About twenty years ago these two cars came to me in a lot purchase. And they will come back together soon.

With the recent finishing of two Graceline freight cars I was digging in the Graceline parts and noted these bodies, without sides. Thinking that probably I would never find Graceline sides to use I dug in the J-C parts to see if there were sides that might work. I had these sides there, which I took to be modified J-C sides, tried them on the cars and realized this was the original plan here! The project the prior owner had was to use these sides which are in fact original Graceline sides on these bodies in parts. They were even nicely painted already.

The material used to make Graceline sides is very similar to J-C and the rivet patterns are very similar. What is different is the doors are not part of the sides, they are to be separately applied, and also the ends not only have end castings but also have bulkhead castings. Also for one more spotting feature, the roof stock is flat on the bottom, not hollowed up like J-C. (And the Pullman is shorter than the comparable J-C car, about 75′ long).

Probably mostly from that same purchase are these Graceline parts, and after taking the photo I found a few more to use. Note the frame casting that will go on the Pullman, the steps, and the ends and bulkhead that will go on the combine. The only part I am lacking really are those side doors, I don’t have enough and actually another Graceline car is missing a couple as well. I could attempt to cast some duplicates but the part is simple enough I think I will just fabricate similar doors from plastic.

In any case it is exciting to finally figure out what this project was and get it going forward. Graceline passenger cars are uncommon to be sure. I will note in closing I actually have boxed examples of both cars as kits so I will be able to get these very close to all original using those for reference.