The railcar is a freelance design based on No. 9 of the Santa Maria Valley RR in California. It’s designed to look “at home” on either side of the Atlantic.

The body is built around a Bachmann On30 trolley car 4-wheel motor unit. Primary construction medium was Evergreen sheet styrene, both plain and scribed. The bonnet and grille were borrowed from a Heller 1:24 scale Citroen automobile kit. Driver and passenger are from Preiser’s “seated passengers” assortment, suitably repainted.

This car was built in tandem with Ian Holmes, who simultaneously built his version of a County Donegal railcar in Gn15. We used e-mail daily to compare notes, exchange techniques, solve modeling problems, and receive advice and prototype coaching from our mentor for the project, Steve Bennett.