Last week I shared disappointment after completing an underframe and realizing a major error. The image is above and the KC brake system is on the wrong side of the centersill. It is pointed in the proper direction, jut not in the proper location.
Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
Last week I shared disappointment after completing an underframe and realizing a major error. The image is above and the KC brake system is on the wrong side of the centersill. It is pointed in the proper direction, jut not in the proper location.
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.
Continue reading “Southern Pacific A-50-5 automobile box car”
The weather warmed up a bit here in the Chihuahuan Desert and the winds calmed down. Clouds dispersed and we had a few quiet, sunny days, which are perfect to paint models. I have a few resin freight car kits that are ready for the paint booth so a few were carefully washed. I prefer to paint a few models at a time to make efficient use of time and materials.
I’ve been a bit sluggish lately with the holiday season. I started a new model but it’s not ready for a blog summary. While working on it, I employed a pair of shop trucks. This is a tool that isn’t frequently mentioned but can be very handy around our work spaces. The above image shows part of my shop truck collection.
It has been awhile since I tackled a resin freight car kit, so I dove into a Westerfield box and got something rolling. I’ve long wanted to build one of the Canadian Pacific 36-foot, single-sheathed Fowler design box car kits. There were plenty of prototypes rolling around in 1926. The kit built quickly with only a couple of head scratching spots. I liked it so much that I also built a kit for a similar 40-foot Fowler design clone! Follow along on the latest resin freight car kit build.