Phantom IIphantom (n) 1. something
elusive or visionary. 2. a representation of something abstract, ideal
or incorporeal. (adj.) fictitious
The second in my Phantom series is this double door box car lettered
for the Grand Trunk Western, a road which was seen often in south eastern
Michigan, my home area.
A cracked, junk body again formed the basis for this model. Reproduction
doors were purchased from Ron Leventon, and were fitted in place after
cutting out their openings and moving the door stops. A piece of chemically
blackened brass was used as the door guides. The body was painted, decaled
and fitted on a die cast chassis because the interior flooring would then
show better when the both doors were opened. The decals were cut so as to assign the car a plausible Gilbert
number.
A modification of the original Gilbert mold could have produced this
model in the 50’s to match the production of the Other Guys trains.
However, this model bears decals from the late 60’s and they were purposely
applied with the large GT switched with the data lines to avoid having
future collectors mistake it with an actual Gilbert prototype.
Jerry Poniatowski <poniajXXX@mail.wcresa.k12.mi.us> (Remove XXX before use)
