Photo by the author
Westerfield Models HO scale Great Northern kit No.10453 9000 series with 1948 Lettering.
Decals:
I used Larry Kline and Ted Culotta's The Postwar Freight Car Fleet to judge the accuracy of the decals on this kit (page 19). They appear to be very accurate as to the lettering designed used by the Great Northern for these cars. The decals were thin but I still had to use liberal amounts of Solvaset and make several scoring cuts to get them to lay flat in the vertical seams.
Instructions:
Westerfield's instructions are very detailed and give you step by step instructions for building this car with nice photos. I do wish Westerfield would recommend a paint match for these cars vs using the generic 'Boxcar Red' in their instructions. My understanding is these cars were painted a Mineral Red.
Castings:
This is a one piece body and on my kit the sides warped inward; to fix this I cut six .040 Evergreen styrene shapes and glued them in the inside of the carbody to help push the sides out. While this warp-age is noticeable during construction after painting and weathering it isn't a distraction. There were no surface air bubbles and all the parts were cleanly cast. The nut and bolt castings on the ends are very well done. On the down side, I don't like the resin steps as they break easily once the car is finished.
Ease of assembly:
The one piece body will be welcomed by many builders but due to the nature of the resin the sides or roof can be warped. I found this car to be very easy to build - even with the number of holes that had to be drilled for the wire hand grabs. the underframe takes time due to the numerous truss rods but this is what makes the car unique on your layout. If I were to recommend a first Westerfield kit to a modeler wanting to build their first resin kit this would be one I would pick. The 1948 paint scheme does not require any masking. I used Floquil paint and glaze to paint the model.
https://id18538.securedata.net/westerfieldmodels.com/merchantmanager/index.php?cPath=83
Population:
January 1940 - 979 cars
April 1952 - 783 cars
January 1955 - 290 cars
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