Kitbashing a Pennsy “Betterment sleeper” 6. 7.
6. A template from a published plan assured a correct roof end profile. The roof end was beveled to match the carbody end. 7. The bottoms of the styrene end caps were notched to match the
top of the carbody ends. 8. The top of the end cap was filed to match the curved roof profile. 9. Diaphragm faceplates were scratchbuilt from styrene strip, then glued to the kit diaphragms.
8.
9.
more familiar Pennsy scheme of Tuscan Red sides, simplified gold striping, and Modified Block lettering. With the pas- sage of time, the Betterment Pullmans were also assigned to other consists in Pennsy’s Blue Ribbon fleet of stream- lined trains, offering section sleeper space to economy-minded travelers. The William Ellery, a 12-1 Better- ment Pullman named for a Rhode Is- land signer of the Declaration of Inde- pendence, was a regular in the consist of the Cincinnati Limited, a consist I had chosen to model. I needed to model this car, and with no commercial Bet- terment car available, I would have to kitbash it.
Planning the model In any modeling project, it’s good to
have a plan. By listing the primary changes needed, the best order of as- sembly will become clearer and poten- tial trouble spots revealed for more de- tailed consideration. Branchline’s 12-section 1-drawing room sleeper is an excellent starting point for this project. (These cars are now part of the Atlas line.) We will modify it with skirting fashioned from
50
styrene strip,
a Betterment roof
shaped from wooden roof stock, and scratchbuilt diaphragms.
Note that many of the following
techniques can be applied or adapted for different Pullman floorplans, as well as the Betterment Pullmans and modernized heavyweight coaches for other roads.
Dressed with a skirt An undecorated Branchline kit
is
best, but if a decorated model shows up at a sale price, buy it and strip the paint with Scalecoat Paint Remover. Much of Pennsy’s heavyweight sleeper fleet was cooled with ice air condition- ing, and you’ll be ahead if you can find a Branchline kit with ice air condition- ing. If your kit has mechanical air con- ditioning, ice bunkers can be added as aftermarket parts. To provide a suitable mounting sur- face for the skirting, begin by sanding the draft angle on the bottom of the sides perpendicular to the sides’ sur- faces. Dragging the bottom of the side across fine sandpaper resting on a flat surface such as a plate of glass works well for this. Assemble the carbody, re-
ferring to Branchline’s instructions. Fill the gap underneath each door with a strip of .060″×.080″ styrene; the .080″ dimension will be vertical. File the bottoms of these strips so they are flush with the bottom of the sides. Cut a .060″×.060″ “skirting base” slightly longer than the carbody and glue one to the bottom of each side flush with the side’s outer surface. We will trim the piece to length later. Assemble the trucks and install
them. You will note interference be- tween the brake beams at the end of the truck and the centersill. This is an error in the kit’s design and can be cor- rected either by notching the centersill or by removing the brake beam from the inboard end of the truck. Determine the width of the skirting cutouts by rotating the trucks and marking “clearance marks” where the ends of the truck frame pass over the bottom of the skirting base. Remove the trucks and add three
inches as a safety factor to the marks just made. For each side cut three .060″×.188″ styrene skirting strips. Cut one of the strips to fit between the revised clearance marks at the center
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