Should I leave my passenger cars alone?

I kinda like the way Weaver did it, green tint windows. You can always change back.

Yeah, the silhouettes are really low-end. Plain clear plastic is an improvement, even on

a car with no interior. The green-tint is a nice idea. I've removed a few silhouettes.

The frosted glass, though, would be no improvement over the silhouettes. Neither looks

like anything that exists on planet Earth.

First, go look at a few real passenger cars...

It depends; I'm not familiar with the cars you have (Rattler, are those the K-line cars that Michael is talking about?).  I know that I have Lionel PRR and NYC 027 passenger cars with silhouettes that I pull behind my postwar locomotives.  I'd never consider removing the window strips, because they look exactly the way they should for their purpose.

If it was a case of scale passenger cars, I'd consider doing it.  But for me, at least, that'd mean installing seats and passengers, too.

i definitely think windows and shades are a huge improvement over silhouette strips.  except for a dome, you hardly even notice the lack of seats.  and while tinted windows look ok on streamliners, i'd stick to clear glass for heavyweights.

I think I would leave them alone. I thought the same things about my lackawanna commuter cars. As nice as the interiors are with seated passengers and all ,there is still a charm to the silhouettes. Fred

I'd do what you want.  It can be a fun project and gives you something a bit different at the end.  I did something similar a few years ago with eight 18" alum K-line cars, removing the silhouhettes, interseting clear plastic windows with shades, and building simple interiors (just rows of seats in most cases, nothing fancy) with a few figures.  It was a lot of fun.

Nice work you did with those heavyweights, John.  I am putting together some New York Central heavyweight trains and will soon be running the scale 20th Century Limited, Commodore Vanderbilt, and Knickerbocker.

JUST SELL THE SELL THE K-LINES AND BUY SOME NEW PASSENGER CARS WITH FULL INTERIORS.

I operate a mixture of passenger trains that have cars with full interiors and those that have silhouettes. I have no desire to "modernize" the silhouettes as I have lived with them for a very long time and it is a reference to when they were made. The 15" Texas Special Lionel cars are a good reason not to make any changes.

I can totally see that I should sell off all my cars and purchase new ones with interiors.

But... since I've pretty much gathered everything that I want, putting interiors in my passengers cars (Scale K-Line, Lionel and Williams) will give me something to do with my idle hands.

Thanks,

Mario

Mario, that will certainly keep you off the streets for some time!   Harry Henning found some K-Line interiors and retrofitted some Reading Crusader cars, they looked great when he was done.  You might check with him and see if he has a source for more of the interior kits.