Guys,
The New Haven has been one of my favorite road and I may have posted on this thread before, but it's been quite a while. But being in S gauge limits the offerings available in RTR. Yeah, there's EP-5s, RS3s and 11's, U-boats, Geep 9's, Alco PA's and FA's, even TrainMasters. Also available is freight and passenger rolling stock, but sometimes you want something out of the ordinary. I've always liked the Osgood.Bradley cars, and AC Gilbert made them, but were shortened. So after picking a few shells at York a few years ago, I started "stretching" them to full length. Here's one of the six I've been working on:
The white line is a piece of styrene inserted to take the place of the saw kerf. Here's how the primered cars compare with a stock Gilbert car:
Research told me that the floors were a black and blue square tile arrangement. So a bit if computer fiddling and printing gave me the floors. The bulkheads are inserts in the shell, and seats are available (which will be painted a dark blue). The lower car is the "smoking" car with a different seat arrangement. The frames are made of sheet styrene using trucks from American Models:
The shells are painted Tru-Color Pullman Green with black roofs. Dry transfer lettering will be applied when the paint cures, then overcoated with a flat finish:
Motive power? A couple of years ago a friend gave me an AA set of DL-109 shells from American HiRail (now defunct) to paint. Being ALco units, power trucks are available as well as frames from American Models, so here's what they look like now:
They'll eventually be painted in the "as delivered" Pullman Green/Dulux Gold" scheme. I have decals, but they're quite different as to application, and I'm wary of using them. I may do the shells in paint rather than use the decals. Not sure yet.
I'm not a fast worker on train things since I have a 1920's house, two grandkids, a hot rod in the garage, a part time job and TONS of yard work. Plus we're thinking of moving within a year. So progress in incremental, if at all. The cars will probably be done before the locomotives, and I'll post a photo when that happens.
Will this be a "contest quality" model? No. But it will present itself well on any layout. I just don't have that kind of time to spend any more. Sometimes you just have to say that close enough is good enough, right?
Great thread, and some great info and ideas, but I'm NOT changing to O gauge.... 
Jerry Poniatowski Wayne, Michigan
