I am starting a weekly update, Freight Car Friday. Nothing profound, just thought I would highlight the kits that I am putting together while I wait for other things to dry / set / orders from suppliers to arrive.

All the kits are from forever ago – late 80’s through the early 2000’s. Much like the well car kits. Most are basic assembly type kits, think Athearn Blue Box. I didn’t think I had anywhere near as many unbuilt kits as I am finding. Who am I kidding, I’m a model railroader and we’re natural born kit hoarders. In fact I was recently in the LHS and thought about picking up another bulk pack of Kadee couplers and figured there would be no way I would need that many.

The other thing you may have noticed or will is that everything is newer than the current era on the layout. That is because until Bachmann  came out with their Spectrum line, steam was just too expensive. Athearn followed as did Broadway Limited and Life Like. When this happened I rather quickly made the change over to the transition era.

I find building freight car kits to be a nice diversion from other things. They generally go together quick and upgrades can be made if so desired. The basic “adds” are adding Kadee couplers to the cars. I have just recently added to that list metal wheel sets from  Intermountain.

And the first car is…

First up are a couple more Walthers 72′ centerbeam cars I dug out. They are Walthers #932-24129 from 2003. The loads are Walthers SceneMaster as they are made to snap into the cars. I added Kadee couplers and metal wheelsets. I also added the tie down cables by drilling holes along the top of the center beam at the indicated locations. Then I ran thread though the holes and then added the loads.

Once the loads were in place I stretched the thread down to the corresponding ratchet and super glued it into place. Then moved on to the next one.Once I finished a side I carefully cut each thread off as close to the ratchet as possible.

And then (will weather later) they were ready for the layout. That is when the railroad shifts back to a more modern time.

I will have another quick project for next Friday. Another post on general projects on the layout is in the works, although I’m not sure what. I have pretty much been bouncing around on things. The thought process on what to work on has been a lot like a squirrel in traffic.

Till then, stay safe and Happy Railroading…

The one project that has been hauled out and put away the most have been the intermodal cars. These kits are from Proto Power West, now Proto Power West/A-line/Arrow Hobby. I have two sets of Gunderson Twin Stacks and two sets of Thrall well cars. A set would be a five car set( although somewhere over the years I have “misplaced” one of the intermediate cars for the one of the Gunderson sets ).

I bought these sets somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 years ago. They are no longer available new but can be picked up on the secondary markets. You can also pick up parts for them new on the PPW-Aline website.

When building the kits you can build as basic cars or if you want highly detailed cars, complete instructions for super detailed cars are provided. The basic assembly on the Thrall cars are merely adding the walkways and the brake equipment to the well bodies. The Gundersons need to be fully assembled ( sides, ends, car bottoms, walkways and brake equipment ) for basic assembly. I had done a basic assembly on one of the Thrall sets and had painted them with rattle cans. The paint is a bit heavy, but I decided not to try and fix it. I had also done a basic assembly on a Gunderson set but did not paint it.

The Gunderson well cars…

I started by doing the basic assembly of the other Gunderson set. Once together I started the extra detailing, doing the two like cars at the same time.

The finished yellow car is from a factory assembled/detailed set from A-Line/Intermountian. I had forgotten that I had the set, but it was nice to have for reference.

The extra detailing added to the Gunderson cars are:

1. External brake piping along the outer side.
2. Brake piping protectors over the lines.
3. External brake rods and chains on the sides of the B and C units.
4. Control rods for the container flippers.
5. Stirrups.
6. Grab irons.

The Thrall well cars…

On the Thrall well cars there was more detailing to scratch build then on the Gunderson cars.

First I decided to make this set a generator set. The generator was there to provide power to refrigerated containers. This means the walkways between cars had to be reworked.

Then there was the basic brake piping added. Additionally there was a lot of styrene scratch building added. These included side sill reinforcement, reinforcement to the bottom of the cars, gussets added to the lift rings and the electrical connections between cars.

Also, stirrups were added and I would have added grab irons but I ran out and have to order more for the Thrall cars.

I didn’t realize it when I started this project that Plano Models has etched brass walkways and supports for both types of cars. If I knew they were available I would have ordered them. The fine detail would have made these cars really stand out.

Finished (kind of) and waiting for paint…

I ordered the grab irons and decided to line up paint. The problem is, thanks Rust-Oleum, that Testors has discontinued the whole Model Master line. This after they bought and then discontinued the Polly Scale and Scale Coat paint lines. I know that Vallejo has a wide range of colors, but as far as I know not railroad specific. And Micro-Mark now has railroad specific colors in their acrylic paint line but not much depth.

I shall wait for the grab irons to arrive and while waiting figure out my paint problem.

Till next time, happy modeling …

First up is a set of loads for the bulkhead flats and a centerbeam that I have on hand.

First I should mention that these are something that I’ve had on hand for a very long time. I believe that they are from Jaeger HO Products (jaegerhoproducts.com). I went onto their site, but did not see the loads listed. Probably because the cars that they fit were the old Roundhouse bulkhead flats. Which is what I was fitting them to. The centerbeam is from Front Range. Also, no longer available.

The loads are wood blocks that a wrap is glued to. The wraps are almost like photos printed on paper. I don’t have any shots of them not wrapped as I had done that long ago. I just never had fitted them to the flats. Included are some balsa pieces for dunnage and blocking.

There is four different styles. The first is a block that is approximately 7/8″ H x 1 1/8″ W x 7 11/16″ L. The other three are only 9/16″ wide and work on the centerbeam style car or doubled up with blocking in between on the bulkhead flats. They vary in height from 1 1/4″ to 1 1/2″. The fourth style has several different heights.

I added the balsa strips on the bottoms and in between where applicable. They were then glued in place on the cars with canopy glue. As I have mentioned before I like canopy glue because it holds well and can be disassembled later if I want. I then used rigging thread for the tie downs.

After I finished the loads I looked at the cars and wished i had weathered them before loading. Undaunted I went ahead and weathered around the loads.

Here are the finished cars.

I did have one more bulkhead flat than loads.

Below a view not weathered and weathered.

Will have an update with another project real soon. Til then, take care and stay safe.