I recently acquired and assembled an old Eastern Car Works kit of an Osgood-Bradley coach. I was reminded of these coaches when Rapido recently produced them in their line. However, I wanted a version in Southern Pacific livery, and I also didn’t want to spend $100. I paid about a fifth of that for the HO-scale kit.

The coach represents a car that was built primarily for the New Haven, but the SP did receive some for their Cotton Belt subsidiary. In the late 1950s these cars migrated to the West Coast and served briefly in Peninsula commute service. I thought it’d be nice to have one in my collection.

The car went together fairly easily. However there was no interior and those big windows make the car look really empty. So I measured the windows and designed a row of seats in SketchUp. I printed them out on my 3D resin printer and spray-painted them green. The most satisfying part is knowing that I can now add details, like those seats, simply by sketching them in SketchUp. Before I might have hesitated, waiting for a day when I could buy some seats, but this is really so much easier.

I plan to use the coach in my Del Monte train, pulled by a Black Widow passenger GP9. I have read that the coach did make an appearance on the Del Monte, but I haven’t seen actual photos yet. At least, it will be a regular component of my version of the train.