Creating a Union Pacific Museum Car

Over the last two evenings, I have been working on a small project with my Union Pacific heritage fleet.  Recently, the Union Pacific put a large American Flag wrap on one of their baggage cars, and turned it into a Museum Car, which can frequently be found on their business and excursion trains.  I found some photos of the car, Union Pacific 5779, "Promontory," and decided that I wanted something similar in my fleet.  Actually, the reason I went looking for the photos was because I had found decals on eBay, for what the seller called the "UP Flag Car," and I was curious to see what they were talking about.  RR Picture Archives has several photos of the prototype, both before and after the flag artwork was added.  After looking at several of the prototype photos, I decided that I could make such a car, so I bought the decals.  I am not sure who makes the decals, as they came in a blank envelope and there was nothing written or printed on the decal sheet, other than the decals themselves.

When the decals arrived, I had one baggage car which I could have used for the decals, however I had already decided that that particular baggage car was destined to become an Alaska Railroad car.  So, I began searching eBay for the correct, 85-foot, six axle baggage car, on which I could use the flag decals.  Surprisingly, even after several weeks, nothing had surfaced on eBay.  A week ago, I was in Billings, and decided to stop at Jim's Junction, the local hobby shop, and take a look around, and much to my surprise, he had exactly the baggage car I was looking for.  I bought the only one that was on the shelf.  It was a Chicago and Northwestern baggage car, but it had been painted up in the Union Pacific colors for use on their "City" trains.  This was a fairly common practice, for UP and CNW to share equipment on those trains.  It really did not matter what the lettering was anyway, because it would all have to be removed, regardless of what it said.  While I was in the hobby shop, I got talking to another modeler in there, who suggested removing the lettering using a pink eraser.  I had heard that before, and decided to give it a try.

When I got the car home, I went out and bought an eraser, making sure I got one that was soft, and had no grains or grit, which might scratch up the paint.  I began erasing the "Chicago" on one side of the car, but I was disappointed because after several minutes, there were no noticeable results.  There was some black residue on the end of the eraser I had been using, but as far as I could tell, it had done nothing to the lettering on the car.  I decided to clean the eraser off and try again.  At that point, I started to notice the letters fading, so I kept going.  It was a fairly tedious process, to get the "Chicago and Northwestern," "Railway Express Agency," and the little REA star off both sides of the car, but after a while, it was all done.  I had the blank yellow car I needed.  I did notice that pushing harder on the eraser did not necessarily yield better or faster results.  Actually, it tended to start to remove the  yellow paint too, so a gentle grip on the eraser, and a bit of patience, seems to be the best way to go.  I did notice that the the eraser made the paint a little shinier than in areas where I had not removed the lettering.  This was minor and only visible under close inspection in just the right lighting conditions.  I did not worry about it too much, because I figured the dullcoat would help to hide it in the end.

Once I was satisfied that I had successfully gotten all the lettering off, and there were no more stray marks from the lettering, I began cutting out the decals.  The decals came on one large decal sheet, so whatever I cut out would be the size of the decal I would apply to the car.  I carefully cut the decals out very close to the edge of the printed area, so that there would be very little extra clear decal material around the actual flag image.  Once the flag was cut out, I used it to determine which grab bars would need to be removed before I could apply the decal.  I then removed the roof of the car, removed the windows, and removed the grab bars.  I stored the eight grab bars and the windows in a small plastic zip-lock bag, so nothing would get lost or dropped.  The next step was to apply the decal.

The flag decal was the largest of the decals I had to apply, which lead me to believe it would be the most difficult.  I decided to start with it, because the number and other lettering would be a lot easier in comparison.  I started by using a paintbrush to apply some Micro-Sol to the surface of the car.  The car has a smooth side, so I knew only a little would be needed, in most areas.  Where there were changes in the surface of the car, such as around the baggage doors and around the grab bar holes, I applied the Micro-Sol a bit more liberally.  Micro-Sol helps decals to conform to the surface of a model, particularly when the surface is uneven or irregular.  It also helps to prevent tears from forming in the decal over uneven and irregular surfaces.

Getting the large decal on and aligned properly was a bit tricky.  Actually, it was a full test of patience, honestly!  Because the decal is so large, the entire thing must be moved at once when adjustments are needed, to prevent tears or bubbles from forming.  Moving and adjusting a decal that is nearly as long as the car is quite tricky, especially over the changes in height where the doors are.  I had thought about cutting the decal at the doors, but decided against it, because the cuts would have to be very precise to make the car look right, and then the alignment of the sections would have to be exact.  That seemed like more trouble than it was worth!  I used a paintbrush and liberal amounts of Micro-Sol around the doors to make sure that the decal formed to the surface of the door openings without bubbling.  After what seemed like hours of adjusting the decal, but was probably only several minutes, I was finally satisfied with it and I set it aside to dry.  I then went to cut out the other lettering, logo, and number for the car.  At this point, the decal had been applied over the window openings, which I knew I would need to cut out later.

Once I was satisfied that the flag decal was dry, I applied the number.  On one side of the car, the number decal went on top of the flag decal.  The logo and lettering went on the side of the car, beyond the end of the flag.  I then cut out two small holes in the flag decal, which I think are vents on the prototype, and the windows.  I also reapplied the grab bars.  I set the car aside again, so the number and letter decals could dry.  I decided to dullcoat that side of the car as soon as the decals were dry, so that I would not damage the decals while working on the other side.

The next evening, I did the opposite side of the car.  The other side of the car went nearly the same as the first, except that the flag decal is reversed.  Having done it once, I was a bit more confident the second time around, and perhaps slightly more careful.  It seemed to go a bit faster though.  Once I was satisfied with that side, and the decals had dried, I put some dullcoat on there, to seal the decals in place, and set the car aside again.

This morning, I checked the decals and the dullcoat.  I ended up doing a second very light application of the dullcoat because I wanted to hide the edges of the logo decals a little better.  Once that was dry, I replaced the windows and reassembled the car.  Now I have a museum car to for my Union Pacific Northern steam locomotive (#844) to pull around the layout with my other Union Pacific passenger cars.

Materials:
Walthers "City" Series Baggage 932-9574
Block Eraser
Flag Decal (available on eBay)
Micro-Sol

Photos of the Week: BNSF Employee Appreciation Special

Maybe "photos and stories" would have been more accurate.  At any rate, the BNSF Employee Appreciation Special has been touring parts of the Twin Cities and Montana Divisions, including Glendive, among other locations.  The train was open to employees and their families, and tickets were free.  I got tickets as soon as they became available, because I knew they would probably disappear pretty quickly.  I got tickets for Tuesday afternoon.

We arrived at the Glendive depot a few minutes before the boarding time listed on our tickets.  There were already several other people there, nearly all of whom had small children along with them.  The train was already at the depot, and some people were preparing it for boarding.  I had been advised to ride in a full length dome car by a friend who had ridden on it a few days earlier, so we waited near the door to that car for boarding to begin.  After a few minutes, boarding began, and we found seats in the dome, near the center of the car.

When I got on the train, I was actually not exactly sure where it would be going.  I figured it would travel west, on the Forsyth Sub, but besides a bunch of rumors, no real information was available on the destination of the train.  Ultimately, where ever it went, it would return to Glendive at the end of the trip.  There had been dozens of rumors about it though.  Just before we departed, an announcement was made indicating that we would travel to Terry and back, a distance of about 40 miles, each way.  On a freight train, it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Terry.

Shortly after the announcements were made and the doors were closed, we got under way.  We were travelling in BNSF #31, a Budd full length dome car, named Bay View.  It was one of the oldest cars on the train, having been built in the 1950's.  The car originally belonged to the Santa Fe, long before anyone had ever even thought of the BNSF.  If I had to guess, I would say it was probably the smoothest riding car on the train.  It felt like a different railroad to me!  It seemed like all the kids on the train were on that car, so it was probably also the loudest!

Once underway, some of the staff on the train came around with drinks and snacks.  Actually, they came by a few times, with a lot of food and drinks, and if any of us wanted more, they made it clear that we could go to the lower level and help ourselves.  No one left the train hungry, that is for sure!  We got up and walked around during the ride, to see what was in the other cars.  The other cars were gallery style cars, similar to those used as commuter cars in the Chicago area.  They did not ride as nicely as our dome car did!  One of them had a small gift shop in it, on the opposite end as the seating.  There were also other business cars on the train, which I would have liked to explore, but there were signs making it quite clear that passengers were not allowed in those cars.  We could peek in through the end door a little, but the view was not very good.  Overall it was a very nice ride.  It was nice to get on a train and have no responsibility!

This just proves I was there!  Sarah and I, with Bay View behind us.

Prototype Railroading: Officer Special

Most railroads have special passenger cars designed just for use by company officers.  They typically operate on specially scheduled trains to move the officers to locations they are visiting or inspecting.  Business trains date back to before the airplane and the highway, when traveling by rail was the most practical and convenient way for company officers to get to  where they needed to be.  A hundred years ago, the easiest way for the management to get from the headquarters to almost any location on the railroad was to take the train.

Today, air travel has changed how railroad officers travel, but it has not completely eliminated the need for officers to occasionally travel by rail.  Many years ago, when railroads ran both freight and passenger traffic, company officers used a mix of special cars, reserved just for company officers, and other passenger cars, which also saw revenue passenger service.  Today, very few railroads run both passenger and freight trains, yet many railroads continue to maintain a fleet of passenger cars, just for moving the company officers around.  The BNSF Railway is no exception, and maintains a fleet of about 30 passenger cars, typically used on officers' trains.

Today, Glendive was privileged, or plagued, depending on your perspective, to a visit from an officers' train.  The train originated in Whitefish, MT, last night, and traveled east to Glendive overnight and through the morning.  In Glendive, the train picked up the officers, turned around, and headed west again, destined for Seattle, WA.  Typically, despite not earning a single cent, officer special trains are considered the most important train on the railroad, and the dispatching team does their best to make sure that nothing gets in the way.  Of course, for all their planning, sometimes unexpected things happen, and they just have to try to minimize the delay.

Today, while this officer train was out and about, I was also out and about, but I was on a coal train.  By comparison, a coal train was a very low priority.  When there is an officer train, the dispatchers like to get any other trains out of the way well in advance, just in case anything does happen.  This was the case with the coal train I was on.  I was headed east, from Forsyth to Glendive.  The officer train was following, several hours behind.  As the officer train got close to Forsyth, we were put in a siding to wait.  We waited, and waited, and waited even more.  Finally, after just over five hours of sitting, the officer train finally came along.  It sped past us, and then we were given a track warrant, and we continued east, following the officer train.

As we continued east, we heard the officer train get a track warrant to Glendive.  It was able to get there from Forsyth in about three hours, without stopping once, despite even a broken rail earlier that morning.  Everything on the line was put in a siding to let that train by, and nothing moved until after it had passed, regardless of how long everything else had to wait.  As we got going, we were not as fortunate as the officer train, and we did not go directly to Glendive.  We went to Colgate siding, just a few miles outside of Glendive, and there we waited again.  By the time we stopped to wait in Colgate, the officer train was sitting on the main track in Glendive, just waiting for the officers to board.  Once they were on, ready to go, and enjoying the comforts of their own train, the crew could set about turning the train around to head west.

There is a wye at the west end of Glendive.  A wye is a triangular track arrangement in which a train can back down one leg, head forward out the other leg, and then be facing in the opposite direction when it leaves the wye.  Once the big shots were comfortable on the officer train, the crew backed it down the main track to the wye, and headed up one leg.  Once clear of the switch at the end, they headed forward out the other side of the wye, to the west, and back towards us, waiting at Colgate.  Just as before, everything on the railroad had come to a stop to wait for the officer special to get through.  We had hit the timing just right that we got to wait for the same train twice!  Once again, as soon as the officer special was by us, this time heading west, we got a track warrant, and we continued east.  It was a good thing we were in Colgate though, because by the time we were able to leave there, we only had about 30 minutes left to work!  We headed into Glendive, and put the coal train on the main track, and then called it a day!

My conclusion about officer trains is that they are a trial in patience for anyone who has to work around them!