freight cars – Page 3 – Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads

Rapido Trains Pennsy X23 box car and R7 reefer

The latest Rapido Trains HO scale model announcement has created quite a buzz among railroad modelers, especially for those modelers focused on the 1912-1940 years. Model production has started on the Pennsylvania Railroad X23 class box car and R7 class refrigerator car. These are distinctive prototypes that had many years of service.

Photo fun

After unpacking most of the freight car fleet, I was passing by the yard and the above view caught my eye. I decided to snap a few photos as the set up reminded me of a prototype photo.

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.

Unboxing

With the Wheeling Freight Terminal layout standing and wired up, it’s time to unbox the freight car fleet. Nearly all of my kit-built freight cars have been stored away in Plano boxes like the one in the lead image.

2023 RPM-East summary

I traveled across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the 2023 RPM-East prototype modeler event in Youngwood, PA, for the March 24 & 25th weekend. It was my first RPM of the year. I’ve been involved with publicizing and assisting with RPM-East since 2005.