Hello,
I realize that the Athearn 40ft boxcar is an early 1937 USRA? design with the wrong roof panels and lousy door detail.
But if I were to ignore the roof and slap on some improved doors, what railroads used this early design with the squared-off end panels? I've got a few and I don't want to just throw them away because they're not perfect, so at least giving them prototypical paint schemes would help me accept them a little more.
Thanks,
Alex
Pardon, I meant the 1937 AAR 40ft boxcar.
Any info or links to articles would be great.
I believe these cars are "Generic" for me they look close enough to the 1937 AARs to be acceptable. I have finished about 24 of them and have the last 12 planned soon.
It is my understanding that there is no prototype for these particular cars. Even so, I like them alot as I cannot afford or wait for all those nice Intermountain or Kaydee RTR cars.
You can also cut the roof off, trim the sides and ends 6", remove the top rib from the ends and reattach the roof to come up with a close 10'0" IH car. the same 6 ft door can be used by trimming it a little.
Dave H.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Thanks for all the replies.
I do have better quality kits from Red Caboose, Front Range, McKean, and the like, but I also have at least a dozen Athearn 40ft boxcar kits laying around that I wanted to upgrade and improve instead of throwing them away. Whether this is a waste of time or not will be something I will probably discover soon.
I did find an interesting article on an old issue of another Model RR magazine that detailed turning these Athearn cars into PRR X26b and c re-builds of the 40's. I might give that a try for one of them.
Thanks for the info and link.
I drew a line between cars like that and the better quality ones from IM, Red Caboose, Branchline, and the former IMWX (which were sold to RC). Those on the "blue box" side of the line stayed in California when I moved. I don't have enough time to upgrade them to what they should be when so much good stuff is available. I think the door alone required 2 or 3 splices plus modifying the track etc to make it look anything less than gross. But that's MY determination and committment but don't tell anyone they are "close enough" They ain't
Cal
Mike WSOR engineer | HO scale since 1988 | Visit our club www.WCGandyDancers.com