Excerpted from a posting by Mark Frauenfelder...

"I've read that Walt Disney's greatest talent was his ability to get people to do better work than they imagined they were capable of, but it wasn't until I read Ward Jenkin's entry about "plussing," that I knew Disney had coined a word for it."
"Walt Disney coined the term "plussing" as a way of making an idea even better. By telling his workers to plus it, even when they think they nailed it, gave Disney that extra edge when it came to quality animation back in the day. Pixar is a staunch believer in plussing their work. And it shows."

Last Spring I hastily assembled a Retlaw 1 set of 4 coaches and a combine. (5 cars are all that will fit in front of my station). They served their purpose at the time but were not really special. Here is a photo of how they appeared then.




Inspired by Robmaki and Walt Disney I decided to “plus” my Retlaw 1. Robmaki was doing the same conversion using Bachmann coaches as a starting point. In his photos, I saw a red trim stripe at the roof line. This was the starting point. By the time I was done, this plussing exercise involved:

1) Cutting in windows at the ends of the cars
2) Removing the stove vent pipe, filling the hole and repainting
3) Adding the red trim to the windows
4) Re-painting everything except the yellow.
5) Re-working the electrical so that the light would work
6) Adding post stencil work via vinyl decals
7) Adding the car names and numbers with custom dry transfers








I have placed pictures of the final result next to great photos of the restored "Painted Desert" supplied by tractor.







A few things to note. The trucks are drab olive and the wheels are red. If anyone else is planning on doing this same conversion, you should know that in removing the soft plastic railings for painting they will be destroyed. I ended up ordering new black metal ones from Bachman.

I have to give a plug to Decal-Pro here. I wanted to have the lettering on the cars, but vinyl decals with a yellow background just didn't make it. In searching the internet, I found Decal-Pro. Here is a link.
http://www.pulsarprofx.com/decalpro/Ver ... Works.html

This system allows you to make custom dry transfer decals with your home laser printer. It is the coolest thing! You can make full color and metallic images just as easily I am going to use it extensively on the Fred Gurley next.

For those who noticed, I did not attempt to do the arch top doors. Maybe next time.

Dave, great work and with the roof on, I'd never see the lack of a round top door.

Wow - fantastic work!

I always believed in Walt's plussing of a ride or attraction. He did not tear something down and put up an inferior ride in it's place. He plussed it!

With what I am learning from other modelers I am trying to "plus" my projects too. I have come a long way from what I could do 10 years ago and I still want to learn more and get better.

Keep up the good work all you at home Imagineers and "plussers". And keep showing us your great new projects. We learn from them. Thanks.

Really excellent work, Dave!

great job

Hmmm..Your decal sheet doesn't show anything for car 106...

Dave has selectively compressed the Retlaw 1 train set to better fit at his station. Since the dry transfer sheet is made with a laser printer he can create the new Grand Canyon/Lilly Belle (decal) whenever he likes.

Thanks jazzfan4, but the truth is there will never be a Grand Canyon. In the time warp of the Castle Peak and Thunder Railroad, the Retlaw 1 coaches and the Lilly Belle Parlor car both run at the same time. I had to forgo one car because of the station issue so #106 seamed like the logical choice. Also, I don't believe that anyone has found a good photograph of the mural! The Lilly Belle is very close to complete. Here's a tickler

Dave: The railing looks great, Lilly Belle does carry the # 106, so you will have car number 106, just not on the end of RETLAW 1. There have been a few pictures of the mural but none were good enough to run a graphic to convert to decal or dry transfer. I think Daveland had the best picture I've seen, but not great.