Cable Car Conversion

This post is the fourth in the series about how I built my Walthers National Model Railroad Build Off diorama.  In the first post I described how I made the brick street.  Next I discussed the thought process behind kitbashing a vintage plastic kit.  Last week I talked about some of the lessons I learned designing and composing the diorama itself.  This time I'm going to show how I kitbashed a Bachmann Cable Car into a horse-drawn streetcar.  

Here's the cable car during deconstruction and conversion.  I've been to San Francisco many times and I rode the cable cars years ago.  On a more recent trip my wife and I spent more time riding the buses, but I digress.  Next is a photo of the initial reconstruction.

In the above image the roof has been shortened and tacked together and the ends are being modified.  The donor car is, admittedly, pretty cheap but I think it has great potential.  They can be found on eBay or at train shows for a decent price.  Originally I planned to build a streetcar as a decomsissioned vehicle now placed as a tourist attraction at Strickland's Store on my late 20s era Pine Branch Park layout.  This is, ultimately, where this model will end up.  But for this diorama it needed to be in service.

The body shell has been given a coat of primer and the gaps from the roof reduction filled with putty and wet sanded.  The frame was scratchbuilt from styrene with end plates and railings in brass, soldered.  The bearings came from a Selley old-time passenger truck and the wheels are O scale spoked speeder wheels from Wiseman Model Services drilled to accept the axles from the Selley wheelsets.  The horse is a heavy metal casting, probably lead, of what I think is a circus horse; see the pointy thing between his ears.  This was carefully filed away and the head reshaped.

Here is a prototype picture I found.  There are many designs for streetcar bodies and most are similar, resembling a short coach body with clerestory roof and open platforms.  This particular prototype matches very closely the Bachmann cable car body, right down to the gentle arches in the windows.  Had I not been pressed for time, I may have modeled more of the lovely detail on the end platform railing and panel.  Mine is far simpler but still conveys the essence of the thing.

Lettering was done mostly one letter at a time using an alphabet sheet from K4 decals.  I chose Orange Avenue because it fit neatly using the yellow letters I had and helped set the scene in Florida.  The paint scheme was chosen after looking at several preserved horse drawn streetcars.  Yellow and brown seemed to be a popular combination, and the Tuscan Red roof is a classic choice.  I painted the horse as a big Palomino draft horse.  I already had dark brown and medium brown horses and a gray mule on the diorama, so it seemed a good choice.  

The tackle was mostly cast onto the horse but the reins are made from black electrical tape.  The swingle tree was scratchbuilt from styrene and wire with scale chain superglued into an arc behind it.  These bits are fiddly but the result is worth it in terms of realism and a fine scale look.  The driver is a Weston figure and the passengers are two seated townspeople from the Lytler & Lytler Ragtimers series.  The car body is removable to allow access to the interior.

This last image sets the streetcar into the story.  The woman hailing the car is from Preiser.  I didn't submit this shot due to the obvious wrinkles in the sky, the poor lighting, and lack of focus at various depths.  Still, I like it for the story it tells.  Three mini-scenes are visible in this one shot, and they will be the subject of a future post.  I had a great time kitbashing this little car and using it to paint a picture of life at the turn of the previous century.

As always, thanks for reading, and feel free to leave your comments and questions in the field below.