General Discussion (Model Railroader)

Hello, Train Crew  

Just a thought to share with experienced modelers and newbies.

I enjoy passenger train modeling very much and adding to it to make it more fun. Neat hearing the "oohs" and "ahhs" from non-modelers viewing a realistic looking streamliner, or heavyweight passenger train.

For those of you that own the beautiful Walther's, Rapido, Branchline, Model Power, Marklin, or the updated Rivorossi passenger cars, or if you've purchased separate interior kits:
Consider painting your interiors! I've painted my low cost IHC interior kits to go into my streamlined Rivorossi cars and what a difference it makes! Will also be doing my Walthers Budd interiors as well.

Basic Suggestions
Diners I paint the table tops white. The chairs Olives or Browns and the kitchen area is Stainless Steel.
Coaches: Seats, dark tans or greens or reds.
Sleeping cars: walls Brown, Dark Tan, or Stainless steel. Beds: dark color, pillow area white.
Observation cars: chairs & tables: Variety of Flat Browns, Blues, Greens and Maroons.
All vestibules: Silver.

A few railroad application examples:

New Haven coaches, according to NHRRJET, had Royal Blue seats . 
 

B & O had dark blue chairs in their streamlined diners.
 

Amtrak in the early 70s used medium blue (not too far off from Conrail Blue), then they switched to the Reddish brown currently in use on Amfleet II coaches. Heritage Fleet Sleeping car corridor walls are a Peach Tan.
 

Tri-Rail- double decker commuter trains that run from Miami to West Palm Beach, Florida. I rode one a few years back. The seats were white (hard fiberglass plastic!).
 

Milwaukee Road Super Dome cars - a medium green resembling MKT green
 

Penn Central Metroliner - The seats in the business club lounges were a bright red-orange! (I wonder if it was the "flower power" influence of the 1960s!)

Just my opinion, but with lighting kits installed in just some of the cars a model passenger train in O, HO, or N would stand out and look even more realistic. Other brands of cars can also be lit up with available components

To determine interior colors I've looked through many passenger car interior photos. Instead of being picky, I ignore the "Rivit Counter" standards and just try to capture the general "overall flavor" since prototype railroads would change interior colors as the years passed.

Simple Rule of Thumb: Use flat paints and toned down colors (Military Colors work well). No need to paint the floors as these are barely visible.

You can brush paint the seats while large areas like dining car kitchens can be spray painted.

Experiment first on some scrap styrene or junk plastic model to make sure your paint's not to thick or too runny. Apply flat paint smoothly

Overall, something different to with experiment guys. If you take your time, it's very hard to screw up and so easy to come up with impressive results!

Give it a shot and post your results!

Enjoy!

Antonio,
Thank you for the helpful hints regarding painting the passenger car interiors. I will definitely begin painting them.
I have one question though. I bought a Walthers double-deck passenger car and was going to detail the interior with lights and HO scale people. However, I found that the seats would not fit the people. Have you had this problem with Walthers cars and if so, how did you overcome it? I didn't buy any additional cars because I really like to be able to see "people" in my cars, even if they are not lit up.

Thank you,
Mondo

Me too. Never thought of painting the interior budd cars but I did add sitting people.

However since I installed IMs I lost the advantage of the super light kits and had to sell the kits.
It was a case of too much wheel drag with the stock set.

Mondo, are you using standing people? If so, cut the lower half off up to their waist.

You mean you don't like the gaudy colors the IHC interiors come in? Thanks for the tips. I need to get some more weight into my cars, so while I am at it I will give them a lick of paint.

Hi Simon,
Just a thought about you adding weight to the cars. I've found that lead shot, available at Gun Shops, is a great way to add weight to passenger cars. There are little "wells" in the base of some of the cars where lead shot can be added. Just place them in the wells and any other spot where they won't show and pour on some Tacky glue (available at craft stores like Michael's) and let it set. The guy at our local gun shop gave me about 4 lbs. of shot in a bag that was broken for free. That's enough to add an ounce to 64 cars.

Good luck.
Mondo

QUOTE: Originally posted by simon1966 You mean you don't like the gaudy colors the IHC interiors come in? Thanks for the tips. I need to get some more weight into my cars, so while I am at it I will give them a lick of paint.

Hi Chuck,
To answer your question, I was trying to add sitting people to the cars. However, even if I cut off the legs, the seats were way too small to fit "people".

Thanks,
Mondo

QUOTE: Originally posted by locomotive3 Me too. Never thought of painting the interior budd cars but I did add sitting people. However since I installed IMs I lost the advantage of the super light kits and had to sell the kits. It was a case of too much wheel drag with the stock set. Mondo, are you using standing people? If so, cut the lower half off up to their waist.

Hey fellas,

Good to know that you're giving it a try. What I like about this is that at times I'm not in the mood for mechanical work on my equipment (Athearns-what a struggle!) so I find painting the details on the interior kits very relaxing. Even non modelers are impressed!

Mondotrains, adding people is one of my goals for some of the passenger cars. Thanks for the heads up on the difficulties. Just now after reading your post, I "trial fitted" some "people" on an IHC coach seat. Only one figure "barely" fits in the seat instead of two like in the prototype. As many times I've ridden trains, I didn't even notice that the IHC and Walther's interiors come with only one row of seats on each side, instead of two!

This sounds a little "Grizzly" but it looks like for a reasonably good fit, one can
[1] Cut the legs below the knee,
[2] Then file the figure's "bottom and back of the legs," flat,
[3] Glue the figure to the seat.

It has to be a figure that's already in a sitting position. Experimenting is part of the fun!

A forum member recently suggested using white styrene for window blinds (better than cardboard or cardstock). Since I like looking in I plan on having white horizontal blinds barely visible at the top of the windows on only a few of my cars. One or two blinds will be closed. This is again, to make a passenger train look "typical".

just a thought:[8)]

Why are the littlepeoplemanufacturers not supplying us with ready made figures or even duo's with the right measurements to fit inside these interiors?

this is not the first time I read remarks about this [2c]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lupo just a thought:[8)] Why are the littlepeoplemanufacturers not supplying us with ready made figures or even duo's with the right measurements to fit inside these interiors? this is not the first time I read remarks about this [2c]

I only have the Walthers Budd cars and installed Preiser sitting people. By the way, Preiser
makes a ton of figures and they have their own catalog. Goes for $14.00 + shipping out of
Miami shop but carries a $25.00 miminum order.

I would suspect the problem is with the interior and not with Preiser.

Hey Lupo,

IMHO, Locomotive3 is correct. When you carefully look at the seats, they're not the correct size nor style of prototype passenger car seats. Apparently IHC/Walther's keeps them generic as seats are not "too visible" and most modelers with passenger cars don't add figures inside. All we can do is adapt.

However, I have to say that a few years back I saw some Europeon HO passenger cars. I don't remember what brand (want to say Marklin) but I was very impressed with how nicely detailed the interiors of these cars were. Countoured seats, and tables. I also remember though that they were quite expensive.