Updating and enhancing Alan Rose's San Francisco Cable Car

[jamoldover]

Ever since I first saw the Alan Rose cable car model (when it first came out, almost 40 years ago), I've wanted to try my hand at building it, but the time never seemed to be right - either I didn't have time available, or couldn't afford a copy (I was only 14 at the time), or I couldn't find a copy to purchase. Back in December, I finally decided the time had come, and I got myself a birthday present. Unfortunately, even though the book overall was in decent shape, the years since it had been printed had not been the kindest to it - the pages had started to yellow, the staples had some rust around them, and the corners were a little mangled.

To move forward, I decided to to scan the book, and use the printed scan to build the model, both to allow me to reprint parts in case I made any mistakes, as well as to do some cleanup on the pages and remove the yellowing.

In the course of cleaning up the pages, I found that there had been some issues with the original printing - not all of the colors had printed cleanly (there were bubbles along with some misalignment of colors) on many pages. As a result, I made the decision to use the model as a starting point, and not only clean up the colors and printing, but recolor the model, bring it up to date (representing a cable car as it is today vs one from the early 1980's), correct some errors in the original, and enhance the model with some additional pieces and details.

Here are the changes and additions I made - the pictures (all reduced in size, and partially obscured, so they can't be used to build a model from) show both the before (original model, as scanned) and the after (my recoloring and additions).

We'll start with photos of the prototype - Alan Rose based his model on car #16 as it existed back in 1980. My model is based on car #1, as it appears today after being restored back to the historic appearance it would have had back in the 1890's, updated to reflect the current routes the car runs on. (Img_01).

Files pg_01 through pg_20 show the original and updated parts.

File pg_A-B shows two pages of new parts I created, some specifically for the model of car #1 and some that can be used for models of other cars in the fleet as they are today.

I'm now about to start the actual build, so wish me luck. If anyone has questions about the process I followed up to this point, or what changes I made to the model, feel free to ask.

[jamoldover]

Here's the additional pages that wouldn't fit in the first post.

[Rubenandres77]

This already looks very nice. Your re-color is great.
Looking forward to your build.

[Kevin WS]

Interesting.

Great job with the rework - look forward to the build and finished item.

[beckychestney]

WOW! Fantastic re-texturing!

[kingjason14]

This is awesome! I have been meaning to rescale and build this at 1:18.

[Gil]

Very nice work.

Will you be building the model into a base diorama setting? If so, I suggest the turn-around at Market Street...,

-Gil

[ennder]

I have always though that trolleys have an elegance all their own.

[jamoldover]

Originally Posted by kingjason14

This is awesome! I have been meaning to rescale and build this at 1:18.

Based on the spacing between the wheels, the original model is 1/17.6 scale, so there's not much resizing to do...

[jamoldover]

Originally Posted by Gil

Very nice work.

Will you be building the model into a base diorama setting? If so, I suggest the turn-around at Market Street...,

-Gil

That's not a bad idea, although I don't know if I have the space to display it that way. I had just planned on setting up a short length of track for the model to sit on (thus the additional sheet with tracks on it that I designed).

Joshua