Freight Car Models – Page 17 – Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads

Another resource update

20151016_plasticfleet — A few of the plastic HO scale freight car models in the Wheeling Freight Terminal fleet.

I started this blog in May 2009 after moving to a new home and city, and starting a new layout. I had been focused on modeling 1926 since 2005 and met a few other railroad modelers with interests pre-dating World War Two and the Depression. At some point in 2012, a discussion about HO scale freight cars led to creating a guide to plastic freight car models appropriate for a 1920s layout. These discussions ended up as a separate page here which has become a resource for many people who model the 1920s and 1930s. Over time, this resource page has become one of the most visited pages and posts on this blog. Each week when I check the blog statistics, the guide to 1920s era freight cars is among the top five.

As it has been a few years since the page was launched, it was ripe for an update. There have been some new models from Broadway Limited, MTH, and Tangent, as well as a sweet announcement from Rapido. There have also been changes as Red Caboose was bought by Intermountain, so a few notes have been added. The updated page remains at the same location. You can also find the link in the menu along the right side of the main blog page. I think we are set for another couple of years.

Post a comment below and let me know what you think. What is missing?

USRA freight car data

In 1917, the US government formed the United States Railway Administration to control the nations railroads during World War One. In that process, several freight car designs were approved and 100,000 cars were built and assigned to many US railroads. These five USRA freight car designs ushered in standardized freight car design for many railroads and made up about four to five percent of the overall national freight car fleet in the 1920s and 1930s.

Models of these prototypes have been available in several scales for model railroaders. The USRA freight cars have been frequently noted in the hobby press and several articles have been published over the years. Many of these articles reference a 1973 historical summary published by James E. Lane. This has been out of print for years and many of the magazine articles that referenced Lane’s work are also out of print.

As a resource for all model railroaders, I have transcribed the data from Lane’s work into tables for easy reference. This is available as the USRA Freight Car Assignments page of this blog for easy access. The information presented on that page reflects the USRA assignments which differed from the original USRA allotments. Read through the opening paragraphs to gain an understanding of these terms.

I hope readers will enjoy these details and use the USRA Freight Car Assignments page to further their prototype modeling efforts.

Resin Freight Car Kit builds – part 7

201508_m13_lead — One more freight car for the fleet!

I found another unfinished model last week and I can’t recall when I started on this build. I’m pretty certain it’s only been sitting for a year and I remember why it was put away. I stopped this build because of the non-standard sill steps that needed to be bent from a flat piece of brass shimstock. I did one and put the model away. But it’s back and I finished it this past week.

Continue reading “Resin Freight Car Kit builds – part 7”

Completing Long Term Projects

Many model railroaders have projects that have been set aside long ago for one reason or another. I’m no different. You saw in the last post how six USRA box cars were finally completed, five years after the initial start of construction. I took some ribbing about those, especially since they were plastic kits. I expected those comments but long term projects are part of the hobby. I just finished up two more HO scale freight cars that go back a few more years.

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Weathering Factory output

201508_lead_wethfact — Lined up and ready for service!

Several box car projects have been completed recently and it’s really great to have these in service on the Wheeling Freight Terminal. It makes a big difference when six undecorated cars are replaced by six cars that are painted, lettered, and weathered. I started these five years ago, so it is doubly satisfying to complete these models. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

Continue reading “Weathering Factory output”