Building a Bluebird Railcar in O (¼-inch) Scale

While I have been scratch-building and kit-bashing carriages and wagons in HO scale for many years, I was nevertheless surprised just how large a Bluebird railcar would be in O scale.

Building such a model in O scale requires a large amount of scratch-building and I find there is a measure of satisfaction in what can be achieved. To effectively construct any model, it is essential to have a good plan to a consistent scale. I obtained some large-scale Bluebird plans from Refreshing Memories. However, the dining room table was needed to lay them out, so some smaller scale plans also proved useful. While I knew a reasonable amount about the sides and ends of the Bluebird, the plan of the underframe proved invaluable. Another invaluable item was a steel scale ruler with its ¼-inch to a foot (1:48) measurements.

Most plans of the railcar are in imperial dimensions, but as the O scale part of the scale ruler reaches only a scale 48 foot, the larger measurements have also been referred to in the article in millimetres.

Basic Construction

The main construction medium I used was styrene and the first vehicle was a 250 class railcar. Although the have flush windows, there is a thick interior panel, so I decided to create the sides from 2 mm sheet styrene. I cut out the