Boxcar Kitbash (Part 1)

 I saw this (Collin Reinhart) photo of LRS 1421 on railcarphotos.com and thought maybe I could give modeling it a try.  Obviously the boxcar has had it's height extended, but I found the added bracing on the vertical ribs interesting as well.  Having the two different colours of green doesn't hurt either.

I've cropped the original photo to remove items surrounding the boxcar.

This Athearn boxcar will serve as the victim in this effort.  I hope this goes well.  Not a lot of experience cutting up  freight cars.  Oh well, here goes...

Off with the roof...which was a little bit nerve wracking.

A few minutes work with a Zona saw and I had the roof removed.  I should also note that I removed the stirrup steps first.  I figured that I'd probably just break them anyway as I worked on the boxcar, and maybe if I took them off I could save them.  Well, I got 3 out of 4 off alright, but that 4th one flew off across the workbench, never to be found.

Between Luc Sabourin and I, we figured that the boxcar height was extended by 18 inches, so I cut strips of .040" styrene to that width, and added them to the top of the boxcar body.

Below, the boxcar roof is just loosely sitting in place for the moment.

Adding the short vertical ribs to the extension should be next.  Stay tuned, as I'll try to have more on this project next time.

Before you go though, here's a link to another YouTube video.  This time it's highlighting Rapido's June 2021 arrivals (8 minutes long).  Nothing there of interest to the JSSX really, but it's real good to see them continuing to add more to their product line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCUd2QQAahQ

Unusual Gondola

 Received another of his real nice photo contributions from Brian Smith this week, in the form of this view of BISX gondola 30915 (Brandenburg Industrial Service Co.).   Brian asked if I'd ever seen one of these myself, but the answer is "no".  Never seen a model of one either for that matter.  Too bad, because one sure would be interesting at the metal recycler yard on the JSSX.

I searched this unusual looking gondola online, but could not find out who the actual builder was.  I did find however that the lighter yellow middle portion of the gondola is where the name Brandenburg has been painted out. My thanks go to Brian for the photo.

And on the layout, I had been having quite a bit of trouble with one track switch (PECO, code 83) at the GTW yard...six-axle engines, most notably the GT SD38, were tending to short out the whole layout as they ran through the switch.  I finally got tired of that, so I removed and replaced the switch with a new one.

The switch is out obviously, and the rail joiners are in place.

Switch is in place, and I taped over any contact points before doing any painting.  I guess that I probably should have done the painting at the workbench first, but the truth is that I never even thought of it at the time.

The switch is in place, ties and rail are painted, ballast is in, and best of all...it works!  I'll go over it again with a bit more paint on ties and rail though.

Over the Road Trailer

We'll get to the title subject in a minute, but first, Brian Smith sent this photo to me this week.  Brian figures that this would make for a good modeling project, and he's not wrong! I wonder though if he's hinting that it's something he'd like me to do for him sometime.

I can't help but wonder how the bulkhead looks like on the near end of this TTPX flatcar.  Thanks for this, Brian.

Did a little bit of work on this (Walthers) 53 foot trailer...

One of the landing gear "feet" had broken off and been lost, so I cobbled a replacement together, and painted it all silver.  I also used the silver on the wheels, the rear doors hardware, the glad-hand fitting at the front, and the rear bumper.

To make the tail lights red, I simply coloured them in with a red Sharpie pen, and then painted the frame around them with the flat silver.

Hard to see, but for each of the vertical panel/rivet lines, I put the tiniest possible dab of black acrylic artist paint I could at the top, and then dragged a damp brush downward to create the streak of road grime.

High on the front end of the trailer, I sprayed very thin flat black to show as exhaust accumulation from the diesel engine. The lower portion of the sides received a couple of pretty light passes of rail brown from the air brush .

 And since you've read this far along, below is a link to the April update YouTube video of the Seaboard Central layout.  I like this layout because the setting is modern, and just about everything is weathered.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0PH6bywjPA

NW 860180 Boxcar Part 2 (fin)

The Norfolk & Western boxcar is finished up for now, except it's not weathered at all, and has been seen out on the layout.  Just a couple of in-progress shots here, and then a look at the finished boxcar. 

I "plated over" a hole I had created (accidentally) in the underside of the car when trying to remove the old coupler box. I used a piece of .010 white styrene for this, and then added Details West coupler boxes and Kadee couplers.

Painted the styrene and the coupler box flat black

And here's some looks at the boxcar, now out on the rails of the GTW line...

In this view, seen as part of the auto parts train, just behind the scrap metal recycler yard.

A closer view showing the Excess Height band across the top of the end of the boxcar.  For the white band, I used two pieces of white decal trim film, then put the number and Excess Height decals overtop of that.