Model Railroading > Amtrak's Willamette Valley

From an HO scale Walthers Budd Hi-Level Sky Lounge. Model started out factory painted for ATSF.

• I shaved off the Santa Fe name board and fluting below the upper windows, added a .288 wide strip of .010 styrene, then painted the strip with Testors stainless steel.
• The Pacific Parlour plate was added in a similar fashion. Carefully shave off the existing fluting, add a .020 rectangle of stainless painted styrene (scale 3.25 x. 6 feet).
• Trucks were weathered up much darker than the Santa Fe silver.
• Several additional square access holes were hacked into the lower skirt.
• The windows were tinted a little darker from the inside with a Prismacolor 70% Warm Grey art marker.
• Per Amtrak's practice, one upper level window has been plated over (more steel paint).
• Amtrak Phase IVb and PPC decals are by a well know custom manufacturer, who has been forced to stop (publicly) offering them for sale.
• Model then Dullcoted to knock back the shimmer a touch, to more closely match the Walthers Superliner cars this model will run with.

Now I get to run a full on Amtrak Coast Starlight! Just gotta wait until I get back from 2 weeks of mid-west storm chasin'.

Mr. MRL - leaving CA in ~6 hours...

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Great looking model!

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Wow.....very nice

Darned nice!  That would be a nice car to have.  You did excellent work..  The car brings back fond memories of riding the real one.

Gary B.
Waverly, NE

wow great job what kinda paint did you use

Hats of to ya! That car looks sharp.

Posted from Android

Very nice work on the passenger textures.

Travel well.

Posted from iPhone

> • Amtrak Phase IVb and PPC decals are by a well
> know custom manufacturer, who has been forced to
> stop (publicly) offering them for sale.
> Mr. MRL - leaving CA in ~6 hours...

That is because somebody did not get a cut of the pie.
In other words Amtrak did not OK it.
Same as CSX,UP,BNSF etc.We want you to know
you have ask us before usiing our name or logo.
The ACLSALHS has been around for 32 years.The
merger roads are in the distant past and the logos
no longer exist.If we had the money we could fight
CSX claim.But we have to state on everything we do
we have permission to use the logo of ACL and SAL.
It is a shame that the big bad bully railroads
want to make it hard for the modelers.

Uncle Joe,Seffner,Fl
Founder ACLSALHS
 

Nice work and perfect timing. I picked one up for 25.00 and am going to try to duplicate your great results!

Paul Amos
Warren Ohio

Posted from Android

I'll buy it from you there Robert.

Posted from Android

...now you've jinxed yourself...soon you'll see a Walther's announcement for one.

:)

(At least that's what would happen if I did one up)

How about a new interior? Walthers sure doesn't know what to do with thier HI-LEVEL dies--could mass produce these with a new interior and sell them at $99. But no, the new train is just the old train only different. Walthers when will you wake up?

Dilworth Wrote:
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> wow great job what kinda paint did you use

Thank you. The silver paint touch ups were Testors Stainless Steel enamel.

Mr. MRL

Thanks for the kudos folks! Sorry boomer, I couldn't possibly sell this car yet, at least let me see it in the train set first, lol.

Mr. MRL

- leaving CA in ~6 hours...

Where you headed?  Big Sky country?

When you run it in your train, let me know.


The offer stands :)

MrMRL Wrote:
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> Thanks for the kudos folks! Sorry boomer, I
> couldn't possibly sell this car yet, at least let
> me see it in the train set first, lol.
>
> Mr. MRL

Posted from Android

GoatBoatMarty Wrote:
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> - leaving CA in ~6 hours...
>
> Where you headed?  Big Sky country?

Tornado Alley.

Mr. MRL - passing Albuquerque now...

Nice work there, I need one when you have some free time! :)

Seriously, I do need to find time to build one for my Coast Starlight. In all my spare time.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone