I am fascinated by model passenger cars and the idea of building my own.
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Back in the 70s many of us built great kits made by Walthers. I have one left. The started life as a Tinplate combine kit (Walthers). These cars were made to resemble the Lionel Madison cars. I wanted an MP-54 operating combine. Living in Pennsylvania as a kid, I rode these cars often. I made my own power truck using gears I purchased from Boston gear works. I used a DC open frame motor by KTM. This power truck holds it's own today as a very good truck. At first I used a Lionel mechanical E unit and later changed it to an electronic E unit when they were starting to be made. I was lucky that Walthers still had some MP54 ends and most of the detail parts. The headlight boxes were custom made from a bar of brass. I outfitted the car with handrails, directional lighting, and tinplate couplers. I airbrushed the car and it came out very good.
This car was built by myself starting in 1974. Recently I have considered the thought of making this a DCS car as it has a Walthers scale pantograph and the contact shoe holds the wire very well for overhead operation. While inside, I will put in a 3rd Rail lighting board.
I do have the MTH PRR set and it is great. My power truck design runs better.
Attachments
Images (3)
yes. I have heard of Walthers. do they still make such kits?
I do not know if the kits are still made. I had built many of to scale length cars Walthers mads. The roof and floor were made of wood. You had to shape the ends on the roof. A big job to do it right. The sides were tinplate sides and the ends were die cast metal castings. Walthers had truck kits that were excellent. You could buy them with tinplate or scale wheels.
Marty Fitzhenry posted:I do not know if the kits are still made.
Walthers O Scale passenger car kits are long gone.
Rusty
I still see many of them at shows. If they were available today, I feel they would be popular. A builder needed some skills. Walthers made special runs with silk screen sides. The Milwaukee set was the best.
About the only presently offered passenger cars that require building are from OK Engines or 2-rail shows.
I've done 3 OK cars, a sleeper, coach, and a Sun-Lounge:
Also built an All-Nation Observation car kit, wooden roof and floor with metal sides:
The OK Engines Sun-Lounge used a Budd aluminum body, I had to remove all the fluting on the roof and every other flute above the windows, and was the most difficult project of them all.
I also had to make new ends for all 3 OK cars, the ends they sell are merely folded to shape aluminum sheet. I also made new floors and added interiors.
The hardest part of all of these was locating the trucks. The sleeper and coach have trucks from GGD, the Sun-Lounge trucks were K-Line/Lionel (2-rail) 4-wheel trucks with 3-rail wheels, and the OBS has K-Line 6-wheel trucks.
The OBS was the first one I did and wish I could find more now that my skills have gotten better.
The OK cars have rails on the inside and the floor can be made to slide along them. I glued the vestibule ends to the shell and the other end is a firm slip fit that I can pop in/out so I can slide the interior (mounted on the floor) out. I have to remove the trucks first so they don't snag on the skirting.
The OK cars have a sheet of clear plastic that fits the contour inside the shell, not GGD standard but it works well.
Sorry for the crude photos, but that's all I could find.
Attachments
All great stuff guys. Thanks for throwing those out. I was never able to get my hands on the OK cars. By today's standards, they are great. Back in my early York days, TCA could be done in a matter of hours. On saturday at the Timonium Fairgrounds in Maryland a giant 2 rail scale show existed. Many kits could be purchased there for very short money. I love this post as it brings me back a bit in my train history.
Today, if you are lucky enough to find some built up kits in good condition, buy them. A set of modern trucks and lighting board and you are in business.
Bob Delbridge
nice post reply
Bob C.
grandt line makes o narrow gauge windows in assorted styles. the sides can be made of plastic scribed siding for wooden sides. metal sides could also be made of plastic, but it would harder. for the roof and floors micro mark sells wood shapes for this purpose. the detail parts are available thru various other sources which may take some hunting . trucks are whatever you find. the walthers kits show basic construction ideas. mostly it is a matter cutting the parts to size and assembling
I forgot about American Standard. They were short lived. Those are good looking cars you are showing.
Member "aterry" has built a lot of passenger cars-sure he'll chime in soon.
like these?
Attachments
Images (8)
Dreyfuss Hudson had some nicely done interiors posted at one time, here's a link:
BC
models kit
Attachments
Images (3)
very nice pics. they tell a lot. where do you guys get the lettering?
Bob C.
Walthers kits are common on the bay....there are a number of them on there now, but a little pricey; others will appear. The Walthers cars were made for years after Walthers, by All-Nation, whose owner passed, I think, and nobody has bought them, unlike some other O scale stuff we have been lucky with. I have built and kitbashed several. to get coach/cabooses or whatever. There are a large variety of kits of different cars between the two brands, Walthers and All-Nation. Many kits apparently were bought and never built, and are out there. Forming the roof ends is the only difficult thing, and some other brands offered preformed roofs, including American Standard.
Guys,
There is another company out there that sells O scale passenger car kits. There kits are actually quite nice as I have one of their HO Traction kit models that I'm refurbishing. The company is La Belle Woodworking Company. Their passenger kits are all wood laser cut and come in a number of different styles. Check them out here: La Belle Woodworking
The HO side has an equally interesting set of models as well - All wood, laser cut
See their photo gallery located here: Photo Gallery
Give them a call at 307 433-909 MDT as they are in Wyoming. The owner is very helpful and is quite knowledgeable.
American Lightweight Car Company kits were produced in the late 80's I believe. These were based on Pullman-Standard cars. Union Station Products now makes car sides for many roads that fit these old kits. Here's some I recently completed.
11 Double Bedroom
10 Roomette, 6 Double Bedroom
11 DBR interior
10-6 interior
Ken
Attachments
Images (6)
those Chessie cars are beauiful
Bob C.
It seems that O gauge kit building of rolling stock is about over. I have built several Ye Old Huff n Puff (YOHnP) freight car kits and they are pretty good. I understand Le Belle makes some passenger car kits but some here have said they are tough to build. A key is the instructions and some are good in YOHnP kits and others no so much. There are several sources for narrow gauge O gage rolling stock kits but I have no interest in that. I too remember when kits were king but I guess there was not enough interest and the companies fell by the wayside.
I just finished eight kit structures, all by Banta from MicroMark. Some had excellent instruction and others not so much. But all came out excellent and only limited by my abilities. But I have run out of space on the layout for structures so I took to building the car kits. I'm taking a break for now to pursue other things but still have one car kit remaining un-built and trucks for a couple more. The YOHnP web page has few pictures of the pre-painted sides kits which is a downer for me. I would like to see what I am getting before buying. I'll cross that bridge on the next order of car kits in the near future. As long as I can I'll build kits...I find it rewarding to see the results.
LDBennett
"Union Station Products" is a name I haven't seen before.....some of the challenge in this is finding stuff that exists but isn't advertised or publicized. I haven't done lightweight kits, for the Walthers ones have wooden roofs which do not look like metal, not a problem with those painted roof C&O cars above which are very good models. I do have examples of most of the other heavyweight and lightweight kits once offered, "BC", and some other oddballs. I have built, kitbashed into a coach/caboose, a LaBelle kit, and while one might want to gain skills by first building an old Walthers or All-Nation kit, I don't think they are that difficult. Many are models of older cars, with end platforms, etc., though...which works for me, but not if you are running diesel streamliners. They and the Walthers kits would work well for a bashed worktrain coach.
Super nice C&O cars excellent work awesome interiors.
Kazar beat me to it about LaBelle kits. Here are the O gauge passenger cars. I built an Ambroid HO combine/work caboose back in the mid-sixties that is constructed similarly. The hardest part is shaping the ends of the wood roof. If you go slow and think each step through you should be alright.
Pete
Weather this is classified as scratch built or not I will leave to someone else.
It started as a MTH test shot of the roof and sides. I hade to make everything else...car ends, platform, side doors, frame - chassis and interior. I made the decals too. Walthers old die cast couplers. Atlas express reefer trucks. I also made the windows and printed stained glass for the restroom. 
Attachments
Images (2)
Nice work
Bob C.
AMCDAVE, that is some very high end craftsmanship. Thanks for posting the pictures.
kanawha posted:American Lightweight Car Company kits were produced in the late 80's I believe. These were based on Pullman-Standard cars. Union Station Products now makes car sides for many roads that fit these old kits. Here's some I recently completed.
11 Double Bedroom
10 Roomette, 6 Double Bedroom
11 DBR interior
10-6 interior
Ken
Ken....they are beautiful....can't wait to see them up close. What did the C&O use to pull them, E units?
Peter
Walther and All-Nation Kits are readily available on the secondary market - both out of business and gone in the O scale kit business. Not hard to build. Bunch on eBay has been there repeatedly - overpriced.....mostly
La Belle is still going strong - also lots on the secondary market. Not as hard to build as their reputation - take your time and they can come out great - really still the source for an all wood era Passenger car
American Standard - also gone, but again, you see them on the secondary market.
Union Station - I have yet to meet anyone that has actually assembled one of their kits -- I have one on my bench to test out.
But here's some that's not been mentioned.....Alexander
and here's one from......Exacta
that I have to restore; have another one that reverted back to a kit due to a terrible packing job by the seller.........
and another that was a kit by ????? that I finished and added an interior to....
Also, JC Silversides and others can be found at shows and meets. Lots of good fun to be had building these kits and adding today's details to yesterday's kits! 
very nice cars
Bob C.
Robert Coniglio posted:very nice cars
Bob C.
Thanks. Made a real error with the Alexander - should have captured the aluminum sides in RTV molds so I could make more of these era cars -- just nothing like them available today!
We forgot the late E l Pardee,
I have an Alexander , JC SilverSides, and Paul Egolf.
Attachments
Images (3)
Built this from a LaBelle open platform passenger car kit. It's an open air Milwaukee car they used up to World War Two. The Milwaukee car was never made into a kit but it was easy to change. I also added marker lights and full interior. Atlas three rail trucks were also used. Don
Attachments
Images (1)
mwb posted:Union Station - I have yet to meet anyone that has actually assembled one of their kits -- I have one on my bench to test out.
This coach was built from an American Lightweight kit using the Union Station Products car sides. The big differences are the nicely detailed skirts and the easier to assemble vestibule door and step well. The fluting is the same as used on the ALW kits so it would match the other cars I built. The fluting supplied by USP is very different but is supposed to be closer to what Pullman-Standard actually used. USP sells its own core kit for O scale, but I'm not really impressed by the pictures I've seen of it.
This is a straight ALW kit.
Ken
Attachments
Images (2)
Putnam Division posted:Ken....they are beautiful....can't wait to see them up close. What did the C&O use to pull them, E units?
Peter
From 1950 until 52, 53 these would have been pulled mostly by Greenbriers and Hudsons, both streamlined and unstreamlined. After that E-8's and sometimes FP-7's.
Ken
mwb posted:
and here's one from......Exacta that I have to restore; have another one that reverted back to a kit due to a terrible packing job by the seller.........
Boy, do I hear that! You should see some of the packing jobs I receive.
My belief is that everyone who ships things, should do an apprenticeship at the receiving department first.
I am interested in the obscure and oddball in kits, passenger cars, and others, so keep these coming...I just piled six old kits on my computer desk: In addition to JC, there is B-C (Boxcar Ken), CSC (aluminum lightweights that look just like Kasiners), Sycamore Hollow Gay 90's Coach kit(they also offered an interurban funeral coach), Hawk D&RGW coach kit (Hawk is better known for model airplane kits, but also made Denver and Salt Lake freight cars, so I had to hunt those down), and a Rail Chief kit, offered by the famous New York woman shop operator.
RoyBoy posted:mwb posted:
and here's one from......Exacta that I have to restore; have another one that reverted back to a kit due to a terrible packing job by the seller.........
Boy, do I hear that! You should see some of the packing jobs I receive.
My belief is that everyone who ships things, should do an apprenticeship at the receiving department first.
While inconvenient in my case, I'll probably derive more enjoyment in the restoration exercise than just cleaning and using the car. The pictured one that was intact actually has a removable roof, or so the hardware implies and a full interior with some that has come loose in transit. More fun on the restoration pathway!
Marty, great job and you were only 12 years old then. I loved building Walthers kits in the 70's. Learned a lot from that. Always wanted the gas/electric but never got it. I do have the cast front to one if anyone wants it. Still have many of their old O catalogs. Don
Attachments
Images (1)
