By Dan Windolph/photos by the author
In the early 1970s, I was introduced to Darrell Townsend in my local hobby shop. Darrell Townsend was the “Town” in Lee-Town Models, and a well-known modeler, specializing in brass. When I mentioned my interest in modeling in brass, we had a great conversation. During our chat, he told me about a set of brass castings he had commissioned Cliff Grandt to do for him. These castings would let him model C&S Business Car B-3, but Darrell said he had many other projects, and probably would never build the car. He mentioned in particular the “exquisite” brass castings of Cliff’s passenger car chandeliers.
Naturally, I expressed interest in that set of castings, and he agreed to sell them to me. Unfortunately, I never saw Darrell again, and it was some time later that a mutual friend delivered the small box of castings. Darrell and I hadn’t discussed cost, so I was a little shocked at the price for the small box of parts, but paid it after seeing the typical Grandt Line quality of the parts.
![Colorado & Southern Business Car B-3](https://ngslgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ngsl-coloradosouthern-businesscar-2.jpg)
The box contained Cliff’s brass castings for windows, doors, clerestory windows, a potbelly stove, and those passenger car chandeliers – which were truly exquisite. Along with the box was a very poor copy of a plan for C&S B-3 drawn by Edmund Collins III in 1953.
I knew this was going to be a serious project, so I put the box on the shelf, where it stayed for almost 40 years (through a series of moves). A few years ago, I finally decided the time had come to build C&S B-3. I had accumulated a large stock of brass sheet, and rod and bar stock through the years, but still had to order etched, scribed brass sheet from Precision Scale Co. to build the car…