10-13-2014, 02:02 PM
I've always liked the 40-foot modernized boxcar that Roundhouse originally did in the 1980s. It reminds me of the time in the mid-1960s when I started seriously railfanning and roofwalks were starting to come off freight cars. I recently found one of the slightly updated Athearn RTR cars at a swap meet:
This product had been dormant since the original Roundhouse runs, and Athearn RTR brought them out again after it took over Roundhouse. This past week I found what must be the earliest version of Roundhouse cars on the bargain table at a hobby shop. For $3, how could I resist?
This had no end lettering, incorrect enclosed-bearing roller bearing trucks, a clunky brake wheel, and clunky steps. I painted the roof silver, added brake details to the underframe, changed out the trucks, added a better brake wheel from the junk box, and added A-Line stirrups:
I note that Roundhouse apparently made changes to the tooling when it was originally producing these cars. The SOU car has a tabbed side sill, but a later Roundhouse version has the straight sill.
The car still has a big tooling error -- the side ladder on the B end should be full-height, not cut down. (The cut down side ladder on the A end is correct.) I'll accept this for the nice paint, especially on the Athearn RTR cars.
This product had been dormant since the original Roundhouse runs, and Athearn RTR brought them out again after it took over Roundhouse. This past week I found what must be the earliest version of Roundhouse cars on the bargain table at a hobby shop. For $3, how could I resist?
This had no end lettering, incorrect enclosed-bearing roller bearing trucks, a clunky brake wheel, and clunky steps. I painted the roof silver, added brake details to the underframe, changed out the trucks, added a better brake wheel from the junk box, and added A-Line stirrups:
I note that Roundhouse apparently made changes to the tooling when it was originally producing these cars. The SOU car has a tabbed side sill, but a later Roundhouse version has the straight sill.
The car still has a big tooling error -- the side ladder on the B end should be full-height, not cut down. (The cut down side ladder on the A end is correct.) I'll accept this for the nice paint, especially on the Athearn RTR cars.