In 2014 I finished a pair of HO scale USRA 40-foot, composite gondolas for the M&StL.  I collected photos and material for a magazine article, and just about the time I was done my buddy Clark Propst published an article on the same cars in the CNW Modeler magazine.  Clark covered the cars thoroughly, but I thought I’d post my material here. The Prototype In 1920 the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway took delivery of 250 composite, high-side gondolas, Class GX, series 27001 to 27499 (odd numbers only), from Magor.  These M&StL gondolas were painted black with white stenciling.  The last of … Continue reading No. 89: M&StL USRA Gondola Modeling

The New York Central USRA single-sheathed box car project was completed last week along with the ACL ventilated box car.  Here’s a wrap-up post to close out the project. NYC received 1,000 USRA single-sheathed box cars, NYC Lot 376-B, from Haskell and Barker in February 1919.  After WWII most of them were rebuilt into stock cars.  According to Pat Wider in RP Cyc #17, approximately 25 cars were still on the revenue roster in July 1951.   I model 1950, so I can still legitimately have one of these cars on the layout.   I began building the model in late 2015 during … Continue reading No. 88: New York Central USRA Single Sheathed Box Car Modeling

The Sunshine Models ACL O-17 ventilated box car project is complete.  This post wraps up construction and finishing of the model.  The Sunshine model, released in the early 1990s, represents the ACL O-17, 36-foot, 40-ton ventilated box car from ACL series 17000-18999 and 19000-19175.  2,175 cars built in 1922-23 by ACL at seven different company shops.  The O-17s were all wood with a steel underframe, wood ends with two Wine Co. Ventilators on each end, and two doors on each side (one solid and one screen).  The cars had wood running boards, KC-schedule brakes and a staff brake wheel.  Trucks … Continue reading No. 87: ACL O-17 Ventilated Box Car Modeling

C&O had a few small classes of covered hoppers, rebuilt from coal hoppers, that I have always wanted to model.  I finished my HO scale model of a C&O 300-class rebuild covered hopper this week and wanted to write a post to wrap up that project. The original cars were two-bay coal hoppers that were delivered in 1937 to C&O by General American, C&O series 118000-118999.  C&O rebuilt 50 cars with new peaked roofs, rebuild interiors, and new hoppers and gates in 1937.  The new cars were called “Dry Bulk” cars and were assigned numbers 300-349.  C&O rebuilt them again in 1951.  … Continue reading No. 86: C&O 300-class Rebuilt Covered Hopper

In preparation for this summer’s St. Louis RPM meet I decided to get ahead on a few lingering freight car projects.  I have about 12 models awaiting decals so I decided to get those finished up first, as well as putting finishing touches on a couple of other models. M&StL 24356 This is an old Sunshine models 1923 ARA Box Car kit that I built about 14 months ago.  I painted this car with Tru Color NYC freight car red and applied the decals that came with the original kit.  The decals were very difficult to apply over the door, and it took four … Continue reading No. 80: Progress on Freight Cars – Feb, 2018