La Belle Woodworking O scale passenger kit- A true craftsman kit!

Actually the last pic is car no. 63.. Here is another pic of car no. 12

I love these kits. I modified this open platform car as a Milwaukee Road summer open air car. These cars were used in the electric sections as steam would have smoked everyone out. In this shot the car is being moved by steam for repairs. Used Atlas three rail trucks and working marker lights. Also used old walthers seating. Once you get the first one under your belt they become much easier. Building a kit like this is almost a hobby within a hobby. It's nice to take a break from your layout and just sit down one evenings and work on a kit like this. Don

J Daddy,

Great looking kit. I have one but have not had time to get to it.

Malcolm

Wow !

You my friend are a true craftsmen.  I can say that because I'm lucky enough to have a link through relations from the 'greatest generation' which may be the last time this country had a population of craftsman.

Can you tell me what years those cars would have been in operation ?

I have two La Belle kits yet to build.....you are not making me want to clear my deask and start!!!! But thanks for your insights into these very nice kits!!!!

So the plan of my attack for this kit was:

1) read and re-read the instructions and try to understand them - La Belle also has a web sit with some hints... hmmm more reading.

2) test fit everything twice before gluing.

3) check and identify each part. If you cannot identify it put in a pile and label it questionable. Do not proceed to each step until these parts are identified and when they go on.

4) File all castings. Unfortunately when I open the bag, these casting crumbled to the touch. No worries La Belle has extras.

5) Use a semi-water proof wood glue and super glue. I used super glue to "tack" the parts into position, then used the wood glue for a more permanent set.

6) Chip away at this kit. You have to approach it as a long term kit. The more stubborn you are the better!

7) When a major assembly is glued together. Let it dry for 12 hours under a clamped load then prime BOTH sides of the assembly to seal it. You must seal both sides of wood to prevent any warping.

8) I divided the car into 3 major assemblies; Roof, car body, chassis.

9) focus on a top down strategy for completing the kits. you may need to stop and change to a different assembly so you can test fit the car as a whole, but the above strategy worked for me so I did not damage assemblies as I completed them.

10) Don't concern your self with staining vrs painting. The best results for me is to use a primer to seal the whole car, than paint with oil base or acrylics as needed.

So the roof was my primary focus. Here is the completed roof primed, then painted black, then clear coated with dull coat, all roof casting vents were applied before paint:

3rd Rail, are you talking about the Milwaukee Road's open air cars? Don

No Don, the one that's depicted in the opening pictures of what he's trying to build.

So now I was in months of the build, and I was regretting the next step in assembling the main body... I had to wrestle with the instruction... nothing was 1:1 in the drawings, how come when I put the four wall together... nothing fits?! Argh... maybe I will just surrender now.

Well then a light bulb struck, yes like lighting sometimes, but this was for the better.

I assembled the chassis with the steps and "squared everything up". I realized I needed this foundation to set the car's ends and sides and trim them to their correct size.

La Belle kits are loads of fun,

I think the 4th or 5th kit I ever built was a La Belle passenger car kit.  The instructions will drive you nutz!  Usually the instructions for passenger cars will be for several cars with specifics for car types interspersed to make the challenge even more fun.

Once you figure out and deconvolute the instructions, figuring out which bits of stripwood are which (color0coded on the ends, usually..), then you can build it.

Ok shaping a roof seems to terrify and test the mettle of even the strongest of modelers.  It's a lot easier than it seems.  But back when I was doing these they did not have that roof shaping widget.  You did have to do it all by eyeball and then add back that bit of edging.  Doing that now for a traction freight motor roof, in fact.   

Last La Belle kit I built was an HO CERA traction freight trailer to make an O scale version since they dont sell that in O scale - instructions are for all 16+ variations of the CERA car.  And, the instructions are also for at least 2 totally different cars.  Must have been a shortage of paper once upon a time.  

Might be a good investment to re-do those instructions for each individual car and just make them available as pdf files off the La Belle site someday.

3rd rail. I do not know the total history, or how these cars were saved from destruction, however I was told from my friend up north that they are still around and I believe they were in use up in the late 60's!

Thank you J Daddy.

I'm following your thread.

I can't even do a snap & fit model lol.

What patience, what skill, totally awesome.

LOL, Thanks, but this took a year of doing and I am a very persistent bugger.

What really burned my keister is when I finally finished the roof, I found out through La Belle that you can buy the kit with the roof already sanded and formed for a small fee... .

Well I know what to do for the next one. You can even send your kit in to them, they will form the roofs and send it back to you for the next altercation, err I mean next steps.

.....you can buy the kit with the roof already sanded and formed for a small fee...

Well I know what to do for the next one. You can even send your kit in to them, they will form the roofs and send it back to you for the next altercation, err I mean next steps.

If you go down that pathway, you might be wise to get that roof done by them before you start anything else so that you can be sure that the roof fits the body shell that you build.  There's not a lot of room for error on length or overhang on the roof and it's really hard to make them longer,

BTW Don, really like the open air car. I know the NP had these for visits to Yellowstone park. Do you have anymore pictures?

Originally Posted by J Daddy:

.....you can buy the kit with the roof already sanded and formed for a small fee...

Well I know what to do for the next one. You can even send your kit in to them, they will form the roofs and send it back to you for the next altercation, err I mean next steps.

If you go down that pathway, you might be wise to get that roof done by them before you start anything else so that you can be sure that the roof fits the body shell that you build.  There's not a lot of room for error on length or overhang on the roof and it's really hard to make them longer,

LOL, you 've got that right... thus the conundrum of making toothpicks from logs.

I had to stop what I was doing and use the glue on profile "fixtures".

So once the foundation was laid, And I hosted my October Detroit Railers get together, I notice a few issues and was able to trim the car-sides to their proper length and prime them, but then it hit me how am I going to access the interior? How will the windows be applied, lights, interior details, and car weights be adjusted? How in the heck can I maintain the structure of the car so when I pick it up it will not fold up like a cheap suite?

I had to add some structure:

My steetcar kit is the same way- no 1:1 drawing to lay over and build from...like the old stick and tissue model airplanes were. No accurate way of telling till alittle too late that "this needed to be trimmed more" or "those actually went together, then trimmed"...ugh.

My current status is having to add styrene here and there for the loss of non-descript assembly instructions...do I like the kit- yes.....do I want to shoot the guy who drew up the instructions....YES!

It's on a backburner till I regain my confidence with it again...that and re-read about 20+ times the destructions-{woulda been far easier just taking the parts and winging it on my own}.

"Interior"...my thoughts....mark on the chassis where the walls are and set the seating accordingly...that's my 2 cents for what it's worth...

I have to give you a lot of credit, if I opened the box and saw all of the parts, etc., I would have put everything back in the box and run up the white flag.

J, You are doing a great job so far. I never built any of their passenger cars due to the era being way too early but have done a few of their truss rod freight cars in HO.

If you ever come across any of the old Walthers tin/wood passenger car kits you will find them easier after finishing this car. The roofs need shaping like this car but the sides and ends are metal and simply get mounted to frame. Walthers also offered interior kits to go with their cars. I imagine they are unobtanium today.

Pete

This was another Hostile point of the build, it was one of those milestones that if things did not work out well it would be a tail between the legs defeat and a sad phone call to my customer up north....

But with a few rubber bands and some patients things worked out ok...

I also added small wood screws for the roof and chassis removal.

So, here's a completed La Belle car - ok, it's a trolley, but all of the same fun.

It does have a full interior and roof is removable.

Now that is cool! DC powered?

With the chassis screwed in, the car body framed in, and the roof fitting the car sides. The ends could be trimmed to their proper width, glad I waited for this one, otherwise there was no way of the end pieces ever fitting.

I have built at least one of these kits, as well as several Walther's ones with the

metal sides (cutting and resoldering the Walther's sides to get a different window/door

arrangement).  I kitbashed the LaBelle kit and one of the Walther's combines into

combine coach cabooses with cupolas.  I don't remember it being that big a deal, but

I have built several Walther's cars.  I think those caboose photos were posted on here months ago, with some of my untra-long cabooses, etc.

Now with the body some what framed in. It was time to think about trucks. I usually mount the trucks. try to minimize the gap in the floor then install the couplers and add shims to the coupler pockets or trucks as required.

But wait! Those are freight car trucks you fool! Ah yes more fun coming....

John the next one will be easy, put me down for one...

I hope Charlie is following this. Your great patience is rewarded. Nice job, John.

Dave G.

J Daddy, looks great. Keep the pictures coming. I don't have anymore pictures because I built the open air car just before I took my old layout down. The car is still boxed up. Milwaukee Road ran these in the Cascades on the electrified line. They ended their use when WW2 started. The real ones had six wheel tricks but I had a nice set of Atlas Commonwealth trucks and like the looks of them on the car. When the war started they took the tops off these cars and used them as crane tenders. Don

Yes.  Complete under the floor Q-car drive.

Once you build a couple of these La Belle kits, scratching together wooden cars is pretty straightforward since the experience that you gained really puts such an exercise right in your grasp. 

Going to install a full set of underbody details and brake system in your car?

I am Dave.  I know John has been working hard on this project.  His results speak for themselves.

It's not that the kits are unbuildable, it's that an already experienced kit guy would know "wait till this is done before you cut that" thing..us poor folks trying our 1st kit have to learn the hard way.

Like I said, better laid out instructions, as to how things need to be built then test fitted here or there would save alot of folks alot of greif...I think.

Now I have to figure out where I threw....I mean "set"...my kit.

Really not a good 1st kit - La Belle passenger car (or trolley car),

You really just have to step through the instructions, such as they are, with a bit of caution and look at the bits and bobs to see if what the inscrutable text is telling you makes sense with what's on your work bench in front of you.  The light bulb goes on and you proceed, or you back up a bit and ponder until it does.  You do have the knowledge that the kit can in fact be assembled...........probably,

I state probably since the laser cut kit that I'm currently building was actually missing a part, and I just made a new one from some 1/16" flat stock, and kept moving forward. 

mwb....I hear ya, but the issue for me was it was my 1st Labelle kit...there ain't gonna be a 2nd if I never finish the darn 1st one....and I really like the looks of that Q drovers caboose too....I should just scratch or bash one and follow my usual self instructions!

You might want to eMail Rick at LaBelle, and tell him about you difficulties. I believe he is currently redesigning that CB&Q passenger caboose, in order to correct some shortcomings with that particular kit.

You started with that Q drovers caboose!  Yikes! 

I thought I was going to go nutz doing one of the pass cars as my 1st La Belle kit.  But, once I got it done, I had learned enough to build a few more and then take on a couple of trolley kits.

Now I look at them as just good fun or raw materials.