Mantua shortly before WWII produced a version of their 4-4-0 locomotive and the 3 old time passenger cars in OO. They were, in reality, HO products regauged for OO.

I didn’t own any of them, except for having two pair of the OO trucks. But then an opportunity came up to buy a combine with a flawed roof. The kit had been started back in the day, and actually the baggage doors had been installed inside out. I should have fixed that …

In any case, it took me several years to finish the model and I managed, apparently, to not take any photos of the project in progress. But here it is now.

A new roof

A key detail I wanted to update was the roof. The original roof is not usable, and I wanted the model to look more like a car that survived in use (and well maintained) into the 1940s. I used modified JC roof stock and HO vents.

And other details

Digging into the parts supply, I added bigger end platforms/steps, truss rods, and brakes. It’s not super detailed, but I also added a basic interior which looks rather nice.

BONUS: A HO comparison

Way back in high school I built this other HO combine. It has a TYCO body and has been modified several ways, most especially with the closed ends and nice trucks. I loved the book Mixed Train Daily and wanted a combine such as a shortline would use. Which was also my goal with the new vintage model.

I opted for almost the same paint scheme. The original model (which I ran a lot back when I was initially in HO) is number 50, and the new OO gauge model is 51.

Comparing the models, my new one looks closer visually to OO, but it’s still a bit underscale. The roof did help. I might upgrade it to some huskier trucks. I’ll see how much I use the car, but I think it will look nice with my small fleet of underscale OO models.