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One of my decisions to purchase this K-Line Union Pacific Streamline Passenger car K4690-37000 was it had a fully detailed interior.   I ran the car on around layout and was enjoying the factory K-Line passengers and its interior details when I started to notice small details that were out of place.  First I noticed was that K-Line installed the upper dome seats backwards.  Second, detail was K-Line also installed the main coach seats backwards.  I know what you are going to say... "It's only a small item"  But this meant either the all the passengers were facing the wrong way going around the layout or I had to run the dome car backwards.  The final detail that got me was the missing staircase that was supposed to lead up to the dome level.  This car had one flat row of plain cream colored seats downstairs on the main level, no walls, no bathrooms and no stairs going up to the dome level.

This was the start of the journey that lead me into researching the original details of the UP 7000 Dome coach and correcting the colors and little details the best I could on my K-Line car.  At first I tried painting the K-Line seats and spun the existing plastic interiors around so the passengers faced the correct direction.  But after doing this, the seats did not line-up correctly with the K-Line windows anymore and the whole interior looked out of place.



I started by removing the K-line interior from the shell and separating the seats from the plastic base.  I was happy with the quality of the existing K-Line bench seats downstairs but K-Line provided way to many seats for the amount of windows in the car.  I decided to save these extra bench seats and repurposed them upstairs in the dome area.  In the photo below you can see the K-line shell next to the UP plans and original K-line interior.  I will attach the UP plans at the end of the post if anyone wants to upgrade your UP 7000 dome coach interior.



To make a new floor I used a thin sheet of 1/16” x 3” x 24” basswood.  Then cut it to the same width as metal K-Line base. The ends of the basswood floor were cut slightly shorter due to the clearance for cars power wires and end caps.  I elevated the basswood floor on wooden strips to gain clearance above the existing power and ground wires from the trucks.  The new floor then got mounted on top of the metal K-line base using the same exact screw locations that held the old plastic interior. The trick is to line up your wooden strips with the factory screw hole locations.    In 1999 K-line made this 18" long semi-scale compressed version of the real 85 ft Union Pacific 7000 dome coach.  This meant the UP plans did not exactly line up with placement of the semi-scale K-Line windows, so I had to compromises to make the two worlds meet in the middle.  Start with gluing in your seats to match the window spacing on your new basswood floor.  You can then you can figure out how much space you have left to start putting up the interior bulkhead dividers and bathroom walls based on the UP plans.





During my research I found 7000 series used plaid colors on the seats and UP turned the dome seats outward 10 degrees so the passengers had better views.  See photo below showing mid-1950's style plaid benches, yellow back wall, gray outer carpet with green carpet strip in the center.  It made sense to me that UP also used this same color yellow on the walls and green carpet downstairs.





Following the UP plans the downstairs the bulkhead walls and bathrooms were easy to recreate.  The curved staircase proved to be the toughest part of this build.  The curved staircase took a while to create but it was exactly the kind of detail I wanted to include for my viewers.  See UP stock photo of a 7000 series staircase below.  You can tell this photo is a 7000 series car is from the "City of Portland" train-set because it has Snowflake themed wallpaper on the wall.





Below is a UP promo photo showing some of the interior colors of the exact UP 7000 dome coach I'm trying to duplicate.  It looks like it had green seats, cream headrest covers and burgundy on the bulkhead walls.  Since I was reusing the K-Line bench seats downstairs my recreation did not have tall seats with headrests covers but I have seen them for sale out there if you want to make yours look exactly like the UP promo photo.





In the photo below is a look at the repurposed bench seats now located in the upper dome area.  You will have to remove the old floor from the dome area by cutting it off from the outside.  Once the old floor is removed you can attach a new floor using some of the 1/16” x 3” x 24” basswood and then glue the bench seats in place.  Note the bench seats were trimmed by the wall to get the 10 degree angle needed (I was not going to try and paint the seats plaid).  The UP plans called out for 6 bench seats on each side but since this is semi-scale I could only fit 5 seats on each side.





And now the same bench seats with Preiser passengers.  I used Preiser figures from their 24 pack (part# 65602) in this build.  And painted the figures to match the people in the UP promotional photos.  Since the floors in the dome area and the downstairs coach are higher than normal, you will need to trim the feet off your figures.  Also, in the dome you should trim the bottoms on your figures to make them fit under the glass top better.

The final details were inside the Men’s and Women's bathrooms. I used lounge chairs and sinks from www.ScaleCityDesigns.com.  I hope this write-up with plans helps others who want to upgrade there 7000 series Union Pacific Dome Coach passenger car.

Thanks,

*** Edit***

To look at the other interior builds in this series click on the links below. They are listed in the order I run them on my layout:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...-an-e-8-cab-interior

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...interior-upgrade-rpo

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...6327-k4690#lastReply

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...car-interior-upgrade

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...enger-car-8003-k4690

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...lounge-car#lastReply

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...enger-car-1305-k4690

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...upgrade-k-line-k4690

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...upgrade-k-line-k4690

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...senger-car#lastReply

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...upgrade-placid-haven

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...oenix-aluminum-shell

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...pullman-sleeping-car

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...c-passenger-car-1575

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...-passenger-car-k4690

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  • Union Pacific 7000 Dome Coach plans
Last edited by T.Albers
Original Post

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J Daddy posted:

Also what is annoying is the swiss cheese holes in most cars shown in your earlier post... I really like your work.

 

Thanks JDaddy, unfortunately the current status of the UP 7000 is also starting to look like swiss cheese.  Attached is the last photo (circa: 2002) I could find of the UP 7000.  The condition in the Dome area looked pretty bad at that time and nobody has posted a newer photo since.  

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  • 7000 condition as of 2002: 7000 condition as of 2002

That's fine work. The historical research on these cars is always rewarding. Lining the seating up to match the car windows is always a complicated job. More than once I have had to start over again.

I've posted elsewhere a photo essay on my latest dome project (in the Lionel 21" Excursion dome observation car) but I went a little overboard on the partying passengers. However like you in the dome I reconfigured the seating to match photos of the prototype (still in service in the UP Heritage Fleet) although I decided it would be far too complicated to try and match the upholstery:

(P.S. for some reason this first photo does not insert correctly in the post but it is attached below.)

2_Dome

2A__Domes5__Spacing6_Dome_L+R_Lit3_Overhead

BTW, I've figured out that the Swiss cheese effect is because K-Line used a limited number of passenger car floors and they came pre-drilled to accommodate just about any passenger car interior seating/detail configuration. Of course in those days the details were hand-applied.

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Last edited by Hancock52
Hancock52 posted:

That's fine work. The historical research on these cars is always rewarding. Lining the seating up to match the car windows is always a complicated job. More than once I have had to start over again.

I've posted elsewhere a photo essay on my latest dome project (in the Lionel 21" Excursion dome observation car) but I went a little overboard on the partying passengers. However like you in the dome I reconfigured the seating to match photos of the prototype (still in service in the UP Heritage Fleet) although I decided it would be far too complicated to try and match the upholstery:

(P.S. for some reason this first photo does not insert correctly in the post but it is attached below.)

2_Dome

2A__Domes5__Spacing6_Dome_L+R_Lit3_Overhead

BTW, I've figured out that the Swiss cheese effect is because K-Line used a limited number of passenger car floors and they came pre-drilled to accommodate just about any passenger car interior seating/detail configuration. Of course in those days the details were hand-applied.

Those photos look great Hancock52!  Where did you find the plates and coffee pots?  The full size overhead dome windows on your Lionel 21" 9000 series passenger car are exactly correct per the UP builders spec.  In your cars these large windows allow a much nicer for your viewers to see all the fine details you added. 

On K-Line cars they have a bar that crosses the window and blocks the view into the dome.  This bar across the window was used on other railroads dome cars but never on the Union Pacific's 7000, 8000 or 9000 series dome cars built in the 1950's.   

 

Also, now that I see how nice LED lighting looks in the dome area, I want to try that next.  How did you get the table cloth effect?

 

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Inspired by Hancock52 I have started to spruce up my Lionel UP cars. I have no plans now to get as detailed but one detail I wanted to add were headrest covers. Scale City has a few but none for UP yet so I decided to try and make my own. Googling Union Pacific Headrest Covers I found this image. It was a the flatest one I could find. Others with white or yellow backgrounds were not flat and would have produced a distorted image.

Headrest

Then using a freeware program called Irfanview I made an array of the image and scaled the array so each image would fit on the seatbacks.

Here printed on paper are the results. I plan to print them on decal film for final application.

Headrest2

Pete

 

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Last edited by Norton
T.Albers posted:
Those photos look great Hancock52!  Where did you find the plates and coffee pots?  The full size overhead dome windows on your Lionel 21" 9000 series passenger car are exactly correct per the UP builders spec.  In your cars these large windows allow a much nicer for your viewers to see all the fine details you added. 

On K-Line cars they have a bar that crosses the window and blocks the view into the dome.  This bar across the window was used on other railroads dome cars but never on the Union Pacific's 7000, 8000 or 9000 series dome cars built in the 1950's.   

Also, now that I see how nice LED lighting looks in the dome area, I want to try that next.  How did you get the table cloth effect?

All the plates, cups etc. and foodstuffs are "quarter scale" miniatures actually made commercially for dioramas and indeed dollhouses. You can find tons of it by a Google search or on fleabay.

The "tablecloths" are inkjet printable self-adhesive vinyl.

Yes, whatever else can be said against Lionel's effort on these 21" ABS UP Excursion Train cars, they got the domes practically perfect.

The dome lighting was another exercise in going over the top. All the LEDs I used come from Evan Designs and are supplied as standard by them fitted for wiring to track power. The overhead lighting is two "Mega Chip" LEDs (big square ones that throw a lot of light). But what I read about these cars is that they also had floor lighting. They come stock from Lionel with no lighting at all but four rectangular holes cut into the sides of walkway well to let light in from the illuminated compartment underneath. That does not work well so I added floor lighting, again using Evan Designs LEDs that come wired in sets of four, one set on each side fitted in mock Fresnel lenses that are actually push button inserts from Mouser Electronics: 

6_FloorLighting7_LitSurfBluePearlSeats

This is not a finished project. There is one area in the front of the car where I am adding a few more interior details (in the prototype it’s a rest room area and small “lounge” as our ancestors called it), which I won’t get to until I finish something else. So this is what the work in progress looks like with a large quantity of my crappy wiring in place:

8_Wiring

I admit I lavished a lot of effort on a bar area in the belly of the car under the dome seating. All of the figures had to be placed to match the side windows, which again Lionel rendered based on the prototype car:

13_Barflies1

P.S. Norton (Pete) doesn't know it yet, although he'll find out in due course, but he's been my inspiration on a completely different project that is also still in progress. He also put me on to the idea of headrests and I have some coming from Scale City but I think I will end up printing my own.  As Pete says, finding suitable images for this purpose is problematic. 

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Last edited by Hancock52
Norton posted:

Inspired by Hancock52 I have started to spruce up my Lionel UP cars. I have no plans now to get as detailed but one detail I wanted to add were headrest covers. Scale City has a few but none for UP yet so I decided to try and make my own. Googling Union Pacific Headrest Covers I found this image. It was a the flatest one I could find. Others with white or yellow backgrounds were not flat and would have produced a distorted image.

Headrest

Then using a freeware program called Irfanview I made an array of the image and scaled the array so each image would fit on the seatbacks.

Here printed on paper are the results. I plan to print them on decal film for final application.

Headrest2

Pete

 

Hi Norton, Thank you for the link to the headrest covers.  If I upgrade to the correct high back coach seats in my K-Line cars I will definitely use these headrest covers.  Are you also running the 21” UP dome cars from Lionel?

Hancock52 posted:
T.Albers posted:
Those photos look great Hancock52!  Where did you find the plates and coffee pots?  The full size overhead dome windows on your Lionel 21" 9000 series passenger car are exactly correct per the UP builders spec.  In your cars these large windows allow a much nicer for your viewers to see all the fine details you added. 

On K-Line cars they have a bar that crosses the window and blocks the view into the dome.  This bar across the window was used on other railroads dome cars but never on the Union Pacific's 7000, 8000 or 9000 series dome cars built in the 1950's.   

Also, now that I see how nice LED lighting looks in the dome area, I want to try that next.  How did you get the table cloth effect?

All the plates, cups etc. and foodstuffs are "quarter scale" miniatures actually made commercially for dioramas and indeed dollhouses. You can find tons of it by a Google search or on fleabay.

The "tablecloths" are inkjet printable self-adhesive vinyl.

Yes, whatever else can be said against Lionel's effort on these 21" ABS UP Excursion Train cars, they got the domes practically perfect.

The dome lighting was another exercise in going over the top. All the LEDs I used come from Evan Designs and are supplied as standard by them fitted for wiring to track power. The overhead lighting is two "Mega Chip" LEDs (big square ones that throw a lot of light). But what I read about these cars is that they also had floor lighting. They come stock from Lionel with no lighting at all but four rectangular holes cut into the sides of walkway well to let light in from the illuminated compartment underneath. That does not work well so I added floor lighting, again using Evan Designs LEDs that come wired in sets of four, one set on each side fitted in mock Fresnel lenses that are actually push button inserts from Mouser Electronics: 

6_FloorLighting7_LitSurfBluePearlSeats

This is not a finished project. There is one area in the front of the car where I am adding a few more interior details (in the prototype it’s a rest room area and small “lounge” as our ancestors called it), which I won’t get to until I finish something else. So this is what the work in progress looks like with a large quantity of my crappy wiring in place:

8_Wiring

I admit I lavished a lot of effort on a bar area in the belly of the car under the dome seating. All of the figures had to be placed to match the side windows, which again Lionel rendered based on the prototype car:

13_Barflies1

P.S. Norton (Pete) doesn't know it yet, although he'll find out in due course, but he's been my inspiration on a completely different project that is also still in progress. He also put me on to the idea of headrests and I have some coming from Scale City but I think I will end up printing my own.  As Pete says, finding suitable images for this purpose is problematic. 

Hancock52, that LED lighting is amazing!

Hi T, 

I wanted to ask you this question. I have the same kit from Evans'. Great stuff.

I know where to hook up the positive lead, but where did you place the negative  lead.  I'm building a car using Atlas CZ, 3rl trucks.  I don't see a connection point for the negative lead?   This is the only lights I'm placing in the car. Thanks for your help'..

6_FloorLighting

Quarter Gauger 48 posted:

Hi T, 

I wanted to ask you this question. I have the same kit from Evans'. Great stuff.

I know where to hook up the positive lead, but where did you place the negative  lead.  I'm building a car using Atlas CZ, 3rl trucks.  I don't see a connection point for the negative lead?   This is the only lights I'm placing in the car. Thanks for your help'..

6_FloorLighting

One of the wire leads must go to the center rail pickup roller and the other to the outside rail ground. Usually the connection for the outside rail ground is on the truck block and consists of a screw fixing, or at least that is the case with Lionel passenger car trucks.  I am not sure if the particular Atlas trucks you are using have wipers/contacts on the inside of the wheels but again those will usually connect to a screw fixing.

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