Strasburg RR

[Captain Crutch]

Just yesterday I visited the Strasburg Railroad, something I haven't done since I was a little kid, and while I was there they had a limited addition passenger car from the railroad, so I picked one up. The thing is I don't know if the 1860-80 coaches would work, and if not this brings up an old topic of Bachmann actually producing Strasburg Railroad locos and cars. Maybe even doing what they did with the Thomas and Friends line and make the little Pint-sized Pufferbelly in HOn30 scale. They already have Bachmann products at the railroad so their own Railroad Merchandise would be there for sure. Just a thought.

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

You know what the road # is on the coach? I have 6 from SRC that ive collected

[Captain Crutch]

I have #20, the Maryland and Pennsylvania coach named William M. Moedinger. So any clue what coaches would work? It looks like the closest ones would be the 1860-80 Coaches that Bachmann has in the red unlettered or Pennsylvania paint schemes, but I want to make sure.

If it helps it looks like this.




That last one is the actual model.

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

So far there have been 6 strasburg cars made pluse 2 box cars. They pop up on ebay occasionally. Bachmanns ot coaches are about 10 scale feet shorter but should look ok.

[J3a-614]

Looked at both the prototype and model photos, and whatever the model is, it looks good, though it's a bit shorter by one window, which with the structure around it would account for much of the 10-foot difference in overall length.  You could scratchbuild or kitbash to get it right if you were a perfectionist, but I wouldn't worry too much about it unless I was a perfectionist, or if I only wanted one or two cars to model the Ma & Pa! 

But a whole fleet. . .that might be another question!

[Trainman203]

Is that photo a Bachmann model ?  Is there a companion combine?

[Captain Crutch]

Is that photo a Bachmann model ?  Is there a companion combine?

It's a Roundhouse "exclusive limited edition" and other such jargon model from the Railroad in the title of this thread. So that's a no go both. That's why I was asking if the bachmann models would work with it. I love bachmann and work rather go to them first.

[Trainman203]

The Bachmann models are nicely detailed for the most part except for toylike oversized truss rods and handrails .  Plus they are unprototypically short, to work on sharp train set curves.  If you can live with that, they are fine cars.  I have a combine that someone gave me, that I fixed the truss rods and handrails on.  It came out OK, I'll put up a photo later today.

[Trainman203]

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

Here's the whole set, 2 I got from Strasburg, 2 off Ebay, 3 from a train show (I have one double). I also custom painted a few others that are not shown here.

Coaches


Engine and Milk car were painted by me. i know the one box car is made for Strasburg. the kit one i'm not so sure


2 Parlors and a coach


Everything except the custom painted coaches i made. and 2 other engines i also custom painted.

[Trainman203]

The "Roundhouse" 50' coach depicts an odd "paneled" wall siding.  If only they'd made them with regular vertical wood siding like the other 3 cars in the series .  They quit  offering those cars some  time back along with their beautiful "palace " car series.

[Captain Crutch]

So does anyone know of anything that's out now that would look good with it. I'd really like to run it.

[J3a-614]

Well, the easiest thing to do would be to take Bachmann's own passenger cars and paint and letter them yourself for the Strasburg.  They will be shorter than the car you have illustrated, but cars weren't all the same length.  The Sierra Railway had (and still has) a couple of cars. . .No 5 and No. 6 a combine and a coach. . .that were VERY short to get around the curves on the branch they were assigned to.

Next easiest thing to do would be to take some Bachmann cars and kitbash two cars to get the length you need.  You might even be able to sacrifice one body to extend several other cars, though you then have to make two splices per car instead of one.  Interestingly the prototypes sometimes did this sort of thing.

Finally, you can still get craftsman wooden kits for similar cars, though this particular example has a somewhat different paired window arrangement that might not have been typical in the wood car era.  

https://www.labellemodels.com/1883-open-platform-coach-p-38.html?osCsid=nj4315ct9kctcdmplbsq2ie984

Be forewarned, this is a model of WOOD, and has a lot of pieces.  It's what model kits used to be, and for some modern people, they can be intimidating. . .but they are not impossible!  I speak from experience.

If you take this route, I would suggest you try something simpler, like a box car first.  

The other thing would be to follow some advice another company places in its kit instructions. . ."Take your time and get your money's worth."

Take it slow, be patient, enjoy the building process. . .and when you're done, you'll have something most other people won't have, including the right to say, "I built this!"

[J3a-614]

For inspiration, you might also want to check out what John Ott has done.  This is a pretty unusual model railroad. . .besides its period setting, its theme is the town of Arkham from the pen of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft!  Actually it's intended as a New England railroad in the Victorian era, with a few examples of black humor (the shop for artificial legs is on the second floor of a building, for instance), and the effect and work is first rate.

And this guy needs a whole fleet of passenger cars of this time!

Anyway, despite the dark humor and some other things, consider this a source of inspiration.

http://www.ottgalleries.com/MRR.html

http://www.ottgalleries.com/index.html

[Terry Toenges]

The Miskatonic stuff is really neat.
There was an "Arkham District" that played a prominent role in the Gotham TV series.
http://gotham.wikia.com/wiki/Arkham_District