Dinnerware for passenger o gauge cars

Forum member Dreyfus Hudson did some spectacular dining car detail with plates, silverware, even utensils and period-correct boxes of food and materials in the kitchen.  It was incredible.  You might search for his posts (some time back) or e-mail him.

Use the search feature (in the banner at the top) to search Mmembers for him.  His page will come up, and to the right, about a page down, it gives his e-mail.  He is still very active on this forum so i imagine he will be glad to help.

for what it is worth, I make dinner plates out of the punch leftovers when I use a paperpunch to make holes for 3-hole paper, and use splinters painted siler for silverware, etc.  Looks okay through the windows of d dining car, but nothing like what he did . . .

Keil Line makes dining car table tops with dinnerware already cast into the surface.  It's quite shallow in relief, however.

Which leads me to the next suggestion, based on one of our (LHS) customer's latest efforts in HO scale....

Being a stickler for detail/accuracy, he wanted his HW dining car project to be finessed with tableware.   So, he set up a table (1:1) laid out with the appropriate china and flatware and napkins...things that would be relatively shallow in depth...and took some pictures. 

But that's where he added to the realism.  He lit the table with high-powered photofloods from the side...simulating light coming through the window of the dining car.  The room lights were also left on...simulating car interior lighting.  Then he shot the photos from the 'window' position.

After photoshopping them to the exact size of his tables, he pasted the images on the table tops, to which he had already added a bit of 'draping' for the tablecloth skirts.  (Like I said, he gets carried away, sometimes...in HO!!)

But the effect was outstanding.  No....it was awesome!  Based on the lighting, the shadows gave sufficient illusion of 3D to 'pull it off', as they say.

Ergo...when all else fails in your quest, you could try something photographic.  I just measured the depth of a common dinner plate sitting on a table...say 0.75".  The O-scale equivalent would be 0.015625".  ()  That's not much 'relief', IMHO, to worry about in comparison to a well-planned photo.  BTW, the customer's HO spread?...the dinner plate would've had a table-relief of 0.0078125"!!!!.  I don't know about you, but at my sexagenarian time of life, wearing tri-focals normally, plus a 3.5 magnification Optivisor when I'm at my workbench working on O-scale stuff!!!...I figure I'm blessed to be able to see anything at all in this hobby!!  A glass of Merlot helps the hands and the patience, but the eyesight???......Hoo, boy!  (And N scale rolling stock looks like dog kibble to me anymore!)

So, FWIW, always...there's my Sunday morning contribution.  

Y'all have a blessed day!!

KD

KD thanks for the perspective and observations.  It changes what I am trying to do.

Buzz

Wow! Simply fantastic. 

Thank you!

Circus Craft did place settings many years ago.  they show up on ebay now & then

You may also want to try the doll house supply companies that deal in 1/4 scale dollhouse furniture and stuff. I'm travelling at the moment and don't have easy access to all my links but just google

Happy railroading

BTW...I should've finished the story of the HO dining car (see above)...

The taller items on the table he made out of bits of cut styrene rod...clear for water glasses, vases, and white for cups or painted silver for coffee pot, sugar/creamer...  Standing 'menus' were simply small folded bits of paper.  There was a 'flower' in the vase near the window...a piece of fine wire or two dipped at the tip with some of the Woodland Scenics flower foam stuff. 

It sounds simple enough. It certainly would be only 'half' as tedious in O scale.

But, believe me, it's waaaaaayyyyy beyond what I have patience and time for.  i.e., it's nowhere on my dwindling 'bucket list'.

Good luck. 

Carry on.

KD

Check out Dreyfus Hudson's latest;

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/d...nt/14804764750691295

Thanks Lee. Super Dave, you can make plates, silverware, food etc. yourself if you are handy. (I do make detail parts to order.) You can contact me if you like. Email in profile.

I took pictures of actual meals on a plate, shrunk them down to scale, and used a single punch to cut the plate out of a piece of thick, white paper. the meal pictures were taken on the Canadian passenger train, so all the food look is authentic.

The walls of the kitchen are actual pictures I took of a train kitchen.

The camera shows more detail than I can actually see with my naked eye. If you like the look and level of detail, then a similar approach may work for you.

I plan to make glasses out of thin round plastic rounds, sized for the diameter of a glass, and place them on the table. cutlery is quite small, however the ideas listed above may be a good addition to my dining car.