X-Post SP Boxcar

With some home renovations going on in the basement this week, much of the happenings around the JSSX involved cleaning and vacuuming.  Boring, I know, but necessary, right? 

However, I did get started working on this undecorated 8 door auto-parts boxcar that I picked up last spring. Taped to the wall above my workbench is a picture of the prototype car, with a few notes scribbled down.

I'm more or less following an article written by Mike Budde in September 2000 Model Railroading magazine again to create an X-Post boxcar.  This basically involves using Evergreen Styrene strips to add exterior posts to the sides and for this particular model adding braces to the roof.  Note the 14 pieces of styrene (enough to do both sides) in front of the car are for the center space between the doors. They'll go on much later, after painting and decaling of those areas is completed.

I expect that this car could take a while for me to complete, as a similar one did a couple of years ago. Decaling those long stripes on the sides is something of a nightmare.  With all of those vertical posts and horizontal bars, trying to get the decal to settle properly takes time and patience. The grey stripe decal sets seem to tear very easily, which further complicates matters. I'll only do a little bit at a time and then leave it for a day or so before doing any more. I had no interest whatsoever in trying to mask off the areas in order to paint the stripes.

Here's that previous similar car I did a couple of years ago (on the bottom), the current project as of last night after painting has the decaling underway, and the prototype picture as well.

That big white SP ball decal in the middle of the car went on just as smoothly as I could have hoped.  The decal set from Microscale did not include the word "Hydra", as in Hydra-Cushion" for the right hand pair of doors.  I had to create it by re-arranging the letters from another copy of the same decal sheet.  The trick there was to create the letter "D", which I fashioned by cutting up a "B" and "C".  I like to think of doing that sort of thing as modeling. So, things are moving along nicely on this boxcar.  I'll show more on this project next week.

This BC Rail C40-8M trailed CN's SD70 #5692 as they passed the Sarnia station, to begin the switch moves necessary to pick up a dozen or so CSX covered hoppers.  Those cars included a former RF&P car.