@John Sethian posted:I model the PRR under wire in New Jersey 1956. This was all the justification I needed to build a CNJ Commuter Train:
The FM H-24-66 Train Master is an MTH model. It is a bit of a Frankenstein, as it was made by combining the shell, chassis and electronics from an MTH 3 rail CNJ Train Master, with the trucks and lower pilots from an MTH Wabash 2 rail Train Master .
Express Boxcar is from Lionel, and took all of five minutes to convert to 2 rail. Lionel makes it very easy to take the trucks apart to replace the wheel sets without pulling out the springs
The combine and two coaches are brass models from Precision Scale. They are models of New York Central cars, but they have the correct (non-paired) window arrangement, roof, and vestibule arrangements as the CNJ coaches. The combine had a lousy paint job. It needed to be stripped with a sandblaster before painting. One of the coaches was painted, but could be painted over, The third was unpainted brass.
Here is a close up of the coach.
The decals were custom made. These cars have a lot of detail. Here is the underside
Note the wheel generators, all those tanks, and under car piping. Here is the end of one of the cars. Note the end gate, the diaphragm and striker, the hoses and the uncoupling levers, and the "jail bars" over the wahsroom window
Since the cars were so detailed, I thought the rest of my build should do it justice. So I scratch built interior walls:
It mkaes a difference, compared to looking at blank interior walls
The interior is fully populated with the seats painted two tone green:
It hard to tell, but the floor has a subtle pattern, made by first painting with Dark Green paint, then spraying a light coat of Roof Accessory brown through a thick plastic grid
And here is the Central Railroad of New Jersey commuter train pulling into a station:
Amazing work! Your layout and commuter train look incredibly realistic. 👍🏻👍🏻
