Another Big AP-EB Paint Project Is In The Books!

Greetings All,

In early July 1:1 Sir Neal visited the great train store under his layout and found twelve Athearn BB 57' mechanical reefers that were in need of a project. After inquiring if the Patti O Paint Shop was open we put our collective heads together and came up with a scenario to paint six of the cars for Sir Neal's Atlantic Pacific Railroad and six cars for my Empire Belt Railroad. The cars would then be divided between us with each of us getting three AP and three EB cars. 

The main focus of the project is to use these cars in future P.C.C.M.s or virtual ops. The cars will be in dedicated service between Sir Neal's C&P Restaurant Supply and my Terminal Cold Storage & Warehouse and Ralph's Grocery Warehouse. To reflect this the cars would be specially painted in a bold color. 

In addition to the reefer cars Sir Neal sent down an Atlas GP40 that is to be painted as PC 3180 to match the PC 3180 on my layout. He also sent down another engine for me to keep that will be the focus of a future blog entry. 

It's late July and the box of trains has arrived at Terminal Yard. A dozen freight cars, two engines and plenty of decals will keep the Patti O Paint Shop crew busy for many days to come!

The 57' cars come in the passenger car sized Athearn Blue Box which is nice because they have the extended cushioned under frame coupler boxes. When built they fit very nicely into the boxes.
After removing the shells from the frames it's time to strip the factory paint. I was able to strip six at a time using this turkey sized tin pan with cover.

The Patti O Paint Shop is open for business! 

The twelve reefer car shells and two locomotive shells dry in the sun. On cloudy days I can bake on the finish in the Chiminea.😉 

The all important mock up. Every time I do this I think of Fred Gwynn in My cousin Vinny "Are you mocking me!". Each small container receives the full amount of decals for one car. I cut out the car data, door data, ACI labels, COTS Panels etc first as each cars gets a full compliment of those. Next it's onto road names, individual numbers and reporting marks.

It looks like I've added racing stripes to my gloss white molding. Actually what I'm doing is getting some of the tackiness off the painters tape before applying it to the newly painted models. A mirror works also works well for this.

The cars are now completely painted and it's time to start the decal process. 1:1 Sir Neal came up with this good looking paint scheme for the 57' Reefers.

The E.B.R.R. cars will feature two lettering styles that will be highlighted once the cars are completed.

The first side of the first A.P.R.R. car is done. 

 The first side of the first E.B.R.R. car is also done.

The paint and lettering is now complete! The twelve car string of mechanical reefers are getting pulled into Terminal Yard from the paint shop.

AP 5760 is first out of the Patti O Paint Shop and is inspected by 1/87th scale senior engineer Sir Neal and the rest of the guys.

Newly painted E.B.R.R. 5726 sports the 'Respect The Red' safety slogan that's been appearing on some of the newly painted E.B.R.R. rolling stock. I'll follow that up further in a future blog entry.

E.B.R.R. 5728 and E.B.R.R. 5730 (not shown) sport the more traditional Empire Belt lettering.

Six of one, half a dozen of another! The Terminal Yard switchers separate the newly painted reefers into groups of six. One group will remain here and the other group will head up to the A.P.R.R.

Several days later the guys have gathered again at Terminal Yard as it's time for the newly painted cars to depart behind newly painted Penn Central GP40 #3180. The guys look towards the yard office and wonder where 1/87th scale PC Ralph is as Conductor John checks his watch hoping PC Ralph doesn't miss the departure. 

There he is! 1/87th scale PC Ralph has just jumped off the crosstown bus. 

Blog followers should recall why PC Ralph is riding the bus.

 And remember 1/87th scale PC Ralph's epic pre dawn ride!

Anyway the gang's all together as they check out the two PC 3180s and the newly painted 57' mechanical refrigerators. The engine on the left is 1:1 Sir Neal's Atlas model that will roam the A.P.R.R. tracks while the engine on the right is my Bachmann model. Both painted at the Patti O Paint Shop.

Here's another view of the train(s) we'll be using on our respective layouts for the virtual ops including the Athearn BB PC caboose which we both have.

Double vision? Nope. PC 3180 and the six 57' mechanical reefers will be exactly the same whether on the A.P.R.R. or N.Y.C.T.L.  

That wraps up the latest big AP - EB Paint Project. Breaking the project into small individual portions and doing the work in assembly line fashion made the project much more manageable. 

Be sure to check in with 1:1 Sir Neal's AP.R.R. blog to see the newly painted trains on the AP.

Thanks for reading!