Older P2K 50' Box cars?

[orsonroy]

Randy,

Life Like loudly claims that they only decorate their P2K freight cars for roads that actually had those cars, and in correct paint schemes. That's why they're running oddball roads like the Illinois Northern for their Mathers boxcars, and why they've publicly said that they'll never rerun those NKP 50-footers (the roofs are wrong). They must have found a builder's or in-service of the LV car with the black roof and body color walk SOMEPLACE. You might want to ask the guys on the STMFC Yahoo Group for more info.

And having multicolored roofs isn't that odd a thing. I've seen color photos of C&NW boxes, where the roof material was painted asphaltum (black) but the support ribs were the same color as the body.

[rrinker]

The key is to work slowly and carefully, especially when cutting the fie grab irons from the sprues. These are't beginner's kits, but nor are they super complex craftsman kits.
You might want to try to locate a prototype photo, I forget if the information is supplied in the instructions, but some prototypes need the side sill notched in certain areas (marks are provided on the inside as guide lines).
My only gripe is that my Lehigh Valley cars came with black roofs and red roof walks. Surely this is not correct, either everything was black or everything was red. The Lehigh Valley Color Guid has a couple of pictures of these cars, and it APPEARS the roof was all-black, so I have to paint my roofwalks.

--Randy

[Anonymous]

DeShane,

Thanks for the quick info. I am actually excited about building these cars up. Nothing like having fresh new rolling stock for the layout. Although storage is getting to be a problem.

I built a couple of these a few years ago, and they went together well, but some of the detail pieces gave me fits due to my large hands. With that and arthritis, it can make kit building a little difficult.

locomotive3, Thanks, got that bookmarked now.

Chris

[Anonymous]

You can replace what ever couplers were provided in these kits with Kadee #5 couplers. Currently LL provides some type of knuckle couplers, unsure which and I replace with Kadee #5s. These kits are possibly brand new to 10-15 years old. They build into beautiful freight cars! Take your time and be patient and you will be proud of what you have done. If you think they are over your head, sell on Ebay!

I hate for people who lack experiance in building complicated kits to get frustrated with these type of kits and then come on this Forum and bad mouth kit building!

[Anonymous]

www.kadee.com/conv/list.htm

[Anonymous]

I was wondering about what Couplers came with the Older Proto 2000 50' Automotive Box Cars?

My Uncle came over to look at my New GP9 and dropped off a set of 4 Nickel Plate 50 Box cars that he bought in a set of 4, Shrinkwrapped from a LHS a number of years ago. The price tag on these was $15.99, so I think it was more than just a couple of years.

It looks like the only couplers in these kits were the Hook Horn style. Would this be correct? I guess before I put them together I'll have to get some Kadee's to put on them.

The wheel and axle sets were Metal on these kits.

Any Help here?

Chris