Welcome to my Blog. The scope of this blog is to record the trials and tribulations of building and maintaining an HO scale layout, the trains and all of the ancillary projects that go with it. In 2017 New York Central subsidiary short line Empire Belt Railroad came into existence. The New York Central / Penn Central and Empire Belt are now the major railroads featured.
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Friday, July 17, 2020
Empire Belt RR 50' Boxcar Project
Greetings All, If you've ever had one of those simple kit builds that was anything but simple read on! I recently purchased this Front Range Products New York Central boxcar kit via an online purchase. This may be the first piece of rolling stock I've bought from this manufacturer. I was drawn to the "Made in USA" and the pre mercury green NYC paint scheme.
The instruction sheet congratulated me on purchasing one of the most accurate railroad boxcar kits available today. Prototype information supplied report this boxcar was built by ACF Industries between 1938 and 1962. There were about 10,000 cars built and they represented the standard ACF steel boxcar of the period.
The sheet lists the original buyers and the numbers of cars purchased. Not included in that list is the New York Central! So much for accurate. The car still looks good though so I checked my NYC freight equipment book and other online sources to see if it was close to any NYC equipment. The answer was no. The big discrepancy is the reporting marks that are on the wrong side for a NYC double door boxcar. Would this bother me?
The answer was yes. Now, I have many non prototypical pieces of rolling stock and motive power running on my layout and never give them a second thought. But I also have a lot of accurate New York Central rolling stock and this car was not going to fit in. So I stripped off the lettering in 91% alcohol and repainted the car.
After scrounging around in my decals box and checking online sources I decided to letter the car for my freelanced Empire Belt RR which is a NYC subsidiary. Below the car is partially assembled and in the Solvaset phase of the project.
The car is now fully assembled with Kadee #5 couplers and Intermountain metal wheels. Not a fan of the plastic pins included with the kit for the coupler box cover and trucks I substituted 2-56 screws and coupler box covers from my parts box. The trucks have been painted with red automotive primer.
The removal of the roof walk and addition of the shortened ladders, COTS and ACI labels put this car into the 1970's. The NYC Early Bird 46000 series cars received similar treatments as seen here
Trust me when I tell you adding the separate ladders, grab irons, stirrups and brake wheel details was very time consuming. I spent a lot of time drilling open holes and finessing the parts into their proper locations. Nothing fit this car easily including the roof and doors.
A brake end view.
Here is EBRR 46035 with some of its NYC Early Bird cousins.
All in all this was a tough build. I still have not figured out the door system so I just glued them on closed. I'm happy with the end result but would be hesitant to purchase another of these kits.
The EBRR Box car looks great! Who said kits were easy to build? Like you mentioned, surprised to see the car is not accurate! Just goes to show you how some companies do research and then make statements to lure modelers to buy product.
Thanks Sir Neal!!!! I should have caught the discrepancy prior to purchase. After reading the instruction sheet and then noting the car bore no prototypical resemblance to a New York Central car.
Strike these cars from any future joint paint projects!!!
Hello John! Great job on the correctional measures taken on your boxcar kit. Sounds like this kit could have been an Accu-rail based kit since they use plastic truck pins. Also, the truck frames look like Accu-rail's. This reminds me of the Intermountain car kits I built in the 90's. Those were the toughest car kits I ever assembled. I built three cylindrical hopper kits and one P.S. 54'covered hopper. I had two more of the kits left to assemble, but I sold them instead.
Hi Robert!! I'm doing my best to stay cool but I have a myriad of outside landscape projects going and the grass won't stop growing! I'm going to have to seek asylum in the basement train room where it is always cool.
You're right this Front Range Products kit has a lot of similarities with the Accurail kits and also some of the Branchline kits I built in the late 1990's to early 2000's.
This kit was a bear and I'll avoid them down the road. Thanks for the tip about the IM kits! I'll be avoiding those as well!
Your knowledge of the NYC and your research sets a perfectly reasonable high standard for the accuracy of NYC equipment on your layout. The Front Range offering didn't meet it so the decision to convert the model to your freelanced E.B.R.R. where its always accurate was a great decision! Despite the aggravation in its construction EBRR 46035 turned out beautifully. Nice work. I enjoyed the bonus video footage of more Lightning Stripe roll-bys at Empire City station! You have a great collection of NYC motive power!
Hi PC Ralph! Thank you for the compliments on both the boxcar and video!! I am happy with the way the car looks now but it was about a two week build, paint, letter and build project. Going into the project when I first opened the box I thought it would take about an hour. Wrong!!
The EBRR Box car looks great! Who said kits were easy to build? Like you mentioned, surprised to see the car is not accurate! Just goes to show you how some companies do research and then make statements to lure modelers to buy product.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sir Neal!!!! I should have caught the discrepancy prior to purchase. After reading the instruction sheet and then noting the car bore no prototypical resemblance to a New York Central car.
DeleteStrike these cars from any future joint paint projects!!!
Hello John! Great job on the correctional measures taken on your boxcar kit. Sounds like this kit could have been an Accu-rail based kit since they use plastic truck pins. Also, the truck frames look like Accu-rail's. This reminds me of the Intermountain car kits I built in the 90's. Those were the toughest car kits I ever assembled. I built three cylindrical hopper kits and one P.S. 54'covered hopper. I had two more of the kits left to assemble, but I sold them instead.
ReplyDeleteStay Cool!
Hi Robert!! I'm doing my best to stay cool but I have a myriad of outside landscape projects going and the grass won't stop growing! I'm going to have to seek asylum in the basement train room where it is always cool.
DeleteYou're right this Front Range Products kit has a lot of similarities with the Accurail kits and also some of the Branchline kits I built in the late 1990's to early 2000's.
This kit was a bear and I'll avoid them down the road. Thanks for the tip about the IM kits! I'll be avoiding those as well!
Your knowledge of the NYC and your research sets a perfectly reasonable high standard for the accuracy of NYC equipment on your layout. The Front Range offering didn't meet it so the decision to convert the model to your freelanced E.B.R.R. where its always accurate was a great decision! Despite the aggravation in its construction EBRR 46035 turned out beautifully. Nice work. I enjoyed the bonus video footage of more Lightning Stripe roll-bys at Empire City station! You have a great collection of NYC motive power!
ReplyDeleteHi PC Ralph! Thank you for the compliments on both the boxcar and video!! I am happy with the way the car looks now but it was about a two week build, paint, letter and build project. Going into the project when I first opened the box I thought it would take about an hour. Wrong!!
Delete