Getting close to the end....

[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