Kitbashing Amfleet cars and center-door Comets

Okay I'm new to the hobby, and i know a lot of you guys kitbash & rebuild a majority of your trains to fit your needs. My question is have any of you refurbished any of the Bachman Amfleet coaches over to a phase IV. I purchased these cars off of ebay for that reason, however I'm not sure where to get the decal sheets from, or how to even go about it. I would really love to turn these babies into Capstone Service coaches, so any advice you guys may have would be greatful.

Better yet if there is anyone in the Philadelphia region who specializes in refurbishing passenger cars please send me a private message.

I also want to add center doors to my commuter trains.


Just a little bit about me. I do not have a layout set up since I am in a small apartment with very little space, so I just keep stock piling everything until I get the space I desire to start building my layout. I have enough rolling stock to get started. I will need more track and turnouts in the future, however I am patient.

I mainly want to focus on commuter railroads along the northeast corridor, of course with my own little twist. So that's my story, now if there is any additional information you may have I am greatful.

PS, I have an E60CP engine that I wanted transformed into Amtrak #602 & Kadee couplers installed. I purchased some thinking I could do that part myself, however they are not the right size. If anyone has changed the couplers on their E60'S please let me know the proper couplers I need to purchase.

Thanks In Advance for any insight that may be added in this post.

First of all, your question needs a little clarifying. Phase IV and Capstone are not the same thing - Phase IV has a purplish stripe with red and white pinstripes, while cars rebuilt into the Capstone series received the Acela Regional colors, with the blobby bluish shapes. They've nicknamed it the 'lava lamp' scheme for a reason. Now, there's also a newer paint scheme that is similar to Phase IV, but the blue stripe is lighter and not so purplish, and Amtrak's new 'wave' logo is applied. This scheme doesn't have a definite name - some call it Phase IVb, some say Phase V, others say it's VI.

Microscale (www.microscale.com) makes decal set 87-971 for the Phase IV scheme, and Highball Graphics (www.mgdecals.com) makes a set for the Capstone cars (though you need to paint a light blue base stripe first).

If you bought the older Bachmann Amfleets, good choice. The newer ones they made are very inaccurate, and look like they were based on the Walthers versions instead of on the prototype cars. The older shells need touching up in a few places, like adding electrical connectors on either side of the coupler, and you may want to completely replace the underframe.

One way to do this is by getting a Walthers car for each one you want to convert. Note that for several years Walthers was packaging their cars incorrectly, so some coach cars came with the underframes meant for cafe cars, and vice versa. It's not a very noticeable difference though. The advantage of combining Bachmann and Walthers models is that the Bachmann shell is better, but you can transplant the electrical connectors and window glazing from the Walthers car. The result, if done well, is a much more accurate model. You can also convert a Bachmann coach to a cafe by filling in the two center windows on both sides, but cafes also have a couple extra vents in the center of the roof. I have a couple cars that I was planning to rebuild this way, but I've been working on other stuff lately.

Now, just so you know, I heard a while back that Bachmann was going to make another attempt at an Amfleet model, and hopefully they'd get it right this time to eliminate all that extra work I described. They were apparently planning to release it pre-painted in the Capstone/Acela Regional paint scheme, in both coach and cafe versions. I haven't heard anything about it lately, but I think they were originally supposed to come out later this year.

As for your commuter question, Frank Cicero has written some articles in Railroad Model Craftsman about New Jersey Transit cars, some of which do have the center doors. If you go to www.trains.com you can search the all-time magazine index for his name. His Comet IV article discussed adding the center door (and lots of other changes) to a Walthers model.

In addition, Frank also had an article about a 600-series E60MA some years ago, although he started with a hard-to-find E60CP from Walthers/American GK. I have a Bachmann E60 that I was working on, and among other things I repowered it with the mechanism from an Athearn FP45. This took some machining work to shape the fuel tank into the battery boxes that the E60 has. For simply adding couplers, I suggest you try Kadee's website. They've published a huge conversion list that tells which coupler to use on certain models, and the E60CP should be on it. If the list isn't on their website, you can probably find it in a Walthers catalog.

Oh, and welome to the hobby! You have a lot of work ahead of you, but then we all do.

Alex Stroshane

This project was done on a Walthers body. A similar conversion can be done on the Bachmann model but you have to get a hold of tinted windows from the walthers Amfleets and pop out the dividers that are in the middle of the window. I believe our friend Alex has done that with his cab car which is virtually the same thing.

I hope this helps! This takes the process step by step:

http://www.geocities.com/ksax73/rebuildcapstone.htm

I modified an old Bachmann E60CP to an E60MA. I replaced the truck mounted couplers with body mounted KD #5 which allowed me to close the hole in the front. I also closed the number boards and lower headlights and set them over the cab. The Pantos are Faveleys from Sommerfeldt, decals are from Microscale...

Thanks guy's for all your advice & insight. I actually found the issue in my old train magazines as far as the comet III conversion process. It looks like that would be a lot of work, so I think i'll outsource that job...

As far as the Amfleet coaches go, I just ordered the decals sheets from highball graphics. I was so excited that i already took the time to dis-assemble four of the Bachman cars I have. The middle part I had to run a screw driver through to take them apart, it was like they were glued together, however I managed to get them apart.

Oh & I did not know the difference or should I say the name of the labels for the Acela cars. I see that they are considered phase IVB which is interesting.

Now I need to know what is all the equipment that I will need as far as what kind of paint, tools & things of that nature to take on the task of converting these Amfleet coaches..... I see I truly have my work cut out for me...