doctorwayne's Get off yer duff Challenge (Part II)

[doctorwayne]

Lest anyone think that I'm widening my duff through inactivity (well, I'm still sitting on it, but I'm not inactive ), here are a few more projects, mostly under way to some degree.

From train shows, here's an Ertl gondola. It was originally lettered for Seaboard (like one I already have, re-done as a CNR car in black paint). This one will get a similar treatment, and the new metal grabs and sill steps are already installed (the camera has given the car a humpback appearance, but that's only a trick of the lense):



The car's original floor had been destroyed by someone who didn't know how to use contact cement, so I got it for $4.00. Some Evergreen .030"x.060" strip, distressed with a razor saw, made some useable planks for the floor. The detail should show up after paint and weathering:



Another train show find, this Ertl boxcar needed nothing but its trucks and wheels painted, but when I discovered that it had working doors, I also painted the floor. Eight bucks for a nice car, which will get some weathering before going into service:



This one's Burlington Route red paint has been removed and it's had a few details added.



I'm uncertain as to the manufacturer, but I have an identical one, bought for $2.00 at my LHS. Both cars got some additional weight and a stretched underframe from Athearn 50' flatcars. Both will be in MoW service. The one shown was also two bucks.

The next bunch is from the "used" department of Just Train Crazy, my local hobby shop. It has no manufacturer's markings, but I thought it to be maybe from ConCor. When I got it home and decided to replace the cast-on grab irons, I was surprised to find that the car's sides are cast metal, while the ends are metal stampings and the floor wood. This car is from Ulrich, an older company which offered some very nicely-done cast metal cars - operating drop-bottom gondolas and operating coal hoppers to name a couple, along with some well-done highway trucks.



Not bad for $7.00...I added a single grabiron at the left end of the sides, and replaced the metal ends with plastic ones left over from some Proto-2000 gondola kits. It also got a pair of Accurail Andrews trucks and a new brake wheel, and will get some weathering when I have enough projects done to make a trip to the paint shop worthwhile.

These two are Walthers USRA composite gondolas. The black one was lettered for CPR and the red one for CB&Q...





Both cars got free-standing wire grabs and some better brake details, and the red one got new metal sill steps, as the plastic ones had been broken off. I also used my X-Acto to carve board details into the interior sides of both cars, which will eventually wear EG&E paint and lettering. The black car was $8.00, the red one $7.00.

This Accurail USRA hopper kit was still new-in-the-box, but also part of the same estate lot, and it cost only $8.00. Unlettered, it'll become a CNR car, in the black pre-war paint scheme:



The next two are from the same hobbyshop, but, I believe, a different estate lot. Both were unbuilt Westerfield kits (the unbuilt CPR car was shown previously).



As you can see on the not-quite-finished car, I did use the plank roof. The CPR car alone was going for $10.00, but I was told that I could have both cars for $9.00. "Well, I don't really need the second car...perhaps someone else would like it." "Your choice", the owner replied, "but that one's ten bucks or you can have the two for nine." My good friend Ed (cn nutbar), eager, I think, to get out of the store with a brass locomotive which was almost literally a steal, quickly chimed in, "He'll take 'em both!" while at the same time whipping out his credit card.

I was going to build the second car for him, but, after running into "difficulties" during the construction, opted to trade it for two EG&E MoW gondolas (to be replaced with the two re-worked plastic ones mentioned previously).

Here's the Westerfield N&W HP-class hopper:



I think that both of these cars were from older runs, as the castings were extremely brittle. I lost count of the number of times I broke various pieces simply attempting to clean them of flash. The resin was also extremely hard and difficult to drill, dulling drill bits in no time. The instructions warned of this, and instead recommended surface-mounting most of the many wire grab irons. Foolishly, I slogged on, breaking more parts. Some were repaired by backing the pieces with styrene, while others were discarded and new ones fabricated from styrene. It's probably the most frustrating kit I've ever built, and I'm glad that it'll be painted black, which should hide some of my mistakes. The Andrews trucks are from Kadee.
On several occasions, I wanted to simply toss it into the garbage, but that's not normally what I'd do, so I plugged away at it for far too long for a car I didn't really need. The Westerfield CNR gondola mentioned previously, on the other hand, was a pleasure to build and turned out as I had hoped.
Even the CPR Fowler boxcar suffered breakage in my clumsy hands...the floor, one side, and one end, along with some smaller parts. Like all of my closed craftsman-type cars, I built mine with a removeable floor, rather than gluing it in as per the instructions...with a car so problematic to build, I at least want it accessible when I have to repair it.

This one arrived yesterday, direct from Tangent:



While it needs its wheels and axles painted and a mid-'30s re-weigh date added, it's otherwise ready-to-run, and one of the nicest examples of that genre I've seen. It'll get some weathering, too.

This one came with the previous one, and is likely destined to get GILX reporting marks....



...I hope that I can make it look as good as the ready-to-run one.

I think that those Tyco gondolas, shown previously, are next up for freight cars.

Wayne