Be Nice!
I automatically put on #5 Kaydees, metal wheels and balanced weight.
But I see all these wonderfully detailed cars on Weekend Update, and I'm wondering what would these guys do?
I'm assuming research is part of the equation, but could you point me in the right direction?
I wouldn't know an aileron brake from whatever that is that hangs off a Kaydee.
I'm pretty sure they didn't have those in the 1890's.
I did do one custom job. It was for a mixed train with a Hogwart's theme for kids during our club open houses.
So, ... what would you do to it?
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
If it's too old for your era, I've seen a box car next to an old building on an abandoned siding with trees growing up all around it. A couple hours of chainsaw work to get it out. Could be storage for the buildings owner or could just be there. (I'd put the plastic wheels back on it to save a few $'s, Kadees make it look right.)
Have fun,
Richard
I would run them. I do not know much about prototype 36 foot boxcars, but I think a few might still have been around in 1954.
I think I have two in the Fleet Of Nonsense, this one was built from a Westerfield resin kit. I do notn have any of the Rounhouse models.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Driving around rural Illinois, in and around the Galesburg area, it is striking how many old wood boxcars you see on farms. Some single sheathed (a/k/a outside braced) but many double sheathed.
Dave Nelson
dknelsonDriving around rural Illinois, in and around the Galesburg area, it is striking how many old wood boxcars you see on farms.
I have never driven through rural areas of Illinois. I seem to always be in Chicago or on my way to Wisconsin.
My oldest daughter has moved to rural Illinois. I need to make a trip and photograph some of the boxcars.
SpaceMouse...I wouldn't know an aileron brake from whatever that is that hangs off a Kaydee. I'm pretty sure they didn't have those in the 1890's....
Well, they did have knuckle couplers and air brakes in that time period, but they weren't produced by Kadee.
Werean MDC car available to me, such as one of these...
...I'd modify it into a pretty-accurate model of a Southern Su Class boxcar, as shown here...
I had another couple of MDC oldtime boxcars, and made them into MoW service cars...
However, the MDC cars are not too old for your planned layout's era, while my three modified versions are too modern. Southern's Su class cars were built between 1922-26, while my MoW cars would have been done in the early-to-mid-'30s.
Wayne
If I had one of those boxcars I would heavily weather it and do a patching with black paint, China Railway decals and reporting marks.
The information is spotty, but the Japanese-controlled South Manachuria Railway had wooden boxcars in service that may have survived until the end of WW2 which were presumably incorporated into the China Railway freight car fleet after.
"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." -Lin Yutang
-
A car with trussrods and archbar trucks would have banned from interchange service by the end of the 1930's, but some railroads (the DM&IR for example) kept cars like that for online-only service into the 1950s.
MDC also made a 36' steel boxcar with a steel underframe. If you can find one of them, you can replace the wood/trussrod underframe with the steel one, and use more modern trucks to replace the archbars.
wjstix A car with trussrods and archbar trucks would have banned from interchange service by the end of the 1930's, but some railroads (the DM&IR for example) kept cars like that for online-only service into the 1950s. MDC also made a 36' steel boxcar with a steel underframe. If you can find one of them, you can replace the wood/trussrod underframe with the steel one, and use more modern trucks to replace the archbars.
Or you could just not install the trussrods and keep the original underframe. I know it wouldn't be right, but installing bettendorf trucks would give it the correct on the rails look.
The 36' steel MDC car has a small fishbelly frame.
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
I would convert them to Hon3
Simon
Many years ago when I did the MDC cars I used Kadee old time couplers. The #5 reminded me of a little boys wearing his father's shoes. Saw that once in a message here. Sorry.
Kadee has a smaller coupler. A #58 I think. You would have to check. It has been a few years since I bought one for a 36 foot kit wood box car no longer produced.
I think I had a few shorter cars and a kit built photographer's car I still have
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
wjstixIf you can find one of them, you can replace the wood/trussrod underframe with the steel one, and use more modern trucks to replace the archbars.
I'm trying to afix them in 1895. Modernizing is going the wrong way.
Rich Kadee has a smaller coupler. A #58 I think. You would have to check. It has been a few years since I bought one for a 36 foot kit wood box car no longer produced.
Yeah, but I have bunches of #5s. I've not prioritized my budget in that direction yet. Maybe after I finish the trackwork.
SpaceMouse...I'm trying to afix them in 1895. Modernizing is going the wrong way...
I thought that I had read that in one of your first posts since returning, but just spent 10 minutes sifting through the sub-forums in search of that post.
The MDC car is very suitable for the era you wish to model, especially with the truss-rod underframe.
Tichy offers a plastic kit for a wooden ore hopperthat would probably be era-appropriate, too.
Most freight cars in that period would be of wood construction, and mostly 36' long, or less. Many would have truss rod underframes, too.
Model Die Casting also offers some shorty passenger cars that would be appropriate too. I use mine as MoW crew and work cars on my late '30s-era layout. This is the combine, with a couple of Tichy windows added to the original baggage section...
...this one was originally a postal car, but I've blanked-off some of the windows to better-suit it to MoW duties...
This one is the coach version (it can be had with the duckbill roof, as-shown, or with a regular clerestory roof, as seen on the other two cars). I blanked over a couple of windows, but it's otherwise pretty-much stock....
Another MDC car that may be useful for your layout would be the 36' truss rod reefer...
...I shaved-off the moulded-on grabirons and replaced them with wire ones, and added a little more underbody detail.
Other MDC cars suitable for your era might be the Pullman Palace cars, although they'd look best on a layout with fairly generous curves...
Here's the coach version...
...and the combine...
Here's another combine, this one shortened somewhat...
All of the Palace cars were originally truss rod cars, but I've updated mine with fishbelly underframes and more underbody details.
The set of Palace cars also include a diner and an observation car, the latter with an open rear platform. While the cars were available as a r-t-r lighted-set, they were also available individually as kits, with no lighting.