Re: Leadville Designs Baggage/Express 1 in C&Sn3

Posted by Mike Trent on Oct 15, 2023; 9:19pm
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/Leadville-Designs-Baggage-Express-1-in-C-Sn3-tp19129p19164.html

Hi, Jim. I've remained on the sideline through this discussion awaiting the solution to become apparent as I was sure it would. Keith said it as well as I could have with the following:

"I appreciate Bill's efforts to develop the kit and do most of the hard work for us. Errors like this happen and I find these sorts of problems drive my ingenuity and make me a better modeler."

I have had to deal with situations like this more times than I can remember, often wondering if the best thing would be to just discard everything and either forget it or keep working to find the way to resolve the problem. Each time, I've found a way to solve the problem. I could cite several examples such as the cab for #537, but the best example in this case was actually noodling how to build the roof on Baggage and Mail #13. To build #13, I used styrene parts and identical Evergreen material to create the body from an old Crossing Gate Styrene D&RGW coach kit using Ken Martin's drawing to guide me. The body came together pretty well, but I was worried about the roof. The #13 would be shorter than the coach was so I had to decide whether to try to modify the Crossing Gate three part roof or to try to create one on my own. In the end, I decided to try to use the Crossing Gate material, since I had them, and try to shorten the sections to get the length right. The other issue was to have to get the ends right, as there are no platforms. Somewhere I read that the #13 had to undergo a roof repair in the late 20's because of a pretty bad sag. So what I did was cut the roof at the same point where the wall separating the Postal end from the Baggage end was and carefully sanded the three parts square and straight.to further conceal the joint, I applied a piece of 3M Magic tape, and after painting, the joint is virtually invisible. And if anyone was to notice, I had a built in excuse as a scar from the latest roof repair. I used included Grand Clerestory windows, which I was told once were acually made to fit old wood body coach kits made by Star. They may not be perfect, but hey, comprimises are part of the game, right?

So, in the end, I completely agree with Keith's philosophy about overcoming obstacles along the way as that makes us better modelers. You, Jim, are an excellent modeler, and I had no doubt you would find your way through this. I'm sure you will be successful.

I'm feeling a lot better these days and am looking forward to building up the new trucks for #13. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get those proper trucks for it. Thank God I've lived to be able to get my paws on them at last! Thanks Bill!