Santa Fe Sleeper Pine Grove

[sgoti]

Um... How many?

https://railpictures.net/photo/731711/

[Erik Zwaan]

Hello PMs, thanks for your many reactions! Indeed, the F7B was very popular to use in a line-up, I have noticed that as well from a lot of pictures.

Yes, there is a height difference between engine and sleeper and my initial guestimate of 4mm isn't that bad after all. Still need to determine more accurately. I'm still after the exact scale of the model, it's either 1:50 or 1:48 but that doesn't make much difference.

Erik

[aansorge]

Not to yank the conversation back to the beginning, but how do you get the silver color? This topic surfaces every few years, with no real satisfying solution that I have noticed.

[Diderick A. den Bakker]

I think I can answer that. As far as I know, real silver printing used only to be possible with the old offset technique. They used 'metallic ink' with really superb results. Very old Schreiber models had this; also Geli, Kranich, Emsco. For examples, see my site, look for Aviation, Collectors' Items.
As far as I know, there is no way to reach this result in digital printing... In case of models with just a few silver or aluminum parts, one can use metallic paper. Expensive, but very nice. See the Cosmostrator (page SF on my site)

[Erik Zwaan]

Gents,

I have started working on adapting the side skirts in accordance with actual pictures of the sleeper, for as far as these modifications can still be made at this stage of the build. Quite a lot is still possible I have discovered in the past few days.

Very informative and revealing pictures are available (refer to enclosed Pine Grove and Pine Gem, which is almost identical), however, I can't find pictures of the actual Pine Grove or its siblings "wearing" a skirt and showing the side with the 9 windows (the bedroom corridor side). I do have pictures of this side of the sleeper, but these are from a later date than the fifties, when the skirts had been (partly) removed. See picture. No doubt there are differences between the skirt sides.

Perhaps the keen readers of this blog can help out? That would be great !

Erik

[sgoti]

Originally Posted by Erik Zwaan

Gents,

I have started working on adapting the side skirts in accordance with actual pictures of the sleeper, for as far as these modifications can still be made at this stage of the build. Quite a lot is still possible I have discovered in the past few days.

Very informative and revealing pictures are available (refer to enclosed Pine Grove and Pine Gem, which is almost identical), however, I can't find pictures of the actual Pine Grove or its siblings "wearing" a skirt and showing the side with the 9 windows (the bedroom corridor side). I do have pictures of this side of the sleeper, but these are from a later date than the fifties, when the skirts had been (partly) removed. See picture. No doubt there are differences between the skirt sides.

Perhaps the keen readers of this blog can help out? That would be great !

Erik

First picture is post-Amtrak/too modern. Note the red end marker lights, which have been discussed previously.

Another clue lies in the noses of the locomotives in the background. I'm guessing circa 2000 or later

[Erik Zwaan]

Well, it's been a while but real life required quite some attention last week. I'll try to keep it short this time . Thank you once more for your feedback! The scale of the model is 1:48, that riddle has now been solved.

I have been studying pictures of Pine Grove once it (apparently) just joined Amtrak service (and still mostly resembled the Santa Fe version) and Pine Gem in more detail and based on this decided to correct the side skirts and, where possible, to add a few more details. One side is more or less ready now, which also shows the trucks having the correct clearance (spacing) with the sleeper body. Glenn, don't worry, the red lights will not be there, I know this has been pointed out by you before.

The details include the steps on either side of the sleeper, which I have positioned in accordance with the pictures and which differs a bit from the test version of the model. Also the layout of the skirt on this side of the sleeper is more or less in line with the pictures, again for as far as still possible to correct. It's still not entirely finished yet. Unfortunately I don't have pictures from the other side of the sleeper and the layout of the skirt will be subject of an educated guess. I think the current state is pretty ok.

Another detail corrected is the position of the Santa Fe sign. From the pictures it clearly shows that it was positioned right above the four cental windows (on the other side: the four central windows minus one in the middle). A tricky job but once I had noticed the off-set in the model there was no way for me to leave this uncorrected.

The Pine Grove nameplate is too long on either side but I'm not going to change that anymore, too risky. Will request Cor to correct this in the final model design. Also the Pullman nameplate is, as far as visible on the pictures, not placed on both ends and sides of the sleeper, but only one per side and at opposite ends. This should be correctable and is work in progress.

The body skin consists of two parts and unfortunately the seam runs in between two windows, making it very visible. I hope the design can still be corrected for this, e.g. to have the seam running at the window pane, then it becomes less pronounced.

Well, the work on the skirts will continue, as well as the underside equipment. Thanks to Joshua who provided pictures from an Amtrak manual, clearly stating the function of each equipment item. The model is pretty accurate and complete in this respect, albeit a few modifications need to be made. Slowly getting there!

Cheers,
Erik

[creosotewind]

Erik, like all your work, it is an amazing build. And it is an amazing kit per Mr. Bakker. 1/48 scale matches US "O" Gauge. I think European O is 1/43. I don't know why there are differences like that.

[Kevin WS]

Looking very good Erik.

The artwork is nice - the corrugations canme out very well.

[Erik Zwaan]

Hello Kevin and creosotewind, thank you for your kind words. I have no idea why O-scale is a range somewhere between 1:43-1:48. In fact it's 1:43.5, which is double the size of HO-scale, 1:87, that's a logic I understand. But this model is 1:48, that's for sure.

Need to make a small correction first: I mentioned "Pine Gem" last time but the picture I used is of the Pine Gorge. Herewith a few of the pictures that have proven to be so useful during the build - thanks again Glenn and Joshua.

Continued with making small corrections to the Pullman sign, as described in my last post, at least one side is done now, the other will be next.

Then the underside of the sleeper. Thanks to Joshua's information of the under body and the parts contained in the model I have finalized 95% now of all the equipment underneath, with a few details to be added. I'm not sure if the design will be corrected for this as the details are mostly hidden from sight but it was fun to understand the function of the equipment as it appeared in the fifties, and to add them to the model. Luckily I had printed a double set of the parts before, as I used quite some of the spares and they also served as basis for some of the modifications.

I laminated the skirts at the inside, this really makes them more robust and I added relief to the structural parts (beams) at the bottom side, on which most of the equipment was attached to.

Last but not least, I re-positioned the location of the trucks a bit, now they are both at the same distance from the end sides. I may have mentioned this before.

Next will be a few corrections to the other side of the sleeper, the "nine-window" side and then on to the last parts.

Erik