One of many prototypes for the new Accurail models.
As announced here a couple of months ago, Accurail is working on an HO scale 36-foot box car model. They are planning four variations and have announced the initial paint and lettering schemes. Ray Breyer has pulled together prototype photos and details for each of the introductory models that will have fishbelly center sills and steel ends. He has created a very nice resource that can help modelers understand the similarities between the model and prototype. The initial PDF data sheet is posted on a special blog page, Accurail Prototype Data.
Freight cars ready for the next operating session.
I received an email from a regular blog visitor at the end of 2015 that posed some very interesting questions. Here’s the message.
“Many of your recent posts describe prototypes built no more than fifteen years prior to your 1926 modeling period.
Do you know of – or have a feel for – the average age of the freight car fleet at that time? It seems to me that the great majority of the prototypes you have modeled so far represent relatively new cars. I know there was a lot of rolling stock construction going on around the end of the First World War and through the nineteen-twenties, but how much of this replaced older cars, rather than augmenting them and growing the overall fleet size?
I also am aware that car (and train) weights were increasing at that time so the very oldest cars may no longer have been man enough to run with the new construction, but presumably you need some cars built prior to 1910 or so to maintain a representative total fleet?”
There are some good questions here for anyone modeling the 1920s or a specific era. Let’s take a look at each question and some data and opinion.
The quiet view across the street from my house after a snowfall in the desert.
I returned to my workbench the other day and unearthed a project I started over a month ago. I seem to experience a holiday lull in hobby activity each year as outside activities increase and a family member or two travels to this tip of far west Texas for a visit. Old Man Winter played a trick and dumped eight inches of snow on the region to shut things down for a couple of days. I also dealt with a wonderful blog software update here that had gone awry. It was very good to sit at the workbench again and make progress.
Hackensack, NJ, Spring 1920 Photo X1628, DL&W Company Photo Collection, Steamtown NPS.
Ray Breyer submitted a neat blog post based upon the freight cars and details in a single image. Read further for a look into the past. Click on any image here to review a larger size. Model references are for HO scale products.
The above photo is a great snapshot of 1920s “real world” railroading, and offers a great peek into the fabric of railroading from almost 100 years ago. Between all of the juicy freight car detailing ideas and the general clutter around the yard shanty, there should be more than enough to keep any early prototype railroad modeler happy.
Context is always important when viewing photographs. The old adage that “a photo is worth 1000 words” is nice enough, but doesn’t say whether those words are truthful or lies. Knowing WHY is as important as knowing what. Let’s see if this photo is really telling us anything useful or not from a variety of perspectives.
Seven HO scale box cars were recently painted for the Wheeling Freight Terminal. A couple days of warmer weather made it easy to open the garage door and fire up the airbrush. While there are seven cars, only three paint colors were used. I try to paint multiple cars the same color to minimize clean up time and effort. Click on any image here to review a large size.
