There is great satisfaction in completing a freight car kit that was started nearly a decade ago. This Reading composite mill gondola was recently decaled and weathered. Funaro & Camerlengo produces this HO scale resin kit with decals for Reading or Central of New Jersey owners. The kit supplied Reading decals reflected a late steam era presentation. As I model 1926, this gondola has been used in an undecorated state for awhile. Click on any image here to review a larger size.
Author: Eric Hansmann
Couplers
A train needs couplers in order to stay together to move the freight down the rails. Our model trains need functioning couplers to successfully complete a similar task. People frequently ask me what couplers are used on the HO scale Wheeling Freight Terminal. Since I just replaced couplers on several models, it seemed like a moment to share in a blog post. Click on any image here to review a larger size.
RPM updates
It’s time for a look at the Railroad Prototype Modeler event calendar as five meets are scheduled over the next couple of months. Let’s take a quick look at those.
Southern Pacific A-50-5 automobile box car
Late in 2015 I realized I had several HO scale resin freight car kits that were proper for my 1926 modeling era, but the kits lacked decals that reflected the lettering in use then. This realization downgraded quite a few freight cars on the kit build list. Sometime in the summer of 2016, I stumbled onto a company that produced decals for the Southern Pacific A-50-5 automobile box car that included the as-built lettering. The discovery prompted moving a Funaro & Camerlengo kit into the top of my to-build list.
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Assisting others: CNJ box car
In mid-February I received an email from a friend who was responding to a question from Alan Mende. Alan needed decal help to finish a box car project and I was added to the email response as a possible resource. Alan was lucky as I had a decal set on hand to send to him. Here’s Alan with more details.
I had scratchbuilt a Central Railroad of New Jersey box car from a plan published in the January 1972 issue of Model Railroader. The model reflects the pre-Safety Appliances appearance, which is why there is only one grab iron on the car side. I was planning to use a Clover House dry transfer set, but the HO versions were out of stock. What to do?