Freight Car Additions

Greetings Blog Followers,

The latest modeling projects to report on are two new freight car additions. Both were part of a three boxcar purchase from fellow modeler Booby G from TrainLife.com as he finished up his HO scale divestiture in his changing to O scale.

First up is New Haven 40 boxcar #36761. A Branchline kit in the catchy black body with orange door paint scheme. This makes five of the these cars on the roster and all are from different manufacturers. Bobby had already built the car so all that was left for me was to brush off some dust and repair the doors which came loose during shipping. Anyone who's built these kits knows that attaching the door to these cars is no easy feat. I also removed the press pin coupler box lids and press pins used to secure the trucks to the bolsters. I drilled out the holes and substituted 2-56 screws. After confirming the coupler heights were correct with my Kadee coupler height gauge the 36761 was ready for assignment.

NH#36761 leads his four brothers and some cousins towards North Side Yard. Power is a pair of old Athearn BB NH F7As that I refurbished a few years back. Putting the new car in this position is a good way to test it for reliability. Oh and the NH never had any F7s. The only F units they rostered were FL9s.    

I removed and resprayed the doors with orange rattle can spray paint. I made this fastening device from a left over sprue and some styrene. Everything was attached with Plastruct Bondene. This method eliminated any chance of glue smears on the outer shell and doors.   

Next up is an Accurail undecorated 40' double door boxcar. This car came molded in black plastic. I soaked it overnight in 91% alcohol and then gave it a good rinse with cool water. I then let it air dry for a day or two. During this time I mulled over what color to paint it and / or what road name I should letter it. NYC was a definite maybe. Have two already on roster, one brown one mercury green. Penn Central? Maybe. APRR? Hmm. Since I was in a New Haven state of mind I figured I could spray the car orange and add a black roof so it would look at home with the rest of my NH rolling stock. Hmm. The paint scheme would be a homage to the cars original owner Bobby G and 1-1 Sir Neal Himself is a New Haven fan so I'm sure he would certainly like this as well. So that's the story on how this car came to life.
  

Accurail 40' Double Door Boxcar painted in rattle can orange

The body has been masked off and the roof is ready for spraying

The colors have been applied. Now it's time to letter

AP 82794 is now on the roster and in revenue service. The decals are courtesy of 1-1 Scale Sir Neal and were made by Rail Graphics. The N.Y.C.T.L. Paint Shop  is a duly licensed and authorized painter for the Atlantic Pacific Rail Road. 2-56 screws were used to secure the coupler box covers and trucks to the bolsters on this car as well. For more on that phase of the project check out this link
http://newyorkcentrallayout.blogspot.com/2013/10/build-simple-freight-car-kit.html

The three car purchase from  Bobby G.

AP 82794 sits between two New Haven boxcars and blends in quite nicely. Note the circular lettering on the 50' NH boxcar to the right. PS HYDRO FRAME. The car to the right of the 50 footer is a NH track cleaning car from Walthers. The NYC 40' double door boxcar behind AP 82794 is one of the Accurail cars mentioned earlier.  

Bringing up the markers is the pride of my New Haven Caboose Fleet NH C691. This caboose was a surprise Christmas gift to me from Bobby G who gift wrapped it and sent it with some other items I purchased from him last December. It's an Athearn RTR model and it is sweet! Thanks again Bobby!