Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
It has been awhile since I tackled a resin freight car kit, so I dove into a Westerfield box and got something rolling. I’ve long wanted to build one of the Canadian Pacific 36-foot, single-sheathed Fowler design box car kits. There were plenty of prototypes rolling around in 1926. The kit built quickly with only a couple of head scratching spots. I liked it so much that I also built a kit for a similar 40-foot Fowler design clone! Follow along on the latest resin freight car kit build.
Harold Oakhill has been busy with a fascinating project. He shares the following update.
I recently finished assembling the first two Delaware & Hudson Seley Hopper “kits” that have been produced with the help of Dave Campbell, Ray Breyer, and Aaron Gjermundson. These were displayed at the recent RPM Chicagoland meet in Lisle, Illinois.
I had a moment recently to take my time and review model images from the recent RPM Chicagoland meet. I found there were quite a few models representing prototypes built in the Teens and Twenties, but wearing later era paint and lettering. One of the prime examples leads off this blog post.
A couple more long term freight car projects have progressed through the decal phase. The actual builds were straightforward but the decals were lacking in parts to use for a 1926 presentation. This is one of the larger challenges when modeling the Pre-Depression Era. Many resin freight car kits do not include decals for lettering used before 1935. It’s just another part of the adventure. I’m fortunate a product is available that was instrumental in completing these cars.
I bought ten pair of the Walthers Proto T-Section Bettendorf trucks (TSB) awhile back. I thought I should prep them so they are ready for the new Accurail box cars. You can see the before and after view in the lead image. Let’s go through the steps to make these trucks a little better.