automobile boxcars – Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads

Resin kit builds – Missouri Pacific cars

I’ve built several HO scale resin freight car kits since the summer of 2023. For some reason, I’ve forgotten to share the overall progress. Some details have appeared on the blog, but overall summaries have been lacking. Let’s start with a couple Missouri Pacific cars that were enjoyable builds.

The latest freight car model

With the recent addition of air hoses and wheel spray marks on the car ends, I have finished this Westerfield Models HO scale resin freight car kit. I started building this kit in early June and planned to post regular progress reports. But things went awry and life got in the way. Let’s review the work.

Weathering steps

After building, painting, and decaling a freight car model, it’s time to apply weathering so it looks like it’s been traveling a few thousand miles. The lead image shows the final appearance. Let’s take a look at the steps taken to arrive there.

Automobile box cars

While building an HO scale resin automobile box car kit recently, I began a conversation with Pre-Depression Era model railroaders. We discussed details, fleets, and kits. Fellow 1920s modeler Ray Breyer shared data and a PDF of a PowerPoint presentation he had created.

Canadian Pacific automobile box car

Here’s an HO scale resin freight car kit that took me longer than expected to complete. It’s a 40-foot, Canadian Pacific (CPR) automobile box car that was offered by Yarmouth Model Works.