Rio Grande Southern Outfit Car #0256

Note: This is not a 'How To', but a display of a completed 'Scratchbuilt Project' showing what can be done with some materials and time. It does not have to have been judged for AP Points.

(Click on the small images for the full size view.)

September 30, 2005

Building this car was a fun and interesting project. It was also a very intimidating one. This was my first attempt at building any kind of passenger car. Because I had not built this type of car before, I decided maybe a little "practice" might be in order.

In order to gain some confidence in this area, I purchased an old Tomalco kit for a D&RG narrow gauge passenger car on Ebay. These old kits are the "scratch building project" in a box kind of offering from the early 70's. I worked at building the many sub-assemblies of the kit to get the "feel" for how a passenger car model is built. After getting my feet wet, I felt confident enough to attempt a scratch built model of RGS #0256.

I used the Tomalco plans from the kit, and additional photos of the prototype car to develop plans for my model. The Tomalco "practice" car had been built with wood. I chose to use Evergreen styrene shapes, and siding for my scratch built version. I found the styrene much easier to work with. I used the end platform castings from the Tomalco kit. The trucks are a commercial offering from PBL. The car also has complete under body detailing.

The car roof was a challenge to say the least. I built the roof frame, and covered it with .010 styrene sheeting. I used aluminum duct tape to represent the roof covering. The roof required many hours of work before I had a finished product I could live with. The window frames are scratch built, and glazed with microscope cover slip glass. I also added a complete interior to this car. The interior is made up both scratch built and commercial castings.

While this project seemed intimidating to me at first, I found that a little "practice" with a commercial kit gave me the confidence to attempt a scratch built version. The completed model received 119 points in NMRA judging. The car also won Best-of-Show at the Rocky Mountain Region, NMRA model contest in June of 2005.

Mark L. Evans

If you wish to submit a photo for consideration, send the photo (no larger than 800x600 please) to TJ Klevar along with a description of how you built it, techniques you used, and any special tips you wish pass along.