That X-post boxcar is done, Krylon update, and a short video...

Last week I bemoaned the fact that I'd been unable to find Krylon Ultra Flat Camouflage Brown.  My friend Brian came to the rescue and brought me a fresh can of it on Tuesday when he came for a visit. I'll be putting it to use soon, as I've got a few freight car projects lined up now, and the wheels and trucks will have to be done.

I'm pretty happy that my Southern Pacific exterior post boxcar project is all done now, as the finishing touches were completed on Wednesday. Don't misunderstand, I'm not modeling the SP...I just really like the look of these particular 86 foot boxcars.  Sorry if anyone is tired of me posting about this project -3 times in a row now - but I try to follow through with my posts on projects until they are finished up.

I usually add extra weight to the inside of these 86 footers as doing so helps them to roll a little better. This time, I epoxied a couple of large steel nuts to the standard metal weight that comes with the car.  I don't think I'm going to weather this car, at least not in the short term, other than I've given the new metal wheels a dirty/rusty look.

As I mentioned in the past couple of weeks, this car has a few small differences to distinguish it from the one I modeled a couple of years ago.  It is labelled "Hydra-Cushion" on the right hand doors, the roof has 24 transverse reinforcing bars, there's a metal plate at the roof on both ends, and a couple of the decals are a bit different as well. As I said last week, I had to piece together the word "HYDRA" as it's not on the decal sheet.

Here's a look at the finished car out on the JSSX...It's turned out really well...

A view showing the roof with the reinforcing bars:

A nice look at the two sisters running together on GT tracks on the layout:

The trainshow in Woodstock, Ontario is this Sunday (tomorrow, Jan.6th) and I'm planning to go.  If I happen to find another suitable boxcar, I'm thinking of doing another one of these, but lettered for the SSW/Cotton Belt. The big white ball with Cotton Belt lettering would pose a bit of a challenge though. There's no decal "Cotton Belt" decal available in the same red as the boxcar, so I'd have to make one. The Mike Budde article from all those years ago shows how he handled that, so I think I could might be able to pull it off.

And to close out for this week, unrelated to anything above, here's a video (52 seconds) I took of the JSSX's short maintenance train. It's just leaving the storage track and is moving into the small JSSX yard, dragged by ex-CN switcher #1317...