Freight car projects

[Rufus T. Firefly]

One more of these cars:





Wish I could get more of those domes.....Scale City is????

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Another fun tank car!

[sarge]

Another conversion, a Lionel X31 roundroof box.

Kadees, bolsters built for Intermountain trucks setting the car height such that the coupler boxes align through with the frame, a little weathering up, easy conversion.





I don't know whether Lionel uses the former Weaver tooling or this is their own version. Between them, the 21st century has been a madhouse about who ends up with whose tooling after beating each other up for it; if not then just copy someone else's model. I can't keep it straight and quite frankly can't be asked to try.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I like these quite a lot and so when I see them cheap they follow me home....





....which is why I have way, way, way too many tank cars.

[up148]

I don't think I've ever seen one of the Sinclair cars with upper handrails. What mfg. car is that. It is done really nicely?

[sarge]

Butch, it's a KTM Max Gray import. They did a couple reloads over the years of singles and triples.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Butch, it's a KTM Max Gray import. They did a couple reloads over the years of singles and triples.

Yup. Nice, solid cars.

[up148]

I've got some MG and USH tank cars, but I've never seen one of these. Everyone is familiar with the J&L tank car with top railings, but I didn't know KTM built one too. What era did it operate?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Yoder imported some similar cars: https://www.richyodermodels.com/rym_fc_ ... istory.htm

Not quite the same but in an adjacent ball park,

[up148]

Good link. Rich has great historical information on this type car. 1907-1912 build period. Interesting as I would have thought the hand rails would make egress safer, although more problematic with hoses damaging the rails. Who knows what the drivers were to stop building with upper railings.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

A rebuild project.....






and this one just needed a tidy up....

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Just liked it; needed a few minor repairs...

[sarge]

Weathering might be a matter of taste, but this car I bought at the recent Strasburg show is a good example of what I mean when something might be copied from a photo, but the colour density makes it too much.



Further, it is atypical if not "wrong" simply because any car, even the lowly gon, found to be so illegible would have at least the number and reporting marks repainted, sometimes nicely, sometimes with a generic stencil set, and sometimes even freehand with a brush. Much like over half the structures in NG&SL Gazette are too run down and weatherbeaten to be plausible, some folks carefully and artistically weather rolling stock beyond extreme.

I love these cars, so it still came home with me. I could have taken a brush and some white and free-handed the reporting marks and been quite correct about it, even unique as I've not seen anyone do it on a model. Instead, a different direction.

I took my favourite weathering tool, a thumb of wire-wool, and went to work, carefully bringing the body colour out but only on the highlights. The best thing about these ex-Pennsy gons is the texture of the corrugated sides. Leaving the mankiness between the corrugations, redoing the trucks and couplers from P48 back to O scale, some repairs and a little paintwork, and we have this:





Whoever built and painted this car was extremely talented. I assumed it was an Overland import when I bought it, but it ain't. The ends are made of stamped tinplate, the sides might have been Overland, and the floor and frame are styrene, every bit as nicely built as the OMI next to it in the next photo, but very different (and neurotically so) from the OMI. The builder went so far as to dent the sides up judiciously and remove a section of tiedowns on the upper structure, I assume to represent a replaced bit of structure (so I gave the replaced bit some fresher paint). I'm pleased to add it to our roster and had a pleasant couple days carrying someone's work just a little further.

[De Bruin]

Nothing says PC like a variety of gons, lead sleds etc. Great looking models!

[up148]

Agree on the weathering of the first gon, it's way to dirty to be in operation, but the others look fantastic and very much as you would see them in action. Nice models!

The track work looks great too. That turnout just screams operation.