Thanks to Hancock52, I had an OMG moment today to solve a serious problem on my Texas Special project; namely, finding a suitable fluted siding for the F unit diesel locomotives and RPO car I'm using.
Specifically, he sent me an email referencing an article he'd read about a modeler using Evergreen polystyrene corrugated siding to replicate the fluted siding used on streamliner era passenger cars. This is the article:
http://www.oscalekings.org/ed_bommer..._cuyahoga.html
This triggered my memory that I, too, had purchased a similar Plastruct product years ago. Moreover, only a month ago I had taken the product out of its sealed bag and used it to test spray Molotow liquid chrome as a possible finish for the corrugated siding to be applied to the TS locomotives and RPO car. I NEVER considered the Plastruct corrugated siding I used as the test material for the Molotow test as a possible siding for the locomotives--that is, until I read the article Hancock52 sent me.
After reading the article, I retrieved my Molotow test sheet of Plastruct #4528 corrugated siding (it was a slightly different size from what the author had used) and compared it to the siding of a SF Super Chief shiny combo car, 6-19110, (the donor cars for the TS pax cars)--lo and behold--an very close match--ridge for ridge. Even the Molotow liquid chrome finish was an excellent match to my eye--or at least close enough to go forward.
(Note: The fluting to the left of the yellow is the skirt--I'm not matching that very narrow fluting.)
My photo does a poor job of showing how closely the Plastruct siding matches the car's--it's much better demonstrated when the two are placed against each other in a section view--haven't photo'ed that yet.
I acknowledge that I should have recognized the Plastruct product's potential from the jump. In my defense, at the same time I sprayed the Molotow, I also was referred to an O scale passenger car siding product from another vendor which consumed my attention on the siding issue. The vendor recently sent me a sample of the product and it was not suitable. It was after sharing this disappointment with Hancock52 that he thoughtfully replied with the article above.
THANK YOU Hancock52--major problem solved!!!
