Improving a Life-Like boxcar

[sailormatlac]

I have some of the Walthers cars. They are nice but they don't rank the same rating these old LifeLike cars have. Unfortunately 3 years later LifeLike made these cars into real trainset trash.As for the pricing Walthers is going nuts on pricing anyway.

Catt, you mean in 1979? I remember an old MRR issue from 1976 when they were first issued. I didn't know they fudged the tooling after. It's a nice car if it weren't for the thick grabirons.

Matt

[doctorwayne]

Nice work on that boxcar, Matt.

Another nice car from about the same era, and in the same price range, is a 60' boxcar from Con-Cor. If I recall correctly, it was available with a single sliding door and also with double plug doors. Both were a pretty close match for a couple of blocks of such cars operated by Canadian Pacific, under both CP and CPAA reporting marks.
My models (don't recall which versions they were) are long gone, but here are a couple of prototype photos. C-D-S offered lettering for both types: Set #498 does the double door car as a CPAA car, with only small reporting marks and dimensional data or as a CPR car, with very large "script" lettering, while Set #499 offers the same options for the single-door car.

single door version

double plug door version

There are quite a few photos to be found HERE
The original CPAA numbers for the double plug door versions were 205,000-205,025, while the single sliding door ones were 205,500-205,626

Wayne

[AF350]

If anyone is interested the photos of US outline layouts at the Perth show yesterday are here <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73468-us-layouts-at-perth-scotland-in-2013/">http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index. ... d-in-2013/</a><!-- m -->

Nice work, always wondered why more modelers in the UK and Europe model North American prototypes then North American modelers do of UK and other foreign prototypes? I have 2 DVDs with Bob Simeys(most likely I have it spelled wrong) but they are very entertaining and some of the layouts and modules are very impressive. One day I will buy some O gauge equipment from ACE trains or ETS also has some nice O stuff.

[Tyson Rayles]

Good work !

[Catt]

Wayne,I still have some of those car kits.I always thought the neatest part of them was that you could do modern (no roofwalk-short ladders-low brake wheel) or a early version with a roofwalk high ladders and brake wheel.

About those roofwalks,That is some of the finest plastic molding I have ever seen.Since I model modern times I cut them up (with a fresh #11) to make crossover platforms on the ends of the cars.

[doctorwayne]

Wayne,I still have some of those car kits.I always thought the neatest part of them was that you could do modern (no roofwalk-short ladders-low brake wheel) or a early version with a roofwalk high ladders and brake wheel.

About those roofwalks,That is some of the finest plastic molding I have ever seen.Since I model modern times I cut them up (with a fresh #11) to make crossover platforms on the ends of the cars.

Yeah, especially for such an inexpensive car, they're very nicely-done. With a little tweaking of the details, an authentic paint and lettering job, and some weathering, they look really great.

Wayne

[sailormatlac]

If anyone is interested the photos of US outline layouts at the Perth show yesterday are here <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73468-us-layouts-at-perth-scotland-in-2013/">http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index. ... d-in-2013/</a><!-- m -->

Nice work, always wondered why more modelers in the UK and Europe model North American prototypes then North American modelers do of UK and other foreign prototypes? I have 2 DVDs with Bob Simeys(most likely I have it spelled wrong) but they are very entertaining and some of the layouts and modules are very impressive. One day I will buy some O gauge equipment from ACE trains or ETS also has some nice O stuff.

Each time I went to Europe, I was thrilled by the passenger system, but the freight trains are quite a let down. Nothing is near the North American rugged and mighty look of freight trains. I remember reading a rail engineering railroading magazine back in Belgium in 2005 and it compared North America to Europe. Lots of gabarit restriction because of old bridges and tunnels plague their network and doesn't make it possible to haul larger cars. Most UK freight modellers work with old stuff rather than modern era. Well, it's my own biased take on this scheme.

@Catt/Wayne: Yep, improving these kind of cheap cars is one fulfilling area of this hobby.

Matt

[BR60103]

If anyone is interested the photos of US outline layouts at the Perth show yesterday are here <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73468-us-layouts-at-perth-scotland-in-2013/">http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index. ... d-in-2013/</a><!-- m -->

Nice work, always wondered why more modelers in the UK and Europe model North American prototypes then North American modelers do of UK and other foreign prototypes? I have 2 DVDs with Bob Simeys(most likely I have it spelled wrong) but they are very entertaining and some of the layouts and modules are very impressive. One day I will buy some O gauge equipment from ACE trains or ETS also has some nice O stuff.

Name is Bob Symes (with variations!)

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Symes">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Symes</a><!-- m -->

I think he is the fellow who built a live diesel hydraulic in one of the smaller scales, back in the 60s.

[Catt]

Some LifeLike Thralls that were road hard and put away wet.







Bought cheap in rough shape,roughed them up even more,have since replaced the stirrups on all of them with metal stirrups.I also have these same cars that look brand new like the Bennett car I posted earlier.

[kamerad47]

I bought theses cars 2 for 4 bucks a little paint body couplers