ARC #100 coach

[NickBrad]

Had a little Pm with Robatron about his Rivarossi observation car and whether it was the same as the Pennsylvania one that is all over ebay atm. The reason for this is that I would like to make a model of Alexander railroad company's former #100 which is a 12 wheel Pullman Heavyweight. The Pennsylvania car is quite different though and Rob suggested throwing it out to you guys for suggestions, so here I am. 

 

Firstly, a couple of pics of what I am aiming for, http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4239767 and http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6517027605_1c52bbea84_o.jpg

 

Doing a little digging, it seems it was originally a 12-1 sleeping car and has undergone a couple of renovations/remodels, which resulted in the "observation" end and explains why the observation model is so different. So, that leaves modifying a model, but which one. from what I have seen, there's 3 different options, all from Rivarossi;

 

the aforementioned Pennsylvania observation car, the Pullman "St Croix" car, or this one
 

So, over to you guys, what suggestions do you have about tackling the build, are there other suitable bases out there to start from, a kit maybe?
 

[Adrian Wintle]

The Rivarossi car in the eBay link does have the advantage of being a Pullman 12-1 sleeping car. If you want to do a conversion that may be the best place to start. As I understand it, the Rivarossi 'St. Croix' should also be a 12-1 (i.e. the same model). The windows on the observation are all wrong, so converting that would be much more work.

 

This link has a discussion of the prototype coaches (it is for N-scale, but my understanding is the Rivarossi HO heavyweights are the same as the N ones). Scroll down to the Rivarossi section.

http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/protopass1.htm

 

Adrian

[NickBrad]

Thanks for that link, i'll have a read.