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My focus in this section is going to be less "prototype modeler" or "freightcarology" oriented, and more toward talking about the interesting or unusual pieces of rolling stock I have on the layout. The interest may stem from their historical place in the hobby, how I built them, how I researched them, or anything else that suits my fancy. If you want to know what style of brake wheel the XYZ railroad applied to their first order of these cars, there are many other sites that will, with the best of intentions, explain it all to you.
Many years ago, I realized that a good day of railfanning for me was if, in addition to whatever else I got to watch, I saw something like a heavy-duty flat car, a high-wide load, a very large tank car, or some other oddity. There are people who will patiently explain that the percentage of such cars on the North American rail network is very small, and in relation to the number of my cars on the layout, I am allowed to have one half of a depressed center flat car (and forget about helium tank cars altogether).
To that, as to other pieces of what passes for modelers' conventional wisdom,
I say horsefeathers. When I railfan my layout, I want a good day of railfanning.
 Penn Central Flat 705233 |
This car is from an old Tyco plastic flat car, one of the things I always look for at swap meets. This car generally follows an article by Stephen Priest in the August 1995 MR, "Build an HO scale AT&SF work flat". It's a stand-in for a Penn Central 705100 series flat. The class is illustrated in the Morning Sun Penn Central color guide, but neither the book nor the Equipment Register seems to show a PC class for these cars. I robbed the lettering from a Jim Kosty PC caboose set. The load was inspired by an Emery Gulash video shot and is made from a Selley white metal casting (still available from Cal Scale), with the box from a set of cast urethane flat/gon loads, not sure what the maker's name is. They're hard to see in the photo, but there are three .012 wire stabilizing rods per side between the top of the transformer and the stake pockets. I have since added some wood blocking, but I'm not completely sure how this was applied, and in fact photos of prototype loads like this don't seem to show much blocking.
I like the Tyco flat a lot more than the Athearn for "generic" flat cars where nothing closer is available.
The Tyco plastic die work still looks pretty good today, surpassed only by the newest and best-quality kits, but I think the Tyco body moldings are very layout- and operation-friendly.
I didn't take these cars very seriously in the 1960s and 70s when they were available -- nobody did. Now a lot of guys upgrade them and run them. What would have happened if Mantua or Tyco had made a serious effort at making the moldings the core of a high-quality line with good trucks, wheels, couplers, and paint?
 Soo Line pulpwood gon 4156 |
On the right is another conversion from a Tyco swap meet car, this time a Soo Line pulpwood gon. There are many prototype conversion possibilities for the 11-panel Tyco gon. This is one of the most elaborate conversions I've done, since it included replacing the molded ends with Detail Associates Dreadnaught gondola ends. Most of my Tyco conversions involve discarding the metal or plastic Tyco underframe and replacing it with a rectangle of .040 or .060 styrene and using the center sill and bolster casting from an Athearn 40-foot boxcar or reefer (for some reason, these are also very easy to find at swap meets). I cut off the brake equipment and substitute AB brake parts from Details West, Grandt Line, or Cal Scale. The result is often hard to tell from a urethane kit, at least in my opinion.
 Virginian ballast car 3937 |
Continuing with the Mantua/Tyco swap meet conversion theme, this is an easy one as long as you can find the Mantua hopper, which isn't as common as some of the bodies that were run off in the cheapest plastic version by Tyco in China.
William Mosteller has written
more about these cars on his
www.greatdecals.com page, and he offers
a decal set that I used to letter the car shown.
The writeups on Mosteller's site suggest there's a continuing interest in Mantua and Tyco, with some modelers still using the working hopper unloaders!
Somebody clearly dropped the ball somewhere with that line of models.
I replaced the trucks and couplers, grinding down the Mantua truck mount in the process with my Dremel and mounting Kadees on the frame.
I move a fair amount of ballast cars in my operation.
 Conrail U30B long hood in D&RGW gon |
The gon in the photo at right is nothing special, just a Walthers mill gondola, but the load is part of a recent project I've undertaken to find uses for all the old body shells and kitbash remainders I have lying around. In this case, it's an old Athearn wide-body U28B/U30B long hood, detailed, painted, and lettered with leftover decals that I probably wouldn't otherwise use. There are lots of other ideas in my page on
Larry's Truck and Electric, and given all the body shells and remainders I have,
there's lots of fun left in this project.
 BN log flat 634173 and restored McCloud River Heisler 3 |
This photo shows two BN log flats of the type used on the Camas Prairie until fairly recently. I made them from Athearn 40 foot flat cars following an article by Louis J. Runtz in the July 1978 MR. Runtz had to scratchbuild the log bunks, but Details West has since come out with these parts, which I used.
I like modern logging equipment, and I'm working on additional modern-era log cars, which will be incorporated into my layout's normal operation when I get enough of them built.
Here they're shown with a Heisler that's been restored by some local railfans and is occasionally used on the logging line on my layout at Loma Linda.
 Western Union Material Car 7539 |
The photo on the right is another of the reasons I go to swap meets, an Ambroid 1 of 5000 Western Union Material Car, a kit produced about 1960.
The original owner apparently got stumped when he lost a part, which I luckily had in my junk box, so I finished the kit, added weight, and made it operational. I have a number of maintenance of way-company materials cars that cycle through my operation scheme and add interest.
Older wooden kits present problems and challenges to people who want to restore them and make them operate. If the original owner completed the body but didn't add weight, it can be a real problem to get the correct weight in after the fact.
Wood parts that were meant to be metal need to have sanding sealer applied, followed by Floquil Primer, which can be difficult on a completed or partly completed model. I was able to do this on both the roof and the underframe of this car.
 B&O canstock car 480857 |
On the left is another kit with wood parts meant to represent metal, a Quality Craft B&O canstock car from the 1970s. I got this new and worked on it off and on for about 10 years until I finally finished it, using a set of Herald King decals instead of the ones in the kit. Ambroid and Quality Craft instructions typically say to apply two coats of sanding sealer, sanding between coats and polishing with 000 steel wool, to wood parts meant to represent metal. I finish this with a coat of Floquil Primer and carefully fill any cracks with body putty and sand down any final imperfections. Now and then I find interesting kits from this era at swap meets and get them if the price is right. This car operates in my regular freight car pool and looks at home with more recent plastic bodied cars.
October 3, 2003
