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

Lettering questions

I’ve had a Westerfield Models HO scale Pennsylvania Railroad X23 resin boxcar kit ready to letter for several years. One of my 2020 resolutions was to finish this model. That’s when I found out the prototype lettering had several changes over a short period of time.

Flattening a warp

I broke out an old HO scale resin freight car kit at the end of February and started building it. I think this came into my stash via a trade. The original kits were produced in the late 1980s or early 1990s by the Rensselaer Polytechnic model railroad club. It has become a nice distraction from reality since work began

Not quite

In the last blog post, I shared an image of fine detail parts. I made those from thin strips of matte Mylar film. There were a few good guesses among the comments, but no one was correct.

Down to the details

A few emails from fellow prototype modelers have inspired me to push a couple of models further along. I built the models when I lived in El Paso but they need just a few more details. It’s time to wrap these up. I spent time making the details the other day. Can you tell what they are? They are grouped together in a one-inch square on my workbench. Now I need to find the freight cars and install these final parts.

This all reminds me of the chorus of a Tom Waits song from his Mule Variations LP. The song lyrics are pretty dark, but this project isn’t at all!

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P&R GAc steel drop-door gondola kit

Bob McGlone sent an email the other day with an interesting model announcement. With his permission, it’s now a blog post.

I’d like to make early rail modelers aware of a new item that is now available. It’s a 3D printed model of the Philadelphia & Reading GAc class steel drop-door gondola.