build my own blunt-end cap.  Starting out with guts and carbody profile that line up plus standard attaching hardware functional seems like the way to go.  Thanks to all who contributed!

Once, again, the Forum turns out to be the most important tool in my toolbox!

The base of the blunt end on my Golden State car is a Lionel car end. It was heavily sanded and covered with sheet styrene. You're on the right track. 

T.Albers & Lou1985,

If I had your combined talents my success would be guaranteed!  The benefit/liability of having sacrificed the Golden Divan was that I became a fan of the CRIP-SP Golden State and, in the interim, have collected all of the K-Line cars, with the exception of the seriously non-prototype dome for which I have no interest.  I've added some of the MTH fluted Golden Rocket cars and a crippled CRIP E6 in need of rehab and ERR.

Just what I needed, another railroad fixation!  Oh, well.

I wanted to follow up to my original posting about the differences in the illuminated neon tail signs for the Union Pacific 9000 ~ 9014 dome observation lounge cars.  While I was digging around I found a few items that might help others who want to model the these neon tail signs correctly.  As mentioned above, the neon tail signs for the 9000 series dome observation lounge cars were only used for a short time before these cars were modified for mid-train service.  The only exception around today is the 9009.  The Union Pacific changed the 9009 back so it can be ran at the end of the train again with a neon sign for excursion trips.

Starting with the City of St. Louis dome observation cars 9010 ~ 9014.  The neon tail signs for the 9011 and 9013 have the City of St. Louis in a straight line with the words "Domeliner" underneath.  While the neon tail signs for the 9010 and 9012 have the "City Domeliner Louis" in a straight line with the words "of St" on top.

If you are modeling the neon tail  sign on The City of Portland dome observation lounge cars 9005 ~ 9009 all the photos I found looked the same. They have the word "Domeliner" on the top.

If you modeling the City of Los Angeles dome observation lounge cars 9000 ~ 9004 all tail sign photos from 1955 I found looked the same.  The 1955 photos all show the neon CoLA tail sign sitting about 4" above the red strip.

It was only when the UP mounted the CoLA neon tail sign on the current 9009 for modern day excursion trips did I find a slight different on where the neon sign was mounted.  In the photo below (I personally took this photo in May 1994 during the 125th  Golden Spike Anniversary Excursion run through Cajon Pass, CA).  The neon sign sits right on the red line.   When Union Pacific updated the 9009 to meet modern day standards they must have removed the neon signs original hanging mounts from the back of the car.  

Hopefully this information will help others trying to model the neon tail sign on a 9000 ~ 9014 series Union Pacific dome observation lounge car.

Very helpful and interesting. I suspect that you, and now we, know more about these tail signs than the staff currently operating the Excursion cars to which they relate! 

Your second to last image is particularly interesting for my purposes. I still think I will build the CoLA tail sign casing or mounting out of plastic and use Molotow to produce the chrome finish. Getting a neon light effect is far more difficult but I might try creating a transparency out of that image. 

I have had to delete a BUNCH of copyrighted photos in this thread!  DON'T post photos from the web or scanned from books unless you get permission from the owner to do so!!  Read about the lawsuit in the featured topics!

Earlier in the thread, there was a discussion about the various shades of grey (probably not 50...!) on the UP passenger fleet.  Here's an example of the color variation -- a drone shot of the Big Boy-led rail excursion from LA to Barstow a couple of weeks ago.  I don't know where all these cars are stored nor whether that storage is indoors, but the grey colors obviously show the effects of 'aging'.  Anyone who has spot painted their house after a minor repair will discover just how much weatherization occurs in a fairly short time (and then deals with the dilemma of whether to repaint the whole side of the house...).

https://railpictures.net/photo/713905/

Note to Alan -- hopefully linking to pictures on the net is ok...  Just out of curiosity (and without trying to hijack this thread), is there a time-limit on copyright protection?  I have 70 years stuck in my head (likely to be wrong or mis-remembered...)

OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:

I have had to delete a BUNCH of copyrighted photos in this thread!  DON'T post photos from the web or scanned from books unless you get permission from the owner to do so!!  Read about the lawsuit in the featured topics!

Thank you for letting me know.  This is a great forum and will only post photos I have personally taken in the future.

richs09 posted:

T. Albers -- thanks for the info on the various UP observation cars -- quite a variety, including - indeed - boat-tail cars.  Who knew... (not me in any event).  The last one you show with the round windows looks very "Art Deco-ish", I wonder if it was designed by Keene, who had designed some motor cars with, IIRC, round windows (and a tapered tail).

One of the current UP tail-end cars (the only one??) -- the Kenefick -- as it appeared as part of the 4014 tour (note the drumhead) - we saw it in southwestern UT a few weeks ago.  This picture was taken in the big town of Modena (pop. 21), where there must have been over a 1000 people trackside waiting for 4014 (it was a 'lubrication' stop).  This picture was taken 'downstream' of the crowd as the 4014 was headed out of town.

Indeed, the old CB&Q CA Zephyr vista dome/observation car is the Silver Solarium (apparently the only one remaining out of seven built).  Its now owned by a private company that does rail charters.  It was built in 1948 and refurbished a few years ago (my aspiration doesn't extend to doing the interior...).  Here's a link to some nice interior shots  http://www.libertyship.com/LA_.../Silver_Solarium.htm  and more detail.

Carl -- my original thought was to do as you suggest, cut a hole in the top of an existing observation car and insert the dome (even easier with the successor passenger cars to the Al ones, as they were made of plastic).  But I like the 'more authentic' look of the smaller windows (where the passage way goes around the stairs going up to the 'real' dome) and, of course, having the dome offset.  The smaller windows are only available on the Al cars -- the later plastic versions all had identically sized windows the length of the car.   The pictures below show what someone else did (a nice job IMHO).  When Gilbert built the Flyer Al passenger cars, the ends of the cars, including the boat tail, were cast Aluminum with a small flange that fits inside the Al car body and is held in place with the screws shown in the top views (hardly prototypical...!).  The geometry of the window placement and the wheel 'well' forces one to make a cut just before the last window of the original dome car - even though the wheel well is a bit elongated.

The other thing that these photos show is the good job the person did in polishing the Al (I don't remember where these photos are from -- eBay I think) -- I have a jar of Mother's Al and Mag wheel polish all ready to go...

 

Hi Rich,

Here's a follow up to your question on on how many tail end cars UP currently has.  According to the UP Heritage Fleet website found here:  https://www.up.com/aboutup/spe..._equipment/index.htm

They have 7 business cars with open observation ends.

Arden

Cheyanne

Feather River

Kenefick

Lone Star

North Platte

Selma

Shoshone

St. Louis

2 Inspection cars with full size rear view windows and theater seating for 24 people

Fox River

Idaho

And the 9009 Dome Observation Lounge car

CIty of San Francisco

It's been a month and I wanted to give an update on the project.  I started adding windows to the newly arrived 18” dome car.  The first photo is the K-Line 8003 dome diner (with new observation end) and the second photo is the same car a month later with extra windows.  The new windows help it look more like a real Union Pacific 9000 series observation dome lounge car.

I searched around this forum for recommendations on how to add windows into an extruded aluminum shell.  There were different suggestions, but here’s the method I used for creating new windows.

Below are before and after shots.  On left side of the car I added two windows.  According to UP plans the bar area in the middle of the car should have three windows in a row.  Also, another window was added at the rear of the lounge section.  Since this is an 18” semi scale car, I only had room to add one extra window in the back lounge area of the car. 

The right side of the car also needed more windows.  But this time, it was for the card room in the front of the car that needed a window.  I left the middle windows alone on this side because the UP plans showed the hallway going past the bar only had two windows.  Again the back of the lounge area needed an extra window.  Here is a before and after photo of what the new windows look on the right side of the shell.

I have not worked on aluminum before but is seems everything comes down to double checking your measurements.  Once you are certain you have drawn the correct window sizes and locations you can begin.

Step 1. Start with a small pilot hole.  Then use a larger bit to enlarge the opening.

Step 2. Remove the extra material.  I used a Dremel tool with router bit for this part.  But do not go all the way to your drawn line with the Dremel tool.

Step 3. Aluminum is soft.  You can use a flat smooth tooth file to remove the rest of the material to your drawn line.  Finishing the new openings with a flat file leaves you with crisp straight edges on your windows.

Step 4.  Clean the area, paint with matching color and add clear plastic behind your new openings.  

The plans also showed vertical grab bars behind the two rear lounge windows so I added those at this point.  Next up for this project will be to add red teardrop marker lights to the sides of the car, add passengers inside, change the cars number from 8003 to 9003 and finish detailing the interior.  I’ll do another write up on the interior when it's finished.

Thanks,

That is some very fine work. In my case, I could not imagine getting as straight a line on the window edges as you have. My metalwork on aluminum cars has been limited to drilling out holes to mount roof vents. Even that is an exercise that I find requires a drill press, at least to make a pilot hole. 

Thanks for sharing the update.

T, thats some fine work on the windows. You made it look easy. I know its not. Anyone else trying this, know it takes a lot of care to get those openings square and straight.

Pete

Thanks guys.  
Pete, you are correct.  Anyone trying to add new windows should be real careful not to remove too much aluminum material during the Dremel or flat file steps.  It took me about 1-hour per window.

Even though I finished the window edges straight with a flat file I still ended up having an issue with the paint on the window edges.  Look at the front window frame of the bar area and you can see where the thickness of my Armour yellow paint is making the vertical edge look wobbly.  I should have thinned down the yellow paint before applying.

I did not find this painting mistake until after all the clear plastic windows, inside wood wall paneling and curtains were installed and was examining the close up photos. 

Here's the next update on this project.  I have been working on installing red streamline marker lights on the sides of the shell.  The top car in the photo below shows what the original outside shell of a K-Line 8003 dining car looks like.  The bottom is my project car that was modified with the new end cap, extra windows, grab bars and red marker lights. The streamline marker lights really help create the look of an original Union Pacific 9000 series observation dome lounge car from 1955.

For this part of the project I wanted to visit a real Union Pacific observation dome lounge car still in its original April 1955 configuration.   But all the cars I could find had been modified (some very drastically) by their owners.  The closest arrangement to the original 1955 configuration I found was the #9000 UP observation dome lounge car.  Like all 9000 series cars, this car went through the Union Pacific’s 1956 mid-train conversation.  This car stayed in UP service until it sold to Auto Train in 1972.  After Auto Train the #9000 was sold again in 1981 and has been used for static display ever since.  Other than the current maroon paint job the rear of the #9000 car does not look like it has been modified since 1956 (that's 63 years).  Also, I was excited that it was the very first car in Union Pacific's series of 15 observation dome lounge cars built (#9000 ~ #9014).   Last month I visited the #9000 observation dome lounge car at the Main Street Station Casino in Las Vegas and took this photo below.  This car sits outside in the parking lot next to the Casino lobby entrance.

In this photo you can see where Union Pacific had the rear window patched over for the 1956 mid train conversation.  If you look closer below the patched windows you can find more clues from 1955.  The #9000 still retains its original mounting brackets for hanging the neon CoLA tail sign.  And below the mounting brackets it still has the power outlets for the neon tail sign!  Happy with these findings I left Las Vegas.  But, it was not until after I got home that I realized I did not get the location of the red streamline marker lights.

So, last week I made a second trip to Vegas to see the #9000 in the parking lot outside of the Main Street Casino lobby.  This time I was able to find the imprints of where the original streamline marker light attached.  Even though these streamline marker lights were removed in 1956 the rectangle imprints above the rear window are still there today.

Now that I had these detailed photos I could work my project again.  I drilled out a 2mm hole for the red Tower LED's so they would be in the exact location as original marker lights on a 9000 series observation car.

Finally, to get the correct looking chrome streamline housing and red marker lights I purchased an inexpensive 15" K-Line observation car online for its marker lights and used it for donor parts.

Next I want to change the numbers on the side of the car because #8003 is a City of Los Angeles "dome dining" car number.  This car needs to be numbered between 9000~9004 to correctly match a real City of Los Angeles observation dome lounge car.   

Also, I just completed creating the full interior for this 9000 series car based on Union Pacific plans and photos from 1955.  Here's a link to the write up:

https://ogrforum.com/...-passenger-car-k4690

Thanks,

That is excellent research - the kind I'd do if I visited Vegas for sure! I'm still reeling from how well you executed the extra window in an aluminum-bodied car.

I will look forward to the interior write-up. I have decided that in many ways it's easier to execute a complete fantasy passenger car interior scheme than one which tries to model the prototype. With things like seating and tables it's hard to find any O scale parts that accurately reflect the streamliner period and scratchbuilding will not replicate the precision of machine-made parts.

Thanks Hancock, I try to use the UP plans and photos as much as possible but since it’s semi scale I end up doing a lot of compromises.  This bar area in the car would not hold up to a correct 1/48th scale prototype but I enjoyed building it and that’s what I like about this hobby.  
By the way, thank’s for the great lead on StewartDollHouseCreations. They had the miniature wine glasses, coffee pot, coffee mugs and liquor bottles I needed for this scene.

It's been a few months since I posted an update on this car but I wanted to show the current state of the Union Pacific Observation Dome Lounge car project.  The next item was to fix the incorrect number on to the outside of the car and add a handrail inside down the main hallway.

This car started off as a dome diner numbered #8003.  A correct Union Pacific,  City of Los Angeles Observation Dome Lounge car number from 1955 should be between 9000 ~ 9004.  The Union Pacific City of Portland observation cars were numbered 9005 ~ 9009 and the City of St. Louis cars were numbered 9010 ~ 9014.

To get correct numbers on the sides of this car I purchased the Microscale decal sheet 48-136.  This easiest City of Los Angeles number found on this Microscale sheet between the range of 9000 ~ 9004 was going to be "9004".

The next step was to remove the original painted #8003 numbers off the sides of this K-Line car.  Here are some close up views before.

And what it looked like after.  I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Extra Durable and cut off a 1/4" x 1/4" square to remove the red painted numbers.

Once the old numbers were removed I applied the new Microscale numbers per the instructions.

And, here's a look at the sides of the 9004 Observation Dome Lounge car.

Thanks,

Wonderful details beautifully executed, TA.

The (apparent) ease with which you removed the numbers, and car name on an earlier project, surprises me.  Not because I doubt your talent, but that the finish coating and paint applied can be removed with seemingly little effort or expense--1/4" x 1/4" Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Extra Durable.

SUGGESTION:  Edit the thread's title with today's date to alert folks that new material has been posted.

Update 1.

It’s been a long time since I posted any updates on this dome observation lounge car.  I have been enjoy running this car on my layout and upgrading interiors of my other 18” K-Line Union Pacific aluminum passenger cars.  Part of the fun in upgrading interiors is researching the original photos and drawings to get the little details as near as possible.

In the back of my mind one tiny detail has always nagged me on this unique dome observation lounge.  It was that K-Line used the incorrect dome structure on this car.  In short, the style of dome K-Line used was from Budd Manufacturing and not American Car Foundry (ACF).  I’m pretty sure it was easier for K-Line to manufacture a single “one size fits all” plastic dome for their cars.  That makes good business sense… but that Budd style dome structure on a Union Pacific car just didn’t look right to me when compared to historical photos.

Here is a line drawing of a 9000 series dome observation lounge car showing the correct style ACF dome structure next to a photo of my 18” semi-scale K-Line car.   There’s a lot your eye can forgive when running semi-scale passenger cars.  The trick is to keep everything proportional.  In this case, K-Line’s Budd style dome is nowhere near matching the line drawing.

A correctly shape/sized ACF dome structure should stretch about 1/3rd length of the car, shouldn't have any horizontal crossbars through the windows and should have a large center roof section and tall side windows for better viewing.  To see the small center roof and horizontal crossbars better here’s a ¾ view of the Budd dome structure that came with my K-Line observation lounge car.   

@Hancock52 sent me photos of what a correct ACF dome structure should look like.  These close up photos were from his 21” Lionel Union Pacific observation lounge car.  Notice the tall side windows and much larger flat center roof section.  Also, you won’t find any horizontal cross bars blocking the view through these ACF windows.

With a fresh cup of coffee in my hand I decided it was time to do something about this incorrect Budd dome on my K-Line car and write down my experience to share with other forum members.  Out of caution for this ACF dome project I’m not planning on altering the aluminum shell on my 18” aluminum K-Line observation lounge car.  The reason is I’ve had my share of past O-scale project go sideways.  So… just in case I can’t pull off making an acceptable looking ACF dome structure I want to still have the option of going back to my original factory K-Line dome.   

Stay tuned for the next step…

Update 2.

Since I’m not altering my existing aluminum passenger car's shell I started with measuring how much room I had to create a new ACF dome structure.  The opening on the K-Line shell allowed for 6.5” long dome.

The shells width was 2.5”.

The first step is to remove the existing Budd dome off my observation lounge car.  Remove the end caps of the car, disconnect the power wire for the lights and slide the aluminum shell off the black metal frame.  Once that is done you will notice there are small tabs holding the dome in place on the front and back.  Push in on the tabs and the dome structure lifts straight up and off the shell.  The domes interior is held in place by two small screws.

The next step was to find an ACF dome structure that snaps in place onto my K-Line shell.  That search did not go well.  There just isn't any mass produced ACF style dome structures out there that are 6.5” long and 2.5” wide.  Even though Lionel makes the correct ACF dome for their Union Pacific 21” cars they do not sell them separately.

Luckily @Pingman came to the rescue with a front & back window assemblies made out of brass.  He found these brass items at a train meet over 30 years ago.  The castings did not have any manufacture markings on them but look liked Midland Reproductions part# BC-101.  Midland Reproductions announced them as a brand new item in O Gauge Railroading magazine issue #77 (November/December 1982) on page 32.  The lost wax brass castings matched the 2.5” width of my K-line aluminum shell perfectly.  Here’s a look at one matched up to the width of my factory K-Line dome.

Stay tuned for the next step…

@T.Albers I missed this thread before replying to your other one with my Lionel ACF dome measurements, which is the last posting on the thread: https://ogrforum.com/...7#152477233927987617