Orient Express

I've been working on my 1930's Orient Express coach and have the basic frame and interior partitions about finished. Next job will be interior door detail, painting the interior and then adding detail such as seating, tables, etc. Then it will be back to exterior work...sides, ends, etc. I've been thinking about how to model the European-style draft gear and I think I'll make the buffers out of either styrene or brass and the screw couplings using stiff wire. Photos soon!

Obviously, we're still waiting for our house to sell. We've had some showings, but no offers yet. It's more than an understatement to say the market is slow, though better here in Texas than most places.

I Found It

After searching several packed and well-sealed boxes in our garage, I found my Orient Express car model, paint, and plans, as well as my modeling tools and model wood supply. To prepare our home for sale, the "train room" had been packed up, of course, for real estate "staging" purposes.

Anyway, I resumed work on the model a couple of days ago...it's nice to be back into model building!

While I Am Waiting...

Our house has been on the market a month now and we've had a couple of showings. The real estate market here in Texas, while better than most of the country, is still slow. So it may be a while before we sell. In the meantime, I've been enjoying time with my wife Susie and other family members and am keeping busy with yard work, catching up on my reading, and miscellaneous projects. My model railroad is packed away, along with rolling stock and modeling tools.

However, I am thinking of opening up a box so I can resume work on a scratchbuilding project I started when we lived in Idaho. It's one of those long-term...very long-term...projects that I work on when I'm in the mood. I had one of those, a scratchbuilt wooden passenger coach, that took me years to complete. I enjoyed working on it, especially since I felt no urgency to finish. The work was relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable and while I was happy with the completed model, I did kind of miss having it to work on!

The project I'm thinking of reviving is a model of an Orient Express coach. Now, I have no interest in constructing anything other than an American layout. Except...the Orient Express, particularly as it was in the 1930's, has always intrigued me. And yes, I have read Murder On The Orient Express twice and have seen the 1974 movie several times. I have long thought it would be fun to construct a model of a 1930's Wagon-Lits coach to display on a bookshelf.

So a while back, while still living in Eagle, Idaho, I started doing some research. I was fortunate enough to find a plan that details the interior compartment arrangements, as well as the exterior. And it was easily convertible to S Scale! I also found useful color photos.

So far, I only have a skeleton of the car constructed from balsa and basswood. I've been concentrating on the interior partitions, but now it's time to work on the ends and sides, which I plan to make from sheet styrene. The trucks are extremely close in appearance to four wheel S Scale passenger trucks I'd purchased from American Models, so that's a real piece of luck.

This project will require great care and can't be rushed. And that's exactly what I'm looking for right now!