As I’m focused on modeling the Twenties, I keep an eye open for special run models that may fit my time frame. The recent Norfolk & Western box car produced for the N&WHS is an example. Sometimes an email arrives with a prototype question as a project comes together.
Last year I was contacted by the Louisville & Nashville Historical Society about a special run of an HO scale L&N 36-foot ventilated box car kit. I’m a big ventilated box car fan. These type of freight cars are sorely missing from available fine scale products. Few are the same and there were 36- and 40-foot ventilated box car designs. A few are available as HO scale resin kits produced by Westerfield Models, but many other prototype examples are missing.
The special L&NHS run kit has extra resin parts and decals to convert an Accurail HO scale box car to reflect the prototype. Most of the parts in the box are seen in the image above. Fenton Wells introduced this as a Shake & Take clinic at the 2024 Prototype Rails in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Kit assembly directions are available on the L&NRHS website.
Make sure you don’t throw away the fine mesh tea bag among the kit parts. This will be used to represent the screen on the back side of the ventilator door.
Prototype
The L&NHS model project follows 500 cars built in 1923 by the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company in the Fairfield, Alabama, shops. Many of these cars were in service into the late 1950s and numbered 98100-98599.
The L&N pages in the October 1926 ORER list 1,993 cars in the 97100-99099 number series. These weren’t the only ventilated box cars in the L&N fleet. That 1926 ORER lists a total of 4,387 L&N ventilated cars in service. This type of car was important for many lines serving the southeast. The L&N had the fifth largest ventilated box car fleet in 1926. The Atlantic Coast Line (19,095 cars), Seaboard Air Line (10,292 cars), Southern (9,208 cars), and Central of Georgia (4,933) had the top four quantities.
L&N 97155, seen above, falls into the 97100-99099 number series built by Mt. Vernon Car Co. in 1923 and originally numbered in the 97100-97182 series. These cars had Murphy corrugated steel ends and had similarities to the cars built by TCI&RR. The L&N ventilated box cars built in the 1920s were equipped with a single ventilator on the car ends. The side ventilators were a unique L&N design. Older L&N ventilated box cars had wood ends. Many of these early cars had two end ventilators.
Other 1926 fleet sizes drop off after the L&N. Mobile & Ohio (2,028 cars), Florida East Coast (1,563 cars), and Norfolk & Western (1,476 cars) hold down the next largest fleets. I’m certain many people wouldn’t think coal haulers like the L&N, N&W, and Southern would have large numbers of ventilated box cars. The numbers pale compared to their hopper fleets, but these were important freight cars in the Teens through the Thirties used to service the growing southeastern agricultural markets.
If you think these L&N cars went away after the Twenties, you would be incorrect. The L&N data from the January 1943 ORER lists 2,096 ventilated box cars in service. The fleet was 15% of the 13,810 car total of all ventilated box cars. The quantity makes the L&N the fourth largest ventilated box car fleet behind the Central of Georgia (3,647 cars), Atlantic Coast Line (3,244 cars), and Seaboard Air Line (3,046 cars). The fifth place Norfolk & Western fleet has been reduced to 612 cars by this time.
The car diagram above has documentation for two batches of 1000 cars split between TCI&R and the Mt. Vernon Car Manufacturing Company. All of the L&N ventilated box cars were 36-foot interior length in 1943. The number series remained the same as in the 1926 ORER, 97100-99099 series, with 1,814 cars listed. The L&N listed 1,456 ventilated box cars with 1,445 of them in the 97100-99099 number series in a 1950 ORER. The fleet rapidly decreased over the next few years as cars with K brakes were retired.
Model
While I bought a couple of these special run kits, I haven’t put things together yet for completed models. Fenton Wells’ model is seen above and is a fine example of what can be done with the supplied resin parts and decals to bring a unique freight car to your fleet.
Here are a couple photos from the kit assembly process that Fenton shared. This photo shows the small side vent resin castings mounted on the car side.
New resin cast ends replace the ends on the Accurail carbody. Fenton also used finer styrene strip for new running boards.
Fenton did wonderful work on transforming an Accurail box car to reflect the L&N ventilated box car prototype. There are limited quantities available for this special kit. Check the Louisville & Nashville Historical Society Company Store for more details.
Here’s another fine L&N ventilated box car model built by Lee Singletary. This is a neat hybrid kit to build for a steam era layout. Ventilated box cars were not restricted to fruit service. They could be used like a regular box car for clean lading. The ventilated doors offer a different car appearance for your fleet.
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