Category: Freight and Passenger Car Modeling

I enjoy modeling 1949-1950 in both HO and O scale. This category includes posts on building models of freight and passenger cars, cabooses, and other rolling stock in both scales.

Freight and Passenger Car Modeling1 Comment

No. 176: Move-In and New Freight Car Work

Golden1014

Our major shipment of “household goods” arrived from Germany last Friday. My wife and I have spent most of our waking hours putting the house together. It has been A LOT of work. Included in our household goods was my Hermitage Road layout, the traversing table, five metal cabinets and bookcases, and about 25 plastic tote boxes with model kits and supplies of all kinds. Almost everything arrived unscathed, thankfully. The Hermitage Road layout took a beating so I’ll have to assess whether to try and repair or start over. More to follow on that later. Here is a photo … Continue reading No. 176: Move-In and New Freight Car Work

Freight and Passenger Car Modeling, Prototype Topics, Railfanning & Museums1 Comment

No. 173: The Rapido Pennsylvania Railroad X31 Model

Golden1014

It has been a very busy year at home and at work, and I’ve only been able to post three times on the blog. since January 1st. My last post was last week after a good railfan trip; the last modeling post was more than 60 days ago. Here’s a catch up. Despite the lack of modeling and railfanning I was able to take the family on a few trips. Covid restrictions here are 99.9% history and everybody’s traveling again. I took the family to Eindhoven, Netherlands in late February for a long weekend–that was beautiful–and in March I took … Continue reading No. 173: The Rapido Pennsylvania Railroad X31 Model

Freight and Passenger Car Modeling5 Comments

No. 171: Freight Car Modeling: Rath Meat Reefers and Rock Island Single Sheathed Box Car

Golden1014

It has rained almost every day in southern Germany since about October 15th. Over 130 days of cold, wind, rain and darkness. It has made for good modeling weather, and a good ski trip in December and a good hiking trip in January, but not much else. In the few month I finished two models–one an old classic, and another a “bespoke” single-sheathed car that I’ve been wanting to build for a long time. The Mather Meat “Reefer” Here’s a prototype view of the classic car, below, courtesy Bob’s Photo. This is a Mather company meat refrigerator car The Mather … Continue reading No. 171: Freight Car Modeling: Rath Meat Reefers and Rock Island Single Sheathed Box Car

Freight and Passenger Car Modeling, Hermitage Road Layouts1 Comment

No. 169: Best Train Wrecks of 2021

Golden1014

Reflecting on 2021 Post-Christmas is a great time for reflection and planning for the new year. I always like to make plans for the next year after Christmas. I think it’s a good way to set goals and “refresh” myself for the year ahead. In my hobby life, it’s a good time to reflect on my wins and losses for the year, and make renewed plans for the new year. I think I had some good hobby wins—I finished a lot of projects and the Hermitage Road layout is now about 90% complete. But I had a whole lot of … Continue reading No. 169: Best Train Wrecks of 2021

Freight and Passenger Car Modeling, Hermitage Road LayoutsLeave a comment

No. 168: Hermitage Road Layout – Modeling the Grocery Warehouse

Golden1014

On my little Hermitage Road switching layout, I wanted to include a grocery warehouse to generate refrigerator car traffic on the small layout. There were a few grocery warehouses in the Hermitage Yard area that were rail-served through the 1950s so I felt it would be okay to include one on the layout. While studying Sanborn maps, I didn’t find any in the immediate area on the Seaboard, but I found several in the Richmond area on the ACL and C&O lines. This photo, below, provided some inspiration for my model. I understand this one was in Dallas, Texas. When … Continue reading No. 168: Hermitage Road Layout – Modeling the Grocery Warehouse

Freight and Passenger Car Modeling, Hermitage Road Layouts5 Comments

No. 167: Completing the Traverse Table, and Milwaukee Road Single-Sheathed Box Car Re-Do

Golden1014

I had minor arthroscopic knee surgery last Wednesday and took a few days off from work to recover. I was able to make some good progress on the layout during those days. Here’s an update. Traverse Table Here’s what the small, 7 x 18-inch Hermitage Road layout looks like today. At the far end, the dark square box is the entrance to the staging area. In this photo, the traverse table tracks are mocked-up to see what’ll fit. The drawer slides are underneath the table, and extend out behind the table to allow the table to slide across all five … Continue reading No. 167: Completing the Traverse Table, and Milwaukee Road Single-Sheathed Box Car Re-Do

Freight and Passenger Car Modeling1 Comment

No. 166: Modeling Rock Island Steel Box Cars

Golden1014

In August, during the “16 Days” work campaign, I began a project to rebuild and repaint a dozen or more freight car models. Two of those models were Rock Island favorites. The first was an Intermountain 1937 Modified AAR car that needed to be stripped and repainted because I did a poor job of decaling and finishing the first time around. The second was a Sunshine Models USRA rebuild that I finished 15 years ago or so, which needed updating. I just finished those models last week Here’s the report, with a little history. RI 146309 Rock Island rostered over … Continue reading No. 166: Modeling Rock Island Steel Box Cars

Freight and Passenger Car Modeling, Hermitage Road Layouts1 Comment

No. 163: 16 Days, Pt. 4

Golden1014

The 16 Days program ended last Monday when my wife and daughters returned from their U.S. trip. In those 16 days I was able to complete major work on several structures for the layout, rebuild and repaint a dozen freight cars, complete construction on one new freight car, and paint the traverse table for the layout. I also sold five models on eBay and in other places, and I also spent a considerable amount of time writing on this blog. I normally try to keep the layout and workbench very clean and organized, but during the 16 Days I allowed … Continue reading No. 163: 16 Days, Pt. 4

Freight and Passenger Car Modeling, Hermitage Road Layouts1 Comment

No. 162: 16 Days, Pt. 3

Golden1014

Work on the railroad continues as the family is traveling in the U.S. for two weeks. One of the industries I built this week for my Hermitage Road switching layout as a “grocery warehouse”. In the area of Richmond, Virginia, where my layout is set, there were quite a few grocery warehouses, and I wanted to include one on the layout so I could use refrigerator cars. There are no known photographs of the grocery warehouses in the Hermitage Yard area so I was forced to proto-freelance something. On my old Ackley, Iowa layout I built a large cannery as … Continue reading No. 162: 16 Days, Pt. 3

Freight and Passenger Car Modeling, Hermitage Road Layouts1 Comment

No. 161: 16 Days, Part 2

Golden1014

Work continues while the family is away! When I last showed the Richmond Cinder Block Company, it needed windows. The windows I used, seen below, are from Tichy. I painted them with a Tamiya Metal Gray and then added clear styrene sheet windows and fixed them with canopy glue. Once the glue was dry I then sprayed the whole assembly front and back with full strength Dullcote. I painted in a few window panes white to simulate broken glass repair. Next I added the windows to the structure, gluing them in place from behind with Tamiya extra thick liquid solvent. … Continue reading No. 161: 16 Days, Part 2