Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
A few box cars were lettered in July. This is a great thing to do while various weathering washes dry on the models featured in the last blog post. Several cars have been in service that have been painted but lacked the decals. Let’s take a look at these.
Seven box cars were sent through the weathering factory recently. The effects of man and nature add to the appearance of the models and the Wheeling Freight Terminal layout. I enjoy working weathering into several different layers. Everyone seems to enjoy reading about the weathering processes, so let’s take a look at each of these models.
Dave Parker returns with an upgrade on an Accurail HO scale USRA hopper.
Over the past few years, I have accumulated several Accurail USRA twin hopper kits in both the 24xx (as built) and 25xx (modernized) series. At least two of them will require complete re-lettering in order to follow the prototype but one is, atypically, exactly correct for my 1934-35 layout. It is a Delaware, Lackawanna and & Western car (#2503.2) with correct lettering, and a reweigh date of April, 1933 – perfect! Absent any need to repaint, I initially decided to more-or-less “shake the box” with this kit, and not upgrade the cast-on grab irons (as has been documented elsewhere).
Dave Parker returns with his techniques to upgrade the MTH HO scale USRA hoppers.
About three years ago, I purchased an MTH ready-to-run USRA twin hopper with the intention of kit-bashing it into a Boston & Maine car. The B&M bought 100 used twins from the C&O in late 1934 but, after squinting at several photos, I decided it was a no-go. The C&O cars were USRA-like, but had noticeable differences in overall structure and in the details. The MTH car came lettered for the Erie, and can be seen in the 1920s plastic freight car summary, but it is a foobie – the Erie never owned any USRA twins.
Fellow Pre-Depression Era modeler Dave Parker has sent notes on a recent resin freight car kit build. Click on any image here to review a larger size. Here’s Dave’s story.
In 1929, the New York, New Haven and Hartford received 500 class GA-2 gondolas from the Pressed Steel Car Company. These all-steel, drop-bottom gons had an inside length of 40 feet, and were numbered in the 58000-58499 series. Based on my collection of Official Registers, 496 remained in service as of 1945, but by 1955 this number had dwindled to 276 cars, and all had been rebuilt as solid-floor cars (GB classification). At some intermediate date, probably about 1950, the 58000 series apparently contained a mix of original and rebuilt cars, but I do not own an ORER that gives the exact numbers.