Has anyone, other than Pecos River Brass, produced prototypically-accurate O-scale models of the 85-foot "lightweight" Pullman Standard 52-seat coaches, diners, and baggage/RPO equipment used on the Rio Grande's "The Prospector" and "Royal Gorge"? The latter train supplied the equipment for the 1968 version of the D&H "Laurentian", which I am trying to model. PRB's brass offerings, although perfect, are hard to find and rather expensive relative to similar passenger sets made of extruded aluminum (e.g. Golden Gate Depot's Empire State Express.)
I bought the Weaver set of aluminum D&H passenger cars only to discover that the window arrangements are way off. K-Line's 21-inch cars for "The Prospector" are similarly non-prototypical. Bachmann & MTH D&RGW offerings are too short. The prototypes were part of a partially-cancelled order intended for the C&O, but I don't know if anyone modeled these for the C&O. It would seem simple enough to find some extruded stock, cut to length, machine the windows in the proper locations, and, voila!: fluted PS bodies for C&O, D&RGW, and D&H trains. Am I "reinventing the wheel" here? I should note that 3-rail vs 2-rail is not a concern: I run both on 3-rail 090 curves, but hope to convert everything to Aristocraft/Crest Electronics R/C battery power.
Your insights are appreciated.
