This kit is for a
baggage car of the late 1880s, measuring 50 feet over its end sills. As you
might expect, we here at Silver Crash Car Works wanted
these cars only because the Colorado Midland
bought 12 of them in 1887 - six with 'cross-eyed' doors like the
example above, and six with the more traditional
‘wide-eyed’ doors. But those who model other railroads will be
relieved to know that the Midland cars were built to two of the Pullman
Palace Car Company's standard designs (one of which is shown in Figure 598 in the 1895 Car Builder’s Dictionary), and that railroads across the country, including the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific, purchased identical cars from Pullman and its competitors.
It
would be no exaggeration to say that these kits set new standards
for pre-turn-of-the-century passenger cars in HO
scale. Note the bolts on the draw timbers, as well as the one-piece
roof with its tin
sheeting, clerestory
window frames, and virtuosic dip-down corners. The kits include two
specially designed time-saving jigs: one for forming body
grab-irons with the compound curve so beloved of
late-19th century car builders, and a second for making prototypically accurate end-railings with curved hand-holds
for the car’s Miller platforms. The brass strap stock needed for the end railings is also included. Trucks, couplers, decals, and other detail parts are not. Kits are available for
both the
cross-eyed car and the wide-eyed car (as seen in the castings below), and either one will go together in a
fraction of the time it would take you to scratchbuild a baggage car.
Click on any of the photos below for full-size images:
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