I thought some of you would like this conversion from one of the worst model that I ever bought in my lifetime. The IHC 50ft combination door boxcar is one of the most inaccurate boxcar I ever saw. Everything on it is plain wrong, but for some reason I couldn't trash it. My first attempt at rebuilding it was a big failure, but now I'm back to it. This is how it looked after that first surgery.



I decided to only keep the sides, even if they are too short in height.



Then I removed the unwanted details.



Before cutting the doors and adding some plating to make them higher.





The new plug door details are made out of paper with handmade rivets.



And here's the car ready for the paint shop. Details are a mix of junk, styrene and some parts. The car ends and roof are Intermountain modified to look like NSC-3 car ends.







This car will be painted in CN wet noodle scheme and join my fleet of cars shipping plywood from B.C. to Eastern Canada markets.

Hope you enjoy!

Matt

A couple months ago I found the Woodland Scenics Gas Station at a swap meet for the princely sum of 3$ It was missing the gas pumps but they were going to be the wrong type for me anyhow.

I've built a number of the Woodland Scenics cast metal kits before so I knew what I was getting into before. I spent about an hour cleaning up the castings with a set of files before spraying the primer onto them:

I used a white primer on the walls since that was going to be their primary color anyhow, and gray on everything else.

Then I used some epoxy and glued the four walls together. I figure it will make it a bit easier to paint them after this assembly. After the glue has fully set up I can continue.

With the short days for railfanning, attempted to get a night shot of SMS Rail Service working the Atlantic Electric Perch Cove Power Plant.

Bruce

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I'm curious what type of covered hoppers were roaming the rails in the mid 50s, specifically for plastic pellet service and who were the major carriers for this commodity in that time frame. Any information would be appreciated.

Today is Pearl Harbor Day.

Remember it.

I've been thinking of putting together some Erie and Erie Lackawanna equipment. So far, all I have is an Erie rs3 but would like to pair that with 3 or 4 stillwell passenger cars. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~tubbs/ErieLackawanna/Passenger65.jpg">http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ances ... nger65.jpg</a><!-- m --> I'm looking to paint my own cars using tru-color paints but I'm not sure if "Erie green" or "Pullman green" is a better match, if anyone has some insight on the correct color.
I'd also like to do an Erie 4-6-0 , a GP7 and a caboose to go with it. As for EL, I want to do an nw2 and gp9 and cabooses for each of those.

I just ran into this video on a different site and thought I would share with you guys. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HVElhNtZOQ

Dave

Now for part 2.

For part two, I will be getting this years Christmas train ready for it's round and round trip under the tree.
This years power will be a BLI New York Central Hudson. I bartered Toptrain out of this one over Thanksgiving, he got it as a parts engine from a hobby shop for next to nothing. The sound unit, DCC equipment, and smoke unit had been removed in order to repair another one by the hobby shop where he got it from. So now she is a silent, straight DC unit with out any of the BLI goodies.    

I gave the J-1 a test run this morning and discovered a few issues with it.
-First off she had a terrible squeak coming from her drivers, some oil took care of that.
-The plastic coal load looks like it was modeled after one found on O-gauge Lionel tender, that will have to go.
-The tenders pick-up for power was removed with the other guts when she was parted out. This leaves only the drivers grabbing power from the rail. This system is lackluster at best. she stalled repeatedly on good clean track, where other engines with dirty wheels ran without problems.
-Both the headlight and backup lighting were also removed, this will have to be replaced.
-And she had a HORN HOOK on the tender! That will have to go.
   
- A crew may be in order as well as some weathering.
Then I will also get the passenger equipment ready.

WPMA-40 runs thru Chestnut Neck while the Mannheim to Camden transfer WPMA-51 passes on the outer track.

Bruce

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