Not a good shot, but it shows the truss rod plate I made.
I pre-painted and lettered the sides, and glued them up to the ends. I decided to add the interior after I complete the substructure and the roof, so I have a better understanding of the dimensions of the interior. I found that I could not trust the drawings I have to be accurate after discovering a 1/32" descripency on the ends.
I used blue tape to hold the ends to the sides while the glue set. Unfortunately when I removed the tape, I also removed some of the paint and wood on the corners of the reat as you can see in the above images.
Finally completed the substructure. Only took 2 days. Most of the time was in laying it out. Coach 64 is slightly different from the other OR&L coaches because of the observation deck and because it is only 36 feet long.
I didn't have any plans what so ever, so what I did was to rely partially on the layout given in the Master Class article about building a Carter Brothers Coach, and partly from what I can see if the under carriage on some photos Jeff sent of coach 2 s trucks. From those two items, I was able to come up with something, that while not being strictly prototypical, is probably pretty close or it least convincing and at least functional.
Some of the difference between the M.C. article plans can be seen in the thickness of the lumber I used, and the center 2 stringers which are 3/4" apart (same as the plans) but go straight through to the other end of the substructure (which is the way they appear to do on the coach 2 images).
I used walnut because of its stability and strength. To join the pieces I used tight bond wood glue and regular lap joints. I reversed the joing on the middle stringers to which is what I think the coach builders might have done.
That notch in the upper left hand corner of the image is for the steps on the observation deck. You are looking at the top of the substructure from the front of the car. The front platform is not present, because from what I can tell from the images I have, it cantilevers off the substructure, underneath the end wall. I will add the cantilevers, the front deck, and the bolsters and then finally the subfloor, an overlay of black construction paper and then the koa flooring on top of that.