PRR wood cabin car restoration begun

tomgears · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 11:26 am

That reminds me of an old Silver Streak HO kit. Nice work!

hytwr1 · **Joined:** Sat Jul 01, 2006 9:07 am **Posts:** 211

Thanks!

The brown interwoven is tests of what will be the final color.

Bill

tomgears wrote:

That reminds me of an old Silver Streak HO kit. Nice work!

Mr. Ed · **Posted:** Sun Jan 24, 2010 12:02 pm

I see you replaced the side wall drop rods. Were the old ones too far gone to re-use? Ours were cut and lap welded somewhere in it's life so we will have to get them cut and butt welded together before we put it back togetner so we can drop them down through the top and bottom sill plates. But as it stands right now, this car is one from the bottom of the list to get restored. I would like to see it get de-accessioned to someone who could do it right. But I am just one voice in our organization.

Later!
Mr. Ed

hytwr1 · **Joined:** Sat Jul 01, 2006 9:07 am **Posts:** 211

The guys who dismantled it cut all the rods. The nuts on the ends were so rusted they couldn't get them to break loose, even with Kroil treatments. Many of them were very thin and about rusted away anyhow.

Bill

Mr. Ed wrote:

I see you replaced the side wall drop rods. Were the old ones too far gone to re-use? Ours were cut and lap welded somewhere in it's life so we will have to get them cut and butt welded together before we put it back togetner so we can drop them down through the top and bottom sill plates. But as it stands right now, this car is one from the bottom of the list to get restored. I would like to see it get de-accessioned to someone who could do it right. But I am just one voice in our organization.

Later!
Mr. Ed

hytwr1 · **Joined:** Sat Jul 01, 2006 9:07 am **Posts:** 211

By the way, can anybody tell me what color the grab irons on these cars were originally? Was it yellow?

Thanks
Bill

hytwr1 wrote:

The guys who dismantled it cut all the rods. The nuts on the ends were so rusted they couldn't get them to break loose, even with Kroil treatments. Many of them were very thin and about rusted away anyhow.

Bill

Mr. Ed wrote:

I see you replaced the side wall drop rods. Were the old ones too far gone to re-use? Ours were cut and lap welded somewhere in it's life so we will have to get them cut and butt welded together before we put it back togetner so we can drop them down through the top and bottom sill plates. But as it stands right now, this car is one from the bottom of the list to get restored. I would like to see it get de-accessioned to someone who could do it right. But I am just one voice in our organization.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Mr. Ed · **Posted:** Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:14 am

The grab irons were probably white back then.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

Had an additional photo sent to me of the Haley Tower Historical & Technical Society restoration progress on Pennsy N6b caboose #981741. In the photo, the organizations Haley Tower can be seen in the background.

Les

hytwr1 · **Joined:** Sat Jul 01, 2006 9:07 am **Posts:** 211

Hey Les,

Where'd you get that photo? Being heavily involved in the project I'm surpised I didn't even get a copy. :)

Bill

hytwr1 · **Joined:** Sat Jul 01, 2006 9:07 am **Posts:** 211

our project chairman has been tinkering with lettering ideas.

Bill

Richard W. · **Joined:** Tue Nov 09, 2004 12:27 pm **Posts:** 157

I'm assuming the lettering is just cutouts of white paper? The last photo has an "N" upside down. That number lettering looks like computer generated and not the correct PRR style.

Richard Wilkens

junior · **Posted:** Fri Jun 11, 2010 6:08 pm

In that photo, it looks like it's being hand lettered (note the masking tape with over run)....the N is just incomplete yet.

The prior photo of the opposite side, shows completed lettering.

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:25 pm

Oh, man! Now that is just sweet. Congratulations on a great accomplishment.

hytwr1 · **Joined:** Sat Jul 01, 2006 9:07 am **Posts:** 211

Thanks for the comments guys.

It is computer generated and the wrong font AND hand lettered. The idea is to try a couple of different layouts without the expense of stencils and then after we agree on the correct stuff have the correct stencils we want made...hence my term "tinkering".

Bill

Thomas Travis · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 4:39 pm **Posts:** 78

Many thanks to Charlie for the great tours of both towers last Saturday. Thanks
for the ride back to ISU also Charlie.

Wonderful job on the caboose restoration. Nice job on the lettering too, gave
me some ideas for lettering here at HVRM North Judson.

Tom Travis La Porte IN, HVRM North Judson IN, School Bus Driver

Scott Kwiatkowski · **Posted:** Sun Jun 13, 2010 12:29 pm

Bill,

Great job on the restoration.

Find yourself copies of The Keystone, December 73 & December 74. They contain great information on PRR cabins.

To save you some grief and expense, choose a lettering scheme from photographs or the Morning Sun PRR color guides, 3 volumes. Then decide which one your folks like and have vinyl stencils made to match the photograph.

While sometimes called font, it is my opinion that there is no font to exactly match the PRR lettering. The PRR lettering is more in the logo or herald world. While close to Times Roman and Craw Clarendon, to be a true font the letters would have to contain all the characters A-Z and numbers of a given size.

While some fonts are close they might not be exact and that is up to you and your organization and how many “rivets you want to count” with out pulling your hair out!

If you can also find a graphic artist schooled in the arts, he or she could hand draw and cut some of the stencils that a computer generated font cannot match.

You can also use computer generated fonts and just use extra vinyl stencil material to adjust or mask off the lettering as needed.

Scott Kwiatkowski
http://www.prrllc.com