Modeling the Dudley #4

Painting

The sides, baggage doors, and roof were snapped in place in the photo below so the resin baggage car end could be glued in place. The sides, ends, vestibule doors and baggage doors were painted POLLY Scale Engine Black. 

All undercarriage equipment has been located using Pullman plan 2915E below. Undercarriage equipment, trucks and roof will be painted a 50/50 mix of POLLY Scale Engine Black & Grimmy Black.

When the car sides are separate parts to be installed onto the core it is most efficent to completely finish these parts while still on the flat.

After painting the sides they were decaled, Dullcoted, glazing installed finishing with the shades.

Below all parts ready to be attached to the core.

Interior

The 1952 NYNH&H RR  floor plan below is the latest known interior arrangement, this is the plan that is modeled.

The dinning area layout modeled per drawing above. Some "kitcheny" parts from the scrap box although not exact offer something stainless steel to see thru the 4 small windows of the ex-baggage door.

Finished!

Both sides of the completed Dudley, now ready to serve on the Berkshire 1957.

These are the 3 food service cars used on the Berkshire in 1957.

Narrows Light, Diner # 5247 (Dreadnought) & Dudley.

A model consist entering Danbury with the same equipment as in the J. W. Swanberg photo that inspired modeling the Dudley.

Thank you.

A sincere thank you to J. W. Swanberg, John S. Horvath, Tom Madden and articles in the Shoreliner magazine offered by the nhrhta.org  Their assistance made modeling the Dudley possible. 

Modeling the Dudley #3

Covering the Rivets

To help protect the rivet decals from coming off when handling a coat of gray primer was sprayed onto both sides.

The final prototype McGinnis red-orange color was then applied to the letterboard. No masking was used during this step just a stiff card held below the letterboard eliminating the chance of masking tape pulling up any of the rivet decals below the letterboard. There are no rivet decals on the letterboard so that can be masked off with tape for a sharp color separation when the black top coat is applied.

Sizing the Roof

The Tom Madden cast resin roof had to be shortened to match the length of the car after one vestibule was removed from the Branchline Pullman core.

The roof was shortened removing the needed amount from the center of the roof. Two cuts were made equal distance from the roof centerline, the halves were rejoined with ACC.

Completing the Roof

Another unknown in this build is new electric kitchen range roof vent. A partial view of this vent can be seen in the photo below on the duplicate car Quincy.

The converted parlor to dining car Narrows Light had a similar electric kitchen and range, the New Haven shops installed the electric kitchens in the three cars Dudley, Quincy & Narrows Light. 

Logic would suggest that modeling a vent similar to the one on the Narrows Light that there is a photo of below would be the best guess.

The 1934 Pullman duct layout plan after A/C was installed below was used to locate all the roof vents on the model of the Dudley. 

All the cast resin vents on the roof are also from Tom Madden. The range vent on the clerestory was made from styrene and located in a position over the electric range per interior drawing. The clerestory block off plates are styrene and the drip rail is brass rod.

The joint where the halves of the roof were glued together was finished with a skim coat of catalyzed automotive glazing putty.  

Below is the same kitchen side after primer.

The aisle side in primer below with a New England Rail Service A/C duct cut to length and installed. The duct and separate ends were difficult to fit to this roof, specially the duct ends. A narrow strip of .010" strip styrene was needed at the top of duct where duct meets clearstory to make the joint look neat and straight. The small gaps visible where duct ends meet duct will be filled with automotive glazing putty before painting.

Along with the other details an ice hatch and ladder rest where installed at the kitchen end of the A/C duct. It is not clear if the ice refrigerator below the hatch was still in use but it shows in the 1957 prototype photo at the opening of this build series.

Car Ends

The car ends of the Dudley were not pedimented but curved where ends joined the roof.

There is no resin inset baggage/express type car end with a curved top available to my knowledge. A Tom Madden resin wide clerestory pedimented inset car end was curved at the top with a file using the resin roof as a guide. The remaining pedimented Pullman vestibule car end on the Branchline core was also curved to match the roof using same method.

The inset end will be attached to the Branchline Pullman core after it is painted and the sides are installed.

Next step will be to paint all the body parts before assembly. 

Modeling the Dudley #2

Window pier panel 

Using the jig to set the inset depth of the replacement windows and panels described in the last post, seven New England Rail Service #200 Pullman paired windows and one #201 24" window were installed on each car side. Styrene window mullions and solid baggage room panels complete the window pier panels.

The baggage room doors are pressed into place for a final fit check but will remain as separate parts until the door windows are cut out, rivet detail added and for ease of primmer and painting. 

Fish plating and rivet decals added according to prototype.

Because one vestibule has been removed from the Branchline Pullman core the roof will need to be shortened as seen in the below photo. A narrow clerestory resin roof from Tom Madden lacking any venting or ducting detail will be used as a starting point.

 Completing the roof will be the next step in the build.

Modeling the Dudley

Body/chassis core

The body/chassis core and assorted parts from a Branchline Pullman kit will be the starting platform for modeling this car, these parts are also available from Bethlehem Car Works. 

The Dudley only had a vestibule on one end of the car, removing one vestibule from the core is the first step. Later in the build a replacement car end will be attached where the vestibule was resulting in the correct 74' 6" length over over the body end sills.

The core with one vestibule removed below.

Car sides

To model the correct window/door plan of the Dudley above, the entire center section with windows between the belt rail, letter board and end sills of the donor sides must be removed and replaced with new windows, filler panels and a baggage door in the prototypical configuration.

The remaining vestibule door was also removed completely separating the top and bottom panels of the sides. The door set aside to be reinstalled after the replacement windows, baggage door and filler panels are permanently in place. 

For ease of workability while still a separate piece, the vertical rivet detail and fishplates below the beltline has been removed and sanded smooth.

The best way found with hand tools to assure true and parallel surfaces to mount the replacement windows and filler panels between the separated top letterboard and lower side pieces is to lightly fine file the mounting surfaces until these pieces measure consistently in height within .005" end to end. 

Care must be taken not to remove to much material so when reassembled with the replacement parts the side height dimension remains the same as an unmodified kit side.  

Again for workability it will be easiest to the cut the opening for the baggage doors while side pieces are still individual parts.

The prototype baggage doors below are a simple design and are easily modeled but must be scratch built

There are several things that are unknown about the prototype because of lack of photo verification, specially after the New Haven café-coach conversion being modeled. One example is the baggage door on what became the kitchen side of the car.

Below is the plan of the once baggage room after the café-coach conversion, the 4' baggage doors originally were directly opposite each other. Sinks and other equipment are now placed flat against the interior wall of the car where the baggage pocket door was on this one side, conjecture would be that this door was removed and a flat exterior panel replaced it but no photo proof has surfaced to date.

Speculating that the kitchen side door was replaced with a plain panel, one door was modeled as originally built and the other with a flat panel.

To locate the baggage door an unmodified car side was snapped tightly into the core receiving holes using the side locating pins designed into the kit pointed out below, then the separated side pieces snapped into the opposite side of the core. This will hold the sides and core horizontally parallel for marking the vertical edges of the door.

The prototype dimension of 10' 4" from the car end to the door edge closest to the end was marked on the lower side piece, from that point the actual width of the modeled door was added and a second mark made on the lower side piece outlining the material to be removed. These measurements were vertically projected to the top side piece with a machinists square. The actual height of the modeled door was marked on top piece between the vertical measurements.

After separating the side pieces from the core removing the material on the bottom piece is a simple scribe and snap procedure. The top is more tedious, the top edge of the door was deeply scribed and verticals lines completely cut thru to the top line before snapping off at the top line.

 

Before installing the replacement windows and filler panels a way to locate a consistent inset depth of these these parts in relation to the outside surface of the car side is necessary. 

A quick temporary jig to achieve this step utilized an aluminum block on hand and some styrene pieces. To function this jig will need to be sandwiched tightly between both cars sides while they are snapped in place onto the core as mentioned before. 

To widen the aluminum block being used to a total measurement equal to the exact inside width between the kits car sides, two appropriate sized styrene pieces were glued in place to the side opposite the work surface. A third styrene piece to set the proper inset depth of the replacement parts was glued to the work surface of the block.

A styrene floor that will be installed later in the build serves as a temporary surface for the jig to slide back and forth the length of the car as the new windows and filler panels are installed one by one simultaneously pushing them and the car sides firmly against the jig while gluing. That will be the next step in the build.

Dudley & Quincy

Merchants Limited

The elegant New Haven Railroad Merchants Limited  served mostly wealthy businessmen with a matching pair of extra fare and first class only seating passenger trains that ran simultaneously in opposite directions between New York City and Boston, leaving their respective terminals at 5 PM continually from 1903 until the end of the New Haven Railroad.

Identical headend cars Dudley & Quincy were built for and assigned to the consists of the Merchants Limited from when they were delivered new from Pullman during 1916 thru 1948, the following year being replaced by the arrival of the post war stainless steel consists. 

The above information gleaned from the comprehensive history of the Merchants Limited  that appeared in volume 36 #1 of the SHORELINER magazine published by the New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association (www.nhrhta.org).

Dudley & Quincy 

Cars Dudley & Quincy were originally configured as baggage-24-chair cars when built to Pullman plan #2915, the only two cars built to this plan. 

A 1920 New Haven Passenger Train Consist List classifies these cars as first car in the consist of the Merchants Limited  of both westbound train #23 and eastbound train #24, the New Haven referring to these cars on the list as composite-baggage-smokers, abbreviation CS. 

Train #23 from the 1920 consist list below.

Said to be the original floor plan below, but dimension over the end sills @ 77' 3 1/2" does not correlate with several later plans @ 74' 6" believed to be accurate. Maybe the length dimension of a vestibule was mistakenly added to the baggage end on this drawing adding to the overall length?  

An early side view of the Quincy.

The Dudley & Quincy were a narrow clearstory design, easily compared below to the wide clearstory cars of the remaining Merchants consist.   

This photo shows the inset baggage car end, opposite end was typical vestibule design, both car ends were curved at the top where end meets roof. 

All three photos above were taken before these cars were air conditioned.

Several reconfigurations thru the years of service

Both the Dudley & Quincy had seating and purpose reconfigurations, equipment additions while assigned to the Merchants Limited during Pullman ownership. Additionally one final reconfiguration under New Haven ownership for general assignments by the roads Dinning Car Department.

Not all reconfigurations are known here.  Relying on a collection of Passenger Consists Lists that has several gaps in years, notable revisions known are listed below.

Originally composite-baggage-24 chair-smokers a 1931 consist list now refers to both cars as a Club car with 42 chairs. No floor plan available. Listing below, note the Merchants Limited  now has new train numbers #26 & #27 that will also remain to the end of the New haven.

 The 1934 lists both cars as remaining Club (42 Ch) but an ice air condition system has been installed.

Pullman duct layout for plan 2915 G dated 1934 after air conditioning installation. Also note that a buffet now replaces the women's toilet, in the baggage room various lockers and an ice cooled refrigerator with roof fill hatch have been added.

Still listed as a Club car in 1937 but list now indicates a seating capacity reduction to 38 chair, no floor plan. Dudley & Quincy will remained listed as Club 38C on the Merchants Limited  until being replaced by the stainless steel cars delivered in 1948.

Below is the final 1942 Pullman floor plan 2915 H with seating for 38.   

Note the 74' 6" over end sill dimension believed to be correct.

Photo of the Dudley @ Boston 1946. 

Dudley & Quincy under New Haven ownership

After being replaced on the Merchants Limited by the stainless steel post war cars of 1948, Dudley & Quincy now under New Haven ownership were listed as "spares" during 1949.

The 1950 Passenger Train Consists list shows both cars as being "Withdrawn from Service". This status continued thru 1951, possibly this is when these cars were being converted into Café-Coaches at the New Haven Readville MA. shops. 

Dudley & Quincy are no longer listed with the parlor cars, now listed in the 1952 Passenger Train Consists with dining cars having been reconfigured into Café-Coach cars.

This is the 48 seat Café-Coach floor plan and final plan for these cars, 24 coach seats, two tables with 8 individual seats and 16 booth seats. The former baggage room now has a fully electric kitchen installed, the ice refrigerator remains although unclear if it is still cooled with ice and some additional lockers have been installed others repurposed.

Note again the 74' 6" over end sills dimension.

The Dudley

The main focus here going forward will be on the Dudley car number 2093.

The Dudley was assigned to name trains #13 "42nd Street Express" and #28 "Gilt Edge" in 1954. The following years of 55, 56 the Dudley is again listed as a "spare".

The consist list from 1957 shows Dudley assigned to NYC-Springfield MA. trains 69-60 and Quincy to Berkshire trains 141-144.

Never before having photographic proof of these Café-Coaches in service on the Berkshire, the following photo taken in 1957 appeared in the SHORELINER magazine volume 43 #4. 

Contradictory to the passenger consist assignments above, the Dudley is the 2nd car in the consist entering Danbury on train #144 "The Berkshire". Of special interest is the Dudley's McGinnis new image color scheme, most likely the only existing photo of that scheme on this car.

The magazine photo to small to work with, the photographer of the photo J. W. Swanberg was kind to provide this copy to enlarge.

A desire to have the food service cars used the Berkshire during 1957 for the layout this photo is a real treasure and piqued an interest in modeling this unique car as photographed above, that will begin next.

Modeling State Line Interchange Yard part 6

Make it Green

A covering of Scenic Express 2MM blended color static grass has been applied to the remainder of the State Line yard, this is the basic "make it green" layer put down first before finishing up later with taller grasses, bushes and trees.

The static grasses used for this below come in pre-blended colors, the Dard Green (center) is mostly used but further randomly blended in a separate container or the applicator cup with Late Summer and Forest Green in various locations within the scene for color variety.

Applied to brushed on full strength Elmer's School Glue, this material goes a long way.  

 Looking to the west end of the yard. 

Looking to the east end of the yard.

Next job is to make background trees, a lot of trees, that will take awhile!