- Orphan Valley Railway -

The On30 Bachman Baggage Combine Modification

The conversion of this Baggage Combine into a working member of the BR Railway roster involved pulling it apart and adding interior details, improving the lighting with LEDS and anti-flicker kit from DCConcepts, canvasing the roof and adding a new paint job. The article from the Sept 2011 Model Railway Hobbyist Online Magazine section "The Lite and Narrow" proved very helpful. Visit link to download.

 So here goes on documenting my effort.

Pulling the Combine apart required some prising apart of clip lugs and undoing bogie and floor screws. The roof came off first giving access to floor screws.

The position of the interior light.

Removing the window took some effort as they are fastened with some good contact adhesive. I resorted to using the Dremel and cutting blade and then the mult-tool to cleanup the glue deposits and broken window tabs.

The wire for the lighting is screwed to the bogie.

The front bogie.

Weathering of the Body: I used an undercoat of dark brown spray paint. I then let that dry over night. The next evening I sprayed on a coat of TreSeme Extrahold hairspray and let dry for 10 mins. Then I brust on a thinned coat of mixed flat red and red brown tamiya paints and dryed with a hairdryer, Then, suing a stiff hogs bristle brush, working in downward strokes I wore away section of the thinned mixture or remoed more with Isosopropyl Alcohol. This gave a more weathered, peeling paint look. Then I finished of with various shade of weathering powder after a shot of Testors Dullcoat.

The overall look with the frame having some weathering.

Painting up figures and the interior seats.

Some of the passengers after painting up. They are a little oversize to fit in the combine apartment, so some removal of body parts was needed.

Adding details like luggage into the baggage compartment. Items are from the Tamiya 1/48 army baggage kit for army tanks. Good bed rolls and bags. Also a puppy.

You can see on the window that I have added cracks for extra interest and painted the toilet widow white.

The roof was covered with tissue paper applied with diluted PVA. Then weathered with washed of acrylic paint and weatherd black paints and some greyish weathering powders.

Another shot.

 I was pleased with how the combine came up. The LED non flicker set from DCC concepts really made an excellent improvement to the lighting. I used 2 LEDs soldered to the PCB strip and a 1k resister.