The 479 mile Lark Route was from San Francisco through the San Joaquin Valley over the Tehachapi Mountains to Los Angles and took 13 hours. The SP Lark ran from 1910 until 1968. The Lark used GS3-GS6 4-8-4 power for the valley floor and Cab Forwards from Bakersfield up the 2.2% grade over Tehachapi Mountains to negotiate the 19 tunnels between the Valley Floor and Tehachapi. The Lark was streamlined in 1941 but still pulled with steam power until 1955. Steam power was replaced with diesel Alco PAs on the Lark San Joaquin Valley Route in 1955.
The Club Lounge car started out as an Athearn #1893 SP Diner BB Kit.
In all versions of my Athearn passenger cars I start by removing the Athearn weights and filling the center depression with #8 Bird Shot giving me more usable depth in the car for the interiors.
Because I power all of my passenger cars lighting from a single 4 volt power supply in the baggage car I run power the full length of every car. Early on I used #28 AWG wire but have since changed over to ⅛" wide copper foil tape, one strip on each side of the bottom frame.
The picture above shows the ⅛" wide copper foil tape attached to the side of the bottom frame wall. The foil tape has an adhesive backing. The foil is very thin and must be applied with care to prevent it from tearing.
All of my heavy weight Pullmans have a pigtail hanging out the end doors through the diaphragms to pass the 4 volts from the baggage (Power Supply) car to the observation car. I rarely uncouple my passenger cars so the wires between cars isn't a problem and can't be seen because of the diaphragms. Because I rarely uncouple them I use Kadee Scale Shelf Couplers on every car to reduce accidental uncoupling.
I use 2.54mm round pin header strip micro connectors on each end of every car with super flexible 30 AWG stranded copper wire.
I polarize the between car connectors so that it keeps the correct polarity for the LEDs. To see the connector modification process click here.
The picture above shows the standard 2.54mm round pin header strip micro connectors for connecting the shell to the frame, the 2KΩ potentiometer for setting the car light brightness. The connector on the upper right is the power to the shell ceiling LEDs. The center connector is for the power to the table lamps. The lower connector towards the side is used as a terminal post for the incoming 4 volt power.
I attach the shell to frame connectors using Super Glue / CA. I glue the floor female connector first then plug in the male connector then add glue to the connector and place the shell on the frame. This aligns the connectors eliminating a wire jumper between the shell and frame. For testing purposes I use a 12" male to female "extension cord"
The picture below is the interior sub floor with the chairs, sofas and spaces for the magazine holding tables. The chairs and sofas are my resin castings.
The white area is where the bar and staff rooms will be.
Here I've added the bar and staff rooms.
The curved bar is constructed from two layers of .02" sheet Styrene, the room walls are single .04" Styrene.
The magazine racks/table lamps have been added.
The magazine rack/tables are made from Evergreen 258 Rectangular Tubing, 3/16" x 5/16". The table lamps are 3mm warm white LEDs with lampshades made from Evergreen 225 Tubing. The lamp base is a 3mm plastic bead from Hobby Lobby.
All but three figures are my resin castings, I hand painted all the figures with Acrylic Crafters paints.
This is a waitress resting in the Waitress Staff Room with an off duty waitress.
The various colored chair scheme came from pictures of the real SP Lark Lounge interiors.
A couple of pictures taken with reduced ambient lighting.
Greeat blog you have
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