Following up on that Chester Car; I know very little details about Chester Industrial Arts of Chester PA other than their adverts in MR etc. starting in the late forties through approx.1955, offering pre-war PS plan composite kits like BC Models but with some significant differences. Whereas the “classic” BC-M kit included beaucoup white metal car and under body parts and other details; the Chesters were austere deals as seen here.
Basically sides, wood and floor stock with some additional wood structure pieces and rectangular end plates that mounted between the rood ends and attaching to the floor ends to provide a smooth mounting surface for the “stock” sponge full width diaphragms. The sponges often discarded and the ends covered with BC-M stampings or some-such which adds to the confusion in tagging these correctly as they’re resold, the sides also different possessing nine flutes below the window belt line, without alternating indentations, significant but subtle, and rolled and stamped from aluminum sheet and quite soft. Finally the assembled car is dimensionally “big” along side most 1/48 models and I believe straddles 17/64 though is not quite as large as Pomona Valley.
Back to the car (above now restored as opposed to rebuilt) one in a three car lot Jim snagged on da‘bay from a good size estate group listing in Florida about 8 years ago. The car bodies had been long stored in high heat and humidity and were covered inside and out with black mold. I disassembled, bleach washed and packed them away. When I finally got around to this guy, I realized it was not a standard Chester in that it had been modified significantly to resemble the iconic postwar PS Osgood-Bradley NH streamline coach; distinctive cars that as a group possess the unique feature of tapered roofs, giving the whole fleet a rather European appearance. Furthermore rather than assemble the kit as-is the original builder (I’ll call him “Florida Guy”) machined a pair of Walthers-like ends out of aluminum stock.
So rather than do my usual “polish the turd to a facsimile of the prototype” I basically decided to restore the car to Florida Guy’s vision of what the car should look like. Jim’s “archeology” approach apparently rubbing off here as the fluting would never be correct anyway, the car had a beautiful albeit primitive detailed interior that matched the actual builders floor plan and photos to a ‘T’ sans the bathrooms, basically too cool to gut. Retaining that interior was a trade off though as all the white metal chairs were attached with steel screws(one per set) with roughly 20 lead passengers randomly distributed, so despite the under body devoid of details the weight of the car is absurd. More to follow after I shoot it in a consist on track world.
Pete
