NWP Maintenance of Way Vehicles

This week, I spent time working on two of the maintenance of way vehicles that will serve my Northwestern Pacific model railroad.  I purchased an HO scale Ford F-350 Crew Cab Pick-up from Trident Miniatures (Part #90078) and a 1993 Ford Explorer from Atlas (Part #30 000 072).  Both of these vehicles were painted white and came undecorated.

The Ford F-350 came with additional detail parts that I had to apply on my own.  It also came with a detailed interior.  Because of this, I felt that placing a figure seated inside would be a nice touch.  I found an HO scale figure that was in a sitting position.  I repainted the figure so he was wearing blue jeans, an orange safety-type jacket and a yellow hardhat.  I did have to cut off the legs at the figure's knees so that I could get him into the driver seat and underneath the steering wheel.  I also had to file down a small portion of the top of the figure's head so that everything would fit properly.  Another detail I added to the F-350 was a simulated amber flasher on the cab roof.

 

 

 

The Ford Explorer comes assembled in the package.  The exterior details of the vehicle are painted as well.  It even comes with a simulated amber flasher on the roof as well.

The final touch that I added to both vehicles were the NWP railroad herald on both front doors.  I used the older set of decals from Microscale "Northwestern Pacific Diesels (1996 - 1998).  I specifically went with the N Scale set (Part #60-4188) because I felt the HO scale decals would be too large for the vehicle doors.

 

Be aware that this decal set is no longer available from Microscale.  They have recently re-done their decals for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad so #60-4188 is no longer available from Microscale directly.  However, I purchased three sets on e-Bay for a relatively good price.  There are probably some hobby shops out there on the internet as well that may still be selling this decal set.

The third set of decals is already reserved for when I get a Bachmann HI Rail Equipment Truck with Crane.  Of course I will be ordering the all white undecorated version so that I can put the decals on the vehicle doors just like I did for the two Ford vehicles described in this post.

Hey, Father's Day is coming! My wife should be asking me for a wish list pretty soon.