Westerfield I-GN boxcar - ready for weathering

I finished dealing the Westerfield I-GN boxcar, and added an overcoat of Future floor polish followed by a coat of Vallejo Matte clear. I think it makes a nice addition to the "late 1920s" roster. 

I think I'm going to hold off on weathering the car until I get some other half-finished freight car projects completed. 

New HO Scale 8K Chemical Tank Car from Tangent

I mentioned at Naperville there were rumblings about a couple of new steam era freight cars that "maybe" would be announced around the time of Trainfest in Milwaukee.
Awoke to find this posted this morning - Marty

"Tangent Scale Models is proud to introduce our next ALL-NEW freight car replica, the General American 8,000 Gallon Acid Tank Car with Welded Underframe.  Following World War II, specialized liquid shippers requested new special duty tank cars, and General American Transportation Corporation met their demands by producing specific-service cars such as this 8,000 gallon acid service tank car.  At the same time, General American switched from a riveted underframe and riveted tank design to a welded underframe and tank.  While General American’s factory in Sharon PA manufactured at least three different post-war versions of 8,000 gallon acid all-welded tank cars, these specific prototypes were produced between 1949 and 1960.  Like all Tangent Scale Models offerings, these tank cars had long service lives, lasting well into the 1980s in revenue service.  Acid service tank cars were commonly-seen nationwide, providing transportation for strong chemical compounds, such as hydrochloric (muriatic), hydrofluoric, phosphoric, and sulfuric acids.  Acid tank cars were rubber-lined, featured one percent expansion domes on the top, and did not have bottom tank outlets. 

The Tangent Scale Models General American 8,000 gallon acid tank car is a visually-distinctive model that includes details accurate for each paint scheme.  Note the distinctive small expansion dome at the top, surrounded by a beautifully-rendered “see-through” safety walkway.  Our walkways along the side of the car are also “see-through” safety tread, just like their prototypes.  As always, our correct “true-to-life” colors and “hyper-accurate” lettering includes exact fonts and lettering placement.  Finally, our scale replicas operate as well as they look, equipped with free-rolling all-metal wheels and Kadee® scale couplers, meaning our models are truly ready to run.  

This is NOT a pre-order announcement.  Our NEW Ready to Run replicas are available NOW at www.tangentscalemodels.com and we are selling these at Trainfest in Milwaukee on November 8-9.  Whether wearing “plain” GATX lease colors or the colors of a lessee, these replicas will certainly be eye-catchers on your layout!  Our first stunning release includes four paint schemes:

GATX “Black Lease 1952+” in the plain “black lease 1952+” scheme.  This GATX black lease scheme represents a general lease car in service beginning in 1952 and is broadly applicable across North America.  It is available in four road numbers.

 GATX “Stauffer Chemical Company” in the distinctive gray and black scheme with a 1953 paint date and 1949 build date, complete with the Stauffer diamond logo and Victor Chemical Division lettering, just like the prototype car.  These stunning cars are available in four road numbers.

GATX “The D O W Chemical Company” in the black scheme with striking yellow graphics including “Freeport Texas” lettering.  These nationwide service cars include a 1953 paint date on the side of the car.  This GATX lease scheme is available in four road numbers.

GATX "White Lease 1971+” in the striking “white lease 1971+” scheme which includes a large black stripe in the middle of the car.  These cars were repainted in 1971, which of course is modeled after an exact prototype photo.  These cars lasted in service into the 1990s, and are available in four road numbers.

Undecorated RTR Black 1949-1951 cars are immediately ready for decaling!

Undecorated RTR Black 1951-1960 cars are immediately ready for decaling!

Undecorated Unpainted Kits are available as well for those who desire to build their own. 

Pricing for RTR models is $44.95.  High-resolution images showing these fine replicas are available at www.tangentscalemodels.com  and our site also includes prototype images for your reference as well."

The rumour is true

Yarmouth Model Works is developing 40' boxcar kits in HO scale featuring the AC&F proprietary end and roof.
You can see photos of the parts here, http://elgincarshops.blogspot.ca/

Updating the Rutland PS-1 Boxcar

A comparison of Rutland PS-1 #100, as built and #194, with all updates completed.

Reprinted with permission of the Rutland Railroad Historical Society and authors Phillip Blancher & Kevin Pytlak. Article published in Winter 2014 (Volume 25, Number 4) issue of the Rutland Railroad Historical Society magazine, "The Newsliner."

By Phillip Blancher & Kevin Pytlak

All Photos by Phillip Blancher

Pullman Standard's PS-1 box Car is THE iconic piece of rolling stock that defined the vision Rutland Railway president Gardiner Caverly laid out for the railroad in the early 1950's, that of a modern, streamlined, service-oriented gateway that would rapidly move shippers products to market. If you are a model railroader modelling the Rutland in the 1950's or early 1960's, a fleet of these cars is a must. 

In the last 15 years, HO-scale modellers have been fortunate to have had two manufacturers release PS-1’s, and in 28 car numbers. Kadee's well-detailed model is presently available in four road numbers while Intermountain Railway Company has produced 24 different numbers under their own brand as well as for The Express Station and The Steam Shack. The Intermountain models have been updated along the way, meaning that there is some variation in the amount of detail on production runs. The Steam Shack's later releases included etched roof walks and improved paint and graphics. Updating the detail fidelity of the earlier Intermountain releases is not a difficult operation and can be done in stages. 

The first task for us was to consult any and all photos that could be found among the many sources available: books, issues of The Newsliner, and the Internet. Required information that could not be easily tracked down ended up as questions placed on the Steam Freight Car email list hosted on YahooGroups. Once sufficient information was gathered, a shopping list of items required to update the various PS-1 models was drawn up.

As an-built photo of the original kit, purchased used from a seller on Ebay.

Many of the earlier cars were purchased on the E-Bay auction website or on the YahooGroups HO Interchange email list. Some of the cars were purchased as un-assembled kits, but others were ready-to-run. This article will deal only with updates and changes to the fidelity of the car, and will not cover any repairs that had to be made to a previous owner's work.

Beginning with the wheels and working up from there, the trucks will need to be changed out. The Rutland PS-1's came with solid bearing, ASF A3 Ride Control trucks. These can be replicated with Kato part 31-601 which have excellent detail including brake beams. That said, the wheel sets were replaced with Intermountain Code-88 semi-scale wheel sets. In the interval that has passed since the parts were purchased for this project, Tahoe Model Works has released their own version of the ASF A3 trucks. They can be purchased with Intermountain semi-scale wheel sets, part number TMW-110/210. The detail level of these trucks is just as good as the Kato trucks and may be more readily available.

Continuing on to the brake rigging, the plastic pieces are easily broken when removing parts from the sprues. Where the lines could not be glued into place, new lines were bent from 0.015 brass wire. The angle cock, glad hand, and air line for each end of the car was replaced with Cal-Scale parts. The coupler boxes were drilled and tapped for 2-56 screws and Kadee #158 Whisker Couplers were installed in them. The trip pins were removed. 

Moving on to the car sides, the doors and ladders were installed as per instructions. End grab irons were replaced with wire pieces formed from phosphor bronze wire from Tichy Train Group. 

B-End details include etched
brake wheel platform, and brake wheel. 

On the B-end of the car, the brake wheel was replaced. For cars 100-107, the Ajax brake wheel was used (Kadee Part number) while for cars 108-450, the Universal brake wheel was used (Kadee Part number). The brackets for the brake wheel platform were installed, but the plastic walkway material was not used. Detail Associates coupler lift bars were added using an eye bolt in the left corner and one attached to the coupler box. The lift bar is secured to the left corner of the car but only looped into the eye bolt on the coupler box. This makes access to the coupler box simpler should servicing be required.

Modifications to the A-end include
Kadee #158 couplers, grab irons,
and uncoupling levers.

The “Style-A” plastic stirrup steps under the side grab irons were replaced with bronze parts formed from A-Line. The stirrup under the ladder could be replaced with a “Style-B” brass part as well. 

Instead of using NMRA practices to weight the car, pennies were used. A penny weighs 1/10th of an ounce, therefore 15 to 20 pennies, centred along the middle of the floor inside the box car body, were glued in place. The doors were also attached at this time, followed by the roof. Elastic bands were used to hold the roof in place while the glue set.  

The Plano etched roof walk really makes this roof pop. The authors are members of the famed Yellow Roof Society so the roof walks were painted to match the roof.

A Plano Model Products #191 40' Apex Walkway set was installed as per that company's instructions, the parts having been painted before installation. To attach dissimilar materials such as metal to plastic, a thin bead of Canopy Glue was applied with a Microbrush. The Canopy Glue works well in this application because it dries clear and is flexible enough to allow for the different expansion/contraction rates of the materials. This helps prevent the walkways from popping off the model. 

Other than touch-up and painting the roof walk, no other painting is required. The roof walk was painted yellow to match the yellow of the roof. Badger Modelflex primer grey was applied first, followed by C&NW Yellow from the same brand. The truck frames were painted with Oily Black paint and the wheels with Burnt Umber mixed with Black on the wheel faces and wheel backs. This treatment helps suggest oil, dirt and grime from the solid bearing trucks. 

Updating the lettering to bring the cars up to the same level as the later Steam Shack releases was accomplished with decals from Train Detail Works by Jerry Glow. Two decals sets were released by TDW that cover all lettering for trust plate lettering, markings, and numbering. The first set covers the 150-299 series, while the second set augments the first with numbering and details for the 100-149 and the 300-450 series. 

One detail that is often ignored is car re-weigh markings. Since 1959 is the year being modelled, it means that lower-numbered PS-1's would have been re-weighed and should be re-marked accordingly. Most of the re-weights were done at the car shops in Rutland, but it would not have been unusual for them to have been re-weighed at Bellows Falls, Alburgh or Malone. With re-weighs, try to refer to photos of the prototype. 

Once the decals were finished, a thin coat of Testors Glosscote was airbrushed  over the car to seal the decals and to also cover any decal film residual that might still show. Modellers will often choose to Dullcote directly over the decals following their application but this can actually make the decal film stand out. Once the Glosscote has dried, a light application of Dullcote was made. Next it was time to get dirty with car weathering.

Using a combination of artist oils, washes and some acrylic dry-brushing to weather the roof, sides and ends of the car, the first task was to airbrush the underside of the car with thin coats of Badger Modelflex Dust, Dirt and Grime paints. Working from darkest to lightest, weathering was concentrated near the trucks. The trucks themselves and the wheel sets were weathered using poster stencil cream available from Michaels. 

Completed PS-1s #194 and #118 show off their worn paint before going into service.

For cars in the lower number series, some rust spots were added to the sides of the car in appropriate places, such as where the door may have banged into the side of the car when being opened. On the roof, extra rust was applied to areas where water would pool and collect, such as near the seams and ribs.  Always work from photographs and use oil paints for the rust because they have a slow drying time and are easy to wipe off if the results are not what is desired. A thin layer of Dullcote will dry the oils very quickly. A final coat of Dullcote was added to seal the weathering is applied once everything is satisfactory. 

With that the car is ready to be released from the shops and head back to revenue service on the layout. 

About the Authors:

Phillip Blancher is Membership Chair of the Rutland Railroad Historical Society and the resident web-geek for the RRHS web site. The father of four kids is a communications and marketing consultant for the newspaper industry and as a web developer. Based in Morrisburg, Ontario, Blancher models the Rutland circa 1959 centred around Malone, New York.

Kevin Pytlak is the former owner of The Happy Hobo in Tampa, Florida and a confirmed freight car nut. Father of one, Pytlak works for an IT-company in Tampa and moonlights as a drummer in a Christian rock band. His interests are primarily Seaboard Coast Line between 1967 and 1975. 

Parts List:

Kato 31-601

Solid Bearing, ASF A3 Ride Control truck

or

Tahoe Model Works 110/210 - Solid Bearing, ASF A3 Ride Control truck

A-Line 

29000 – Style-A Stirrup Steps

29001 – Style-B Stirrup Steps

Cal-Scale

190-276 – Air Hoses & Bracket

Detail Associates

229-2222 – HO Eye Bolt 3 1/2' dia long   

229-6215 – Freight Car Coupler Lift Bar

Intermountain

IRC40052 – 33'' Semi-Scale Brass Insulated Wheel Sets

Kadee

58 – Semi-Scale Whisker Coupler

2040 – Ajax Brake Wheel (Black)

2043 – Universal Brake Wheel (Black)

Plano Model Products

191 – 40-foot Apex Walkway

Tichy

1106 – 0.012" Phosphor  Bronze Wire

1102 – 0.015" Phosphor Bronze Wire

Train Detail Works - http://home.comcast.net/~jerryglow/decals/

Rutland PS-1 150-299 Decal Set

Rutland PS-1 Supplemental Decal Set

Announcement: Resin Car Works - Consolidated Chemical Industries 7K Acid Tank Car

By Marty McGuirk

Resin Car Works is a new manufacturing enterprise. The company is new but steam era freight car modelers are very familiar with Resin Car Works owner Frank Hodina's work as a long time pattern maker responsible for many of Sunshine Models masters. Full disclosure - I've known about this enterprise for a while as Frank has been busy preparing the masters for RCW's first car. The car was announced at the St Louis RPM meet earlier in the month which means I am no longer bound by my vow of silence (although I've agreed to stay quiet about other RCW plans!) The flyer spells out RCW's mission "… to produce accurate HO scale resin car kits that are easy to build and that will actually be built and operated."
Frank is a long time friend of mine, and when he read my appeal for information for this blog he sent me the following note and the attached images: 

"Marty

I would love to be able to use your blog. I’ve been told I should have one now that RCW is almost up and running. I’m a good Roman though and will steal anything from anybody to use for my own profit and amusement.

Attached is a photo of the test/pilot model for the acid cars (see above). Hopefully the kit will be out at the end of October, first part of November. Pasting down the production patterns now. Need to build a few more and write the instructions. The only hang up is the photo etched parts and finding someone to do them. Don’t need much just tank car bands, ladders and parts for the larger platforms. - Frank"

Here are jpegs of the flyers announcing the first few road names for this car. When I have ordering information I'll post it here. 

Freight Car project, F&C CNR 8 Hatch Reefers

By Pierre Oliver

Funaro & Camerlengo have offered this resin kit for over 20 years now and it still stands the test of time. It surpasses the RTR version on so many levels. And I can get the car from F&C with three different ends and two door styles. And I get to build it!
In part inspired by the S scale 8 hatch reefers and as part of the ongoing stocking of Manifest #402, I've built four F&C HO 8 hatch reefers for my fleet.
Armed with knowledge gleaned from the car history included in the S scale kit I altered a number of details in the F&C kit.
The bracket grabs were upgraded to Kadee bracket grabs and the kit ladders were replaced with 8 rung ladders with integral stirrups offered by Des Plaines Hobbies.

For brake levers I used my etched levers and Tichy turnbuckles were cutoff and used to replicate clevis' on the brake rods. You will note that the reservoir is in an unusual position. This is correct for the early series of CN reefers and 40-foot boxcars. I also made all my own mounting brackets for the brake components from styrene. The braces for the heater were fabricated from strip brass.

The most involved detail change was for the hatch rests. You'll see that there's a pair of little angles attached to the carlines of the roof for each hatch. The kit does include cast resin parts for this, but they're a tad lumpy and there isn't enough of them. Each car requires 16, the kit had only 14. So I made my own.

To insure that I wasn't caught short I made 80 hatch rests. 80 pieces of 1x3 6" long and 80 pieces of 1x6 6" long. Glue them together in an L and attach to the roofs.
The things we do!
But they look good, so I don't regret the effort. The car body was painted with CN Grey #11 and the floor was painted with CN Red #11.
The cars are waiting for decals. I had purchased four sets of decals from Black Cat Publishing, but do you think I can find them? So I reordered which means the errant decals will surface any day now.
Postscript: I did indeed find the missing decals this morning, nine months after the fact. Which just means I'll have to order more reefers from F&C!

Review: Westerfield NCandStL Fowler Boxcar

By Charlie Duckworth
Photo by the author

Westerfield Models HO scale 4355-2 Two-Brace Fowler Boxcar Modern NC&StL
Decals
I used a prototype photo I had to judge the accuracy of the decals in this kit.  The decals were a little confusing in the area of the initials used on the sides.  The decal sheet provides for two different sizes of letters but the smaller lettering for the side did not have the letters ‘StL’ and the ‘&’ sign included on the decal sheet.  I ended up using the larger letters and removed the period from each of the letters.  They appear to be a little larger that the letters in the prototype photo but in contrast the smaller lettering appears to be smaller in height when looking at the board width on the prototype.  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.  I was told by Justin May these cars were painted a ‘Oxblood Maroon’ by the railroad.  Looked on the web for an Oxblood Maroon color and ended up mixing my own using Floquil Rail Brown and Special Oxide Red. Justin recommends a mix of Floquil Zinc Chromate Primer and Oxide Red, tinted to suit your degree of weathering. He provided the following links as to NC&StL's color.

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/misc-n/ncst22157ajs.jpg
http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=63835

So your painting mixes are up to you.
Castings
This is a flat kit meaning the sides, ends, roof and unferframe are all separate castings.  There were no surface air bubbles and all the parts were cleanly cast with very thin flash to clean up.  Be careful handling the side and ends as the thin details along the top of the side and bottom of the ends can be easily broken off.  The was some minor build-up of resin around the lower part of two of the ‘Z’ braces but it wasn’t enough to be concerned with and disappears after painting and weathering.   The steps are made from commerical plastic
that will hold up to handling during operations.
Ease of assembly
I use four Legos in the interior structure when building a flat kit. The Lego is first glued to the sides with the small end facing the end of the car.  This gives you a pretty large surface to glue the ends on to as well as creating a perfect 90 surface as you build up the car
body box.   I also cut a piece of Evergreen plain .030 styrene to make an interior roof.  This allows you to glue the interior of the sides to get a perfectly straight sides.  I also use a piece of HO 8” x 8’, gluing it from the top of the two ends to give me more support to glue the roof to.  I found this model to be very easy to build - even with the number of holes that had to be drilled for the wire hand grabs and the underframe is simple to build.

Available direct from Westerfield Models:
https://id18538.securedata.net/westerfieldmodels.com/merchantmanager/index.php?cPath=39&page=3

Population:
January 1940 - 1,441
October 1953 - 59

HO Scale Steam Era Freight Car Trucks

By Marty McGuirk
Well known freight car modeler and historian Richard Hendrickson has recently updated his summary of HO scale steam era freight car trucks, available online HERE. If you ever needed to know how a "Bettendorf T Section" differs from an "ARA Cast Steel with Spring Plank" - well, here's your chance to find out, and determine which is the correct truck for your next project.

Review: Westerfield Models Great Northern 9000-series

By Charlie Duckworth
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.

Available direct from Westerfield Models:
https://id18538.securedata.net/westerfieldmodels.com/merchantmanager/index.php?cPath=83

Population:
January 1940 - 979 cars
April 1952 - 783 cars
January 1955 - 290 cars