Freight Car Models – Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads

Westerfield Models kit guide update

One of the popular resource pages on this blog is the Guide to Westerfield Models for a 1920s model railroad. I had created this in 2010 to help modelers understand the availability of freight cars for 1920s era railroad modeling and to share details on the quantity of prototypes in-service that several models represent.

Since the last update in 2016, Westerfield Models owner Andrew Dahm has released a few new kits that needed to be added to this guide. I also added kit that was originally overlooked. Several of the listings have been updated with model images and a couple of prototype images have been switched out.

I hope the Guide to Westerfield Models for a 1920s model railroad will inspire your hobby efforts, especially if your modeling focus fits the 1900-1935 time period.

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Weight

Adding weight to some of our models can be challenging. I’m working on a couple of HO scale gondola kits and both of them need additional weight. Adding weight with a load is one avenue but I want these models to be run when empty, too. Time to review some options.

Resin parts prep

I fielded a couple recent questions concerning how I build resin kits. One question was repeated among a few different people in regards to prepping the small resin kit parts. Many kits come with a sheet of parts similar to that seen in the lead photo. How are those prepped?

Shawmut scale test car

Several months ago, Perry Squier shared photos of a scale test car he was building for his Shawmut layout. He shared photos and notes of the finished HO scale model recently. It is frequently used in his operating sessions. Here’s Perry with the details.

I model the Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern RR (the Shawmut) in 1923. The railroad at that time had three scale track locations: St. Marys Yard, Prosser at the junction of the Olean Branch, and Moraine at the junction of the Wayland branch. All of these locations are included on my layout but I never modeled the weigh scales.

Shawmut freight car update

I was recently searching for something on my blog and I came across Perry Squier’s posts on Shawmut freight cars he was building. After reviewing his posts again, I realized the final appearance of some models had not been shared. It’s time for project closure!