Getting close to the end....

[doctorwayne]

...of my supply of freight cars to build or re-build. I hope to move on to locomotives next, or perhaps cabooses, passenger cars, or even some work on the layout. First, though, the freight cars.

First up is this Tichy tank car. There are actually three of them, all bought recently and while building them, I decided to finish off the older "used" cars on the shelf, too.

Here's one of them, built with a few modifications - mostly metal grab irons and sill steps in place of the plastic ones which came with the kit.



...some strip styrene behind the sidesills provided extra drilling surface for the A-Line sill steps:



The first one is equipped with a 54" dome, and I used Black Cat decals to letter it for GATX. As an American car, its nominal capacity is 10,000 gallons:



Except for the 60" dome on this car, it is identical to the GATX car. However, as a Canadian-built car, its nominal capacity is 8,000 gallons (Imperial). Decals are again from Black Cat:



The third car, also Canadian-built, is identical to the BAOX car and was also lettered with Black Cat decals:



This boxcar, an old Front Range Products car, was picked-up "used" from the LHS. It was pretty-much as you see it here: built, but un-painted. I added metal grabs and sill steps, a new brake wheel, and some improved brake gear, plus the tack boards on the doors:



Since it seems very similar to the 1937 AAR steel boxcar, I modelled it as an almost-new car, with only minimal weathering. The John Galt Lines herald was supplied by my good friend Gary (jglfan), while all other lettering is from Champ:



This next car is by MDC, and was originally lettered for Great Northern. While it also had a pretty-decent weathering job, I have enough GN cars, so I decided to re-do it to match a photo in Ted Culotta's book on Essential Freight Cars. After stripping the paint, I cut away the deep side sills below the doors, then modified the fishbelly underframe's crossbearers to suit. All of the grab irons were shaved off and replaced with wire ones, although I omitted the second ones near the left end of the sides, as they would have been a late '30s or even later upgrade. The sill steps were also replaced with ones from A-Line, and new roofwalk corner grabs were fashioned from brass wire. This car is still being lettered, so only a photo of the car before painting at this time:




It seems that I've exceed my character limit for this post, so it will continue below.....

Wayne

[doctorwayne]

...continued

The rest of the cars are all old Train Miniature cars, picked-up used and in varying condition. All got metal steps and grab irons, and some form of brake gear as outlined below.
The first one is a plug door boxcar, a little too modern for a '30s-era layout:



I shaved-off the tack boards and plug door details...



...then re-worked the car as a door-and-a-half boxcar. The doors are left-overs from Red Caboose X-29s, with the half-door narrowed and re-assembled. I used some Archer rivet decals to replace those which would have been under the original tack boards and the new tackboards are from Tichy, I think:



It's meant to represent an older car (BLT 1922) which has been upgraded with AB-type brakes and that second grab iron mentioned previously. The reservoir is the stock one from TM, while the cylinder and triple valve are from an Accurail car:



There are two of these 1923 ARA single sheathed cars. They got the single grab iron treatment at the left end of the sides, and new steel doors, modified from Athearn ones, but the rest of the car is pretty-much stock:



I did, however, replace the cars' wooden ends with steel Murphy ends from Tichy. Unfortunately, while the Tichy ends are the correct height for these low TM cars, they're a bit too narrow. To correct this, I used two ends to make each useable end, cutting them as shown below. From left to right are a stock Tichy #3020 end, the back side of one, scribed to be cut, then two already cut apart, with the first one having the wide portion on the left and the next, the wide portion to the right. The next is two wide portions before joining and finally, a joined wide-pair. Above these are the narrow leftovers - anybody need some ends for narrow gauge cars?



Here's the "B" end of one of the cars. The only filling required was for the two moulded-in holes intended for the Tichy brake platform supports:



As you can see in the photo above, these cars are equipped with the split-K brake gear, which necessitates the retainer pipe to cross-over on the car's end. The components are from Tichy, with the rodding made from soft brass wire. Only the piping which can be seen from trackside is modelled, as I strive to have a minimal amount of derailments featuring roll-overs, where an inspector might discover the ruse. Here's a look under the car:



This one is a double sheathed TM car, but I've converted it to one also with double doors. The doors are from Bowser, whle the doorstops are from Red Caboose and the ladders from Tichy. I sanded the car's original sills flush with the siding, then scribed them to match the boards already cast in the sides, thereby making a taller car. Below that is a strip of Evergreen .060" angle, representing the new side sill:



This car got the same modified ends as the single sheathed cars, but I decided to give it a power (geared) handbrake, although it retained its split-K brake system:



Here's a peek at the underside, with a slightly different lever arrangement from the previous cars and similar to that used on many of Pennsy's X-29 steel boxcars:



The next car is another TM single sheathed boxcar, and was purchased in order to use-up a Seaboard Air Line decal set from Champ which I had on-hand. There are several pictures of SAL single sheathed cars in the Essential Freight Cars book, including the B-3, B-4, and B-5, and I decided to model mine as a B-4, with characteristics of both the earlier B-3 and more modern B-5. My original intention was to simply change the car's ends, add the usual details and then add the paint and lettering. However, this car seemed to have its own ideas about what needed to be done.
First off, the prototype cars are versions of the 1924 ARA Standard boxcar, with the B-3 having Murphy ends (as on the cars shown previously), while the B-4 and -5 have flat steel ends, much like Pennsy's early X-29 boxcars. The sides' structural members were all arranged in a Pratt truss configuration. Unfortunately, TM's version of the car has the structural members laid-out in a Howe truss configuration. (The 1923 and 1924 designs were very similar, but more prototypes of both were built using the Howe truss version than the Pratt style - they became know as the ARA "alternate" designs.) So, changing the ends was do-able, but did I really want to change the sides, too?
While I was pondering this, I noticed that the herald included in the decal set (meant for a 40' or 50' steel boxcar) was too large to fit between the structural members anyway, regardless of whether they were in a Pratt or Howe arrangement. Well, no matter, I guess, but the herald also read "SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILROAD" rather than the more-correct for my era "...RAILWAY". I managed to contact the SAL/ACL/SCL historical group and enquired about the availability of a proper herald, and when I told them of this project, was able to secure a set intended for this particular car (I'll be picking it up this coming week). That pretty-well convinced me that it might be worthwhile to re-work the car's sides, even though this car will likely be only an occasional visitor on my southern Ontario layout.

The diagonals were shaved-off with a #19 X-Acto blade, then the siding re-scribed using a #11 blade and a dental tool. The new bracing is simply .005"x.055" styrene strips capped with HO scale 2"x2" styrene. The door is from Westerfield, cut apart both vertically and horizontally, with sections removed to make it both narrower and shorter, then cemented back together. The grab irons were bent from soft brass wire and the underbody is a USRA-type from Tichy - it's not correct for this car, but what I mentioned previously about major derailments should cover the faux pas. Here's what it looks like:



The braces in the end panels of the sides are flat strips of .005" styrene, and on the prototype are fastened to only some of the boards which enclose the car. I used Archer rivet decals to model this, first cutting the strip of rivets from the sheet, then carefully slitting the decal film between the individual rivets. The strip was then placed on the car, as shown in the first photo below, and water applied to it. The individual rivets were then manipulated into place with tweezers and the tip of a #11 blade:



...and here's one with the rivets in place:



Here's a view of the car's "B" end. The brake gear and modified ladder are from Tichy, and rivet detail by Archer:




I'll be gone next week to visit friends in the U.S., and will post pictures of these cars when I return and have an opportunity to finish them.


Wayne

[Ralph]

Scary thread title but awe inspiring work!

[Tyson Rayles]

Beautiful work !

[torikoos]

Great stuff as ever Wayne.

Particularly love he fact you show the brake details, something that is not often easy to find examples of on photos, just as hard as getting loco roof shots...

Koos

[Charlie B]

Great work Wayne, I will bet you are ready to sit trackside this week at least for one day.....What a job, and those will make great additions to your layout.
Charlie

[e-paw]

[zstripe]

Wayne,
I thought I would wander around on Blue for awhile and what do I find? More of your out standing work..Great job WAYNE.
Cheers,
Frank (zstripe)

[Kev1340]

Great work Doc

Cheers,

Kev

[trwroute]

As usual, Wayne...I thoroughly enjoy seeing your work. Clever idea on the mod for widening the Tichy ends. Beautiful stuff!

[doctorwayne]

Thanks to all for your kind words. I hope to get back to work on these cars tomorrow.

Wayne

[doctorwayne]

Well, tomorrow has come and gone, and so has yesterday, but I finally got the rest of the cars pretty-well finished.

This is the Train Miniature car with the revised bracing and new ends. It was modified to represent a Seaboard Air Line B-4 boxcar. I was able to purchase the proper decals from the SAL/ACL/SCL Historical Society, and since the decal set will letter five cars, it may have inspired yet another freight car project.



Here's a not-very-good photo showing the end, with the Archer rivet decals:




This one is the ex-Great Northern car. I had decided to make it a Missouri Pacific car, based on a photo in Ted Culotta's Essential Freight Cars book. I couldn't find the proper MP lettering for a boxcar, but ordered a C-D-S set of dry transfers for a Mopac hopper. All that was usable from it was the buzz-saw heralds, and the M.P. reporting marks for the car's ends. The data is from Champ as is "AUTOMOBILE", while the number, reporting marks, and spelled-out MISSOURI PACIFIC is from Champ alphabet sets:




Next, the other two Train Miniature single sheathed boxcars. They both have new ends and doors and slightly improved underbodies, but are otherwise little modified. I gave them both black ends and roofs, then lettered them for bil's LS&W:






This one is the former plug door boxcar converted to an older-style door-and-a-half car. I decided to letter it for my friend Steve's (e-paw) SH&D, part of his ANNA LINES. Steve provided the heralds, while the rest of the lettering is from Champ data and alphabet sets:




Another Train Miniature car. I thought it fitting to letter it for bil's LS&W, and, as a salute to his design expertise, designated it for furniture service:



This one wasn't included with the cars shown in the original post, as I picked it up from Bowser only last week. It was pre-ordered last summer, and was, in my opinion, well-worth the wait. Other than a little weathering and changing out the stock Kadee #5s for Kadee 58s, it was truly ready-to-run, probably the nicest I've seen. This version is supposedly sold out, but they're offering it in all road names and paint schemes used on these cars over their operating lifespan, including PC, Conrail, N&W, various MoW versions and several Pennsy schemes:



And finally, another one not in the original post either. I bought this Athearn Blue Box car back in the early '60s, and didn't use it much. Eventually, I painted over the original Heinz scheme, then curved the underbody weight to give the car a swayback appearance. A coat of boxcar red, and it went into MoW service as a water car. After seeing a number of very nicely-done pickle cars elsewhere on this Forum, I decided to resurrect the old girl. I removed the underbody weight completely, replacing it with a sheet of .060" styrene, then modified the car's frame by cutting away all of the crossbearers. 4"x4" stringers were added to the underbody, two on each side of the centreframe, then a set of MDC queenposts were installed, along with a Tichy K-type brake cylinder. The underbody truss rods are monofilament fishing line. while those on the car's sides are .015" music wire. I modified the hatches somewhat to remove the oversize operating hinges, then added a new roofwalk. All of the grab irons and ladders were replaced with wire parts, and the original "power" brake gear was shaved-off and replaced with a Tichy stem-winder type. To make up for the missing underfloor weight, I added lead weights in the vats - mmm, what delicious pickles . Lettering is C-D-S dry transfers, applied as decals. I may add some advertising later, as, despite the GILX reporting marks, this is not a GERN car, but one leased from GERN Industries:




Wayne

[Charlie B]

When you described the pickle car I though I had a good mental picture. I was wrong. It is not like I had it pictured. It is a great rebuild. I think those hoppers served as cars for locomotive sand too later in life.
Very nicely done for all of them Wayne.
Charlie

[JaBear]

Getting close to the end....
Gidday Doc, Just curious how does that Bowser RTR H30 go for weight? I'm living in hope that they may release it as a kit.
Cheers, the Bear.

[Steamtrains]

Masterful work...(as always...)
That pickle car has a lot of "sight appeal"-- it's so unique you can't help but look it over with a magnifying glass...

I'll be using your pictures as a guide for weathering a batch of boxcars waiting "in the wings"...

Thanks for posting....