The PNG Short Passenger Car Coach
I started working on the full size coach over the Christmas weekend. First thing I found out while working up the sides for the cars is that the windows were not lining up from side to side. Beings I couldn't change the size of the car and the windows are locked in via the masters and the molds, my only choice was to remove one window from each side or eliminate the stove and bathroom for the car ends. I chose to remove a windows from each side and make the car an 8 window version. Thank god this is freelanced !! The change isn't that noticeable and for sure makes this car unique form any commercial cars out there. Here's where I'm at right now. I have a lot still to work out. The steps took almost of day of redesign (width) to get them to fit. The mockup was just that. The only reusable part of it was the ends of the car. Everything else is getting reworked. So, enough chatter, here's how it's coming together.
Close up and long shot of the stove end. I stained the stove platform with a brown and it turned green ??? I've since blackened the green out of it. The stove is sitting on 9 little 3/8" square by 1/8" deep bricks. Another item on my list to buy for the kits. I still need to add door knobs and the stove pipe. As I said, a work in progress.
Bathroom end and bathroom walls before gluing in.
The sink in the bathroom and a long shot of the bathroom end of the car.
Bathroom side of the car. 8 windows down from 9 but I think it looks fine.
The stove side of the car.
Any concerns or comments gladly taken. I'm getting closer and closer to sending the coach into production. Phil
January 17th, 2019 Update
Like all of you, with the new year means getting paperwork together of income taxes and closing the PNG books for 2018. Probably one of the most un-interesting jobs we do but also one that we have to do and pay close attention to the numbers to get it correct.
With that out of the way, I got back to building the full size coach. As mentioned above, several laser CAD files had to be modified from the little mockups to the full size. And that always brings unanticipated problems to correct. But, here's the roof.
Once I had it built, I papered and painted it. A couple were concerned about the balsa wood roof but let me assure you, with the glued pattern paper and paint, it has a very hard surface to it. In order to dent it now, you would have to hit it hard enough to break a plastic roof.
One of the ends and the stove with a blackened floor verses the green.
Side view on the bench. I hope you guys work as messy as I do!!!
Bottom. This should look familiar to anyone that built one of my MOW cars.
On my layout to compare the car to an Accucraft J&S coach.
End platforms. My platform is a bit wider than the J&S. My "rusty" coupler needs to be toned down!!
My roof ends are a little steeper than the J&S. The roof curve on the J&S extends into the car 3/4" or so. When I was 3D'ing the short car roof, I went with the steeper curve to eliminate a major 3D'ing headache!!!
A long angle look at car width and roofs. I think I got them pretty close.
End platform.
My rail is code 250. The flanges on these trucks are a little deeper than Accu or Sierra Valley. The electrical pickups are in the journal boxes so the wheels aren't easily substituted. But they rust up OK to cover the typical Aristocraft look.
I want to build a second cut of the coach to verify I have everything locked down properly. I have wood, boxes and couplers still on order so I have time to build a second car.
I've added another button at the top of the KIT page (go up 1 page from here). It's labeled Sales. More info on that page. Phil
April 8, 2019
I have the instructions finished. I will include 1 set in the box with 2 kits as they ship. That set is B&W. I've been able to load the pdf file to my web-site. Took me a while to figure that one out!! Hopefully everyone understands that to keep cost down, I've had to become a "jack of all trades". Hiring someone to handle your web-site is very expensive. While this site is not a gold star winning site, my cost are the domain name and web hosting sever company. As you've seen, I produce pretty much 100% of the materials for my kits verses outsourcing.
PNG-012 Coach Kit inst Color.pdf