A pair of Ozark Miniatures benches were shortened and mounted onto one of Jeff Saxton’s flatcar kits to make a rudimentary passenger car.

Photograph © Jeff Semprebon

The slats of the bench were cut to the same width as the flatcar deck. The metal pieces were sprayed green, while the slats were stained with a cheap “golden oak” stain. The benches were then assembled with the slats extending out just a bit to get the bench feet in a little from the edge of the deck. The bench legs were then glued to the “mounting bars” (lengths of Evergreen HO 2×6 happened to look right) that serve, on the imagined prototype, to faciliate attaching the benches to the car deck. Attaching these after the bench is assembled helps assure that they lay flat. They were then brush painted with a color somewhat close to that of the spray paint. The horrible paint smudge that resulted on one slat was scraped and sanded away and the spot touched up with a bit more stain.

Flatcar was assembled per notes posted to the ExtraNarrowGauge list recently. The only modification to the basic flatcar was the addition of steps made from 1/16″ basswood strips. These hang a bit less than 1/16″ below the bottom edges of the side sills, or just above the holes in the journals. The flatcar sides and ends were stained with solid “russet brown” exterior house stain, while the treads of the steps and deck were stained to match the bench slats.

The mounting bars of the benches were then glued to the deck, with a couple of figures used to determine suitable spacing. The car looked a bit unbalanced, so a bit of brass rod (3/64″?) was bent up and painted for a front rail. The rail was then press fitted into holes to remove the car from my “list of a thousand projects”.