Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
Several freight cars recently went through the weathering factory and each of them had some masking tape applied to protect part of the original paint coat or lettering. Model railroaders typically use masking tape in the process of applying large stripes or fancy paint schemes to locomotives or rolling stock. For these recent freight cars, the tape was applied to hint at changes made to the car. The tape became another tool in the weathering arsenal.
A couple more long term freight car projects have progressed through the decal phase. The actual builds were straightforward but the decals were lacking in parts to use for a 1926 presentation. This is one of the larger challenges when modeling the Pre-Depression Era. Many resin freight car kits do not include decals for lettering used before 1935. It’s just another part of the adventure. I’m fortunate a product is available that was instrumental in completing these cars.
I bought ten pair of the Walthers Proto T-Section Bettendorf trucks (TSB) awhile back. I thought I should prep them so they are ready for the new Accurail box cars. You can see the before and after view in the lead image. Let’s go through the steps to make these trucks a little better.
After sharing the above image with other modelers, someone asked if I would be adding rivets to the model. The box car is an HO scale Tichy Train Group USRA single sheathed box car kit and apparently the end castings were tooled without rivets on the sides of the end piece to ease the production process. In the image above, note the smooth vertical strip at the very end of the car. I had heard these kit ends lacked some detail on the end castings but I was unaware of the specific nature of the issues. I had a package of Archer Resin Rivet Head decals on hand so I thought I’d put them to use.
Dave Parker returns with an upgrade on an Accurail HO scale USRA hopper.
Over the past few years, I have accumulated several Accurail USRA twin hopper kits in both the 24xx (as built) and 25xx (modernized) series. At least two of them will require complete re-lettering in order to follow the prototype but one is, atypically, exactly correct for my 1934-35 layout. It is a Delaware, Lackawanna and & Western car (#2503.2) with correct lettering, and a reweigh date of April, 1933 – perfect! Absent any need to repaint, I initially decided to more-or-less “shake the box” with this kit, and not upgrade the cast-on grab irons (as has been documented elsewhere).