Some freight cars for a 1940s Pennsy layout

[Jon Grant 4472]

Last boxcars of this train.












Plenty more boxcars to go...

Jon

[Londoner]

Do you use an air-brush to weather the box cars Jon? (sorry if that's a stupid question)

The one I am particularly interested in is that C & IM Mather car. Was that done by using washes? I have one and I do not have an air-brush. I have been very wary of weathering and just go as far as painting the trucks grimy black. The cars you feature here are good because they are not over-weathered.

Thanks

Ken

[Jon Grant 4472]

Do you use an air-brush to weather the box cars Jon? (sorry if that's a stupid question)

The one I am particularly interested in is that C & IM Mather car. Was that done by using washes? I have one and I do not have an air-brush. I have been very wary of weathering and just go as far as painting the trucks grimy black. The cars you feature here are good because they are not over-weathered.

Thanks

Ken

Ken

I have an airbrush but can't be arsed to clean it up afterwards, so I rarely use it on single car weathering.

I prefer to use thin washes of acrylic paint (Vallejo or Humbrol) to bring out the detailling on the body sides and roof. Once dry I'll add more washes to specific areas such as rivet seams and outside bracing. If I put too much on you can rub it off again with a thumb and do it again.

I tend to use a mix of matt black, earth brown mid grey and brick red (Humbrol 70) watered down in a pallette andadded using a flat brush up to 1/2 inch wide. The underframe and trucks are painted with a solid mix of the same colours - ie not watered down.

Jon

[Londoner]

Thank you Jon. This I can manage. I have been looking for some old cars to practice on and have used Vallejo before. No excuses now.

cheers
Ken

[Steamtrains]

That's some absolutely fantastic all-around modeling. I'm green with envy... :mrgreen:
That rolling stock is great..!! I'm a sucker for cabeese, so yours will be a standard to shoot for...(Need those marker lights, for starters...). And those gons are great as well...!!

[Jon Grant 4472]

Thank you Jon. This I can manage. I have been looking for some old cars to practice on and have used Vallejo before. No excuses now.

cheers
Ken

Hi Ken

I found some old photos of my weathering kit




Dirty wash applied to boxcar, still wet (this is one of the cars I stripped and repainted into Pennsy at the start of this thread)




Drybrushing kit and pastel chalks





Jon

[Londoner]

Thanks Jon

You have some pictures of your weathering kit amongst those collected together on Train Board, along with more great examples of weathering.

Ken

[Jon Grant 4472]

I've been working on a few more freight cars tonight, starting with a few reefers from Cannonball, Trix and C&BT.






2 sides of the same car






Jon

[Jon Grant 4472]

Three covered hoppers - 2 ECW and one Bowser








Jon

[Jon Grant 4472]

Finally for tonight, another 3 boxcars








Jon

[Russ Bellinis]

Next up are some more P2K mill gons with rolled steel loads (Walthers), seated on a wooden carrying frame. Can anyone clue me in to how they were actually transported?












Jon

Jon, each roll weighs about 10 tons, so they are usually carried on very short cars. If hauled in a mil gon, or long flat car or when being hauled on semi-trucks, one roll would be loaded above the trucks on each end, or in the case of a truck a roll over the rear wheels and fifth wheel of the truck and a roll over the rear wheels of the trailer. If you look at Walthers steel coil cars, on those cars the under frame is extremely heavy duty, so the coils are distributed full length in the car. I've seen BNSF hauling steel coils out of the Harbor here in Los Angeles on open but heavy duty flat car @ 30 feet long without covers. I'm not sure where the destination is, but since the cars are open, I would presume to some dry location. The covers seen on the Walthers cars are there to keep the steel dry and rust free when being hauled through rain storms.

[doctorwayne]

The blocking looks correct, Jon, and, as Russ notes, the coils are usually placed over the trucks. A single coil similar to the large one in the last photo in Russ' reply appears to be about 72" in diameter and 48" wide and would weigh around 27 tons. Another reason for limiting them to one at each end of the car is to avoid damage. Most gondolas didn't have cushion underframes in your time period, and slack action can move cargo around if it's not secured. I'd guess that the blocking would be bolted to the car's floor, or, in a steel-floored car, retained by angle irons welded to the floor. As long as the wood is tight against the coil, it's secure. I'd think, though, that multiple coils not separated by solid blocking could move, especially during switching maneuvers. If the edges of a coil are damaged, it's often no longer suitable for the intended use.
Depending on the end use, coils could be covered or not. While I never worked in the strip mill, coils destined for further processing within our plant were stored directly on the ground, on their sides (as in your cars) outdoors. They might sit for only a few hours, or for weeks, depending on requirements. Further processing usually required "pickling" in an acid bath to remove scale, then, after the processing was completed, the finished coil would be shipped, often in a boxcar. I'd guess that coils travelling in open cars would undergo further processing at their destination, while stuff in covered cars would be, more-or-less, ready to use. Not having worked in that department, though, that's only my semi-educated guess.

Wayne

[Jon Grant 4472]

Thanks Russ and Wayne, sounds like I may have overloaded the cars a bit.

I've asked John Wright if he has any suitable photos from the 1940s. With him modelling Pittsburgh, he's bound to have something.

Jon

[nkp_174]

Your work is very nice. I remember stumbling upon your build log for the Bowser B-6 while I was seeking to purchase one. Excellent work.

Michael

[Jon Grant 4472]

Moving on, some war emergency 50ft flat cars from Proto 2000 and an Athearn 40ft flat.












Jon