Passenger Car Parts
C&NW Coaches - Ed Wichman's fantastic kits
Ed Wichman of 401 Streamline Models makes these aluminium sided car kits. He’s specialised in C&NW passenger cars, wich comes in handy since my first passenger train project is modelling ‘THE CHALLENGER’ – a revolutionary new concept of rail travel at the time – train #8 on UP schedules between Los Angeles and Chicago. I’m modelling the first section of the consist with it’s coaches and chair cars. The train was jointly owned and operated by C&NW, UP and SP lines.
Various detail parts have to be made to super detail the car bodies. A significant challenge is the creation of the 43-EG trucks that were uniquely used on these cars.
Waukesha Ice Engine
The Waukesha Motor Company of Waukesha, Wisconsin, was one of the most successful suppliers of railway air conditioning systems. Four components under the car worked together to cool things down above: The ice engine, probpelled by propane gas stored in fuel carrier racks, the evaporative sub-cooler and the refrigerant receiver tank. It’s amazing how far technology has come in 1937! The passenger car was fully independend in terms of cooling and could supply it’s interior with cool air even during station stops and uncoupled from the train while switching.
The files resemble a fully equipped ice engine without wire mesh that can be found in architecture stores. I use 1x1mm aluminium wire mesh. For it’s installation I have designed some space under the covers. There are two versions of cover frames, one more sleek and the other more stout. It can be tricky to separate the more filigrane version from the supports after printing but it looks better for sure. I carefully nip off support by support with sharp sprue cutters for plastic modelling.
Waukesha Evaporative Sub-Cooler
a small evaporative condenser designed for use with the standard Waukesha Railway Ice Engine with air condensers, assures maximum cooling capacity. The Sub-cooler usually was found left next to the Ice Engine. Note that skirted cars had cutouts in the maintainance flaps for good airflow.
The part is designed with a separate backwall for easier printing in an upright orientation with the front facing upwards. The little square part serves as a frame for a fine wire mesh that can add greatly to the detailing of your car underframe.
The Sub-cooler is designed from prototype plans and sits directly under the car floor. This unit can not be pulled out on a rack like the ice engine but is permanently attached.
43-EG Passenger Trucks
These triple bolster trucks with National plane bearing journals were the ancestors of modern railway passenger trucks. Developement in the 1930’s was so fast that this design to my knowledge was only used on the early C&NW lightweight coaches for ‘The Challenger’ service. No wonder that these are not commercially available. The design is a challenge since I need a functional supension to ensure every wheel perfect contact with the rails at any given time. Proto:48 is not forgiving when it comes to stabiliy in curves or on turnouts. The resin to print a durable and non-warping truck frame is ‘Siraya Tech Build’, very strong but hard to print. I had to learn how to do that and only once the design is fully proven will I upload the files here. Small flanged ball bearings are used together with Protocraft passenger wheelsets. Still in developement but they will be great!
