The XM Saga: CP Rail 8' Door Boxcar Bashes
Apr 26, 2015 12:02:18 GMT -5
along and AJ Kleipass like this
Post by CP_8530 on Apr 26, 2015 12:02:18 GMT -5
Here's a few shots of some Canadian Pacific / CP Rail 40' boxcars with 8' doors I've been working on lately but hadn't had the time to make a post on. Nobody makes a good 8' door Canadian box (except for maybe the old Trains Canada cars with the supersized rivets. The old Model Power car was also kinda Canadian-ish, but everything on it is cast-on, and it's Model Power, so...), so sometimes you gotta roll your own. CP had a whole bunch in the 50000-60000 series, built in the late 50's-early 60's by a few different manufacturers including Eastern Car Co, National Steel Car, and Canadian Car & Foundry. Ends, roofs, sides, and sometimes doors differed. Many of the later cars were in dedicated newsprint service, and got the "Newsprint Service Only" shields to keep them from getting beat up in regular freight service.
The Intermountain Modified AAR 40' Boxcar (with 8 Rung Ladder, 4-4 Improved Dreadnaught End) is probably the best starting point, although one can probably use the Branchine/Atlas car too with some end reworking. There's a few minor quips with the IMRC car, but it has the 8-rug Canadian style ladders with attached stirrup steps, and removable ends and roof for easy swapping. But, it's only available as a 6 foot door version...
...so for these cars, the door tracks and sills were extended, and new 8' doors from Accurail were installed. The action red car kept its IDE ends, but the two newsprints had the ends swapped out for NSC-3 style ones (I used modified Kaslo ends, but would recommend the Sylvan ones). Those two should also have the NSC "bow tie" panel roofs, but for now I settled for the stock ones. Other details added include cut levers, cut-down "modernized" A-end ladders, handrails across the ends of the cars, and a corner grab on the B-end of the roof since the roofwalk was removed but high brake wheels retained.
They all started out as Intermountain PGE cars that an LHS was blowing out for cheap. For $10 each I got a car with Kadees and metal wheelsets, which the equivalent undecs didn't have (and they retailed for higher). A 99% isopropyl alcohol bath for a few hours per car made short work of the paint and glue.
The PGE donor cars on the dusty "test track":
Stripped and modified. New doors installed, extended door tracks, door bumpers moved, sills extended, cut-down A-end ladders, NBW detail added where the end roofwalk supports would be, end handrails on braces mounted to the ribs, lowered side grabs (the stock IMRC ones seemed mounted too high), stirrups modified, and modified Kaslo NSC-3 ends (the ribs were too square so I sanded them down, the pricy Kaslo ends are meant to represent those for a later NSC-3 end car with the more squared ribs, the Sylvan ones are a better match).
They be multiplying! The goal was to do two newsprint cars, one in Action Green, and it was decided to do the other in the as-delivered "stacked lettering". Some other details like the "door tabs" at the tops and bottoms of the doors were added:
And later on (when I got more Accurail doors in) it was decided to do a third car, this time an earlier version (with the stock Improved Dreadnaught Ends) in Action Red:
I think CP retrofitted standard stirrups to the sills on this series for some reason when repainted red, because looking at photos they don't have the standard "Canadian" stirrups mounted to the bottoms of the ladders. I had to go back and change that with some Branchline parts after noticing it.
Since these are "modernized cars" - no roofwalks! CP's standard 1970's-ish mods were to remove the top roofwalk/running boards, cut down the A-end ladders, remove the stirrup steps at the bottoms of the end ladders (not the side ones), install handrails on brackets mounted to the ribs at the ends, and since the tall ladders at the B-end were left for the brake wheel, install a grab mounted on brackets that had previously held the roofwalk end down. Some styrene, 0.015" piano wire (and 0.010" brass wire for the corner mounts) made easy work of this. I later installed small pieces of styrene behind the two curved side mounts to make them stronger:
Some underframe rigging reconstruction had to take place with metal and brass wire, on account damage to the rigging when it was removed during the stripping process and during general handling (the plastic IMRC used for the rigging and other detailed parts is a bit on the brittle side when it comes to handling sometimes):
You can also see the sill re-enforcements installed behind the styrene extensions (I don't want to pick up the car and have the thin styrene of the new areas of the sill buckle in). The coupler boxes were also drilled and tapped for screws.
Next, the paint shoppe.
The Intermountain Modified AAR 40' Boxcar (with 8 Rung Ladder, 4-4 Improved Dreadnaught End) is probably the best starting point, although one can probably use the Branchine/Atlas car too with some end reworking. There's a few minor quips with the IMRC car, but it has the 8-rug Canadian style ladders with attached stirrup steps, and removable ends and roof for easy swapping. But, it's only available as a 6 foot door version...
...so for these cars, the door tracks and sills were extended, and new 8' doors from Accurail were installed. The action red car kept its IDE ends, but the two newsprints had the ends swapped out for NSC-3 style ones (I used modified Kaslo ends, but would recommend the Sylvan ones). Those two should also have the NSC "bow tie" panel roofs, but for now I settled for the stock ones. Other details added include cut levers, cut-down "modernized" A-end ladders, handrails across the ends of the cars, and a corner grab on the B-end of the roof since the roofwalk was removed but high brake wheels retained.
They all started out as Intermountain PGE cars that an LHS was blowing out for cheap. For $10 each I got a car with Kadees and metal wheelsets, which the equivalent undecs didn't have (and they retailed for higher). A 99% isopropyl alcohol bath for a few hours per car made short work of the paint and glue.
The PGE donor cars on the dusty "test track":
Stripped and modified. New doors installed, extended door tracks, door bumpers moved, sills extended, cut-down A-end ladders, NBW detail added where the end roofwalk supports would be, end handrails on braces mounted to the ribs, lowered side grabs (the stock IMRC ones seemed mounted too high), stirrups modified, and modified Kaslo NSC-3 ends (the ribs were too square so I sanded them down, the pricy Kaslo ends are meant to represent those for a later NSC-3 end car with the more squared ribs, the Sylvan ones are a better match).
They be multiplying! The goal was to do two newsprint cars, one in Action Green, and it was decided to do the other in the as-delivered "stacked lettering". Some other details like the "door tabs" at the tops and bottoms of the doors were added:
And later on (when I got more Accurail doors in) it was decided to do a third car, this time an earlier version (with the stock Improved Dreadnaught Ends) in Action Red:
I think CP retrofitted standard stirrups to the sills on this series for some reason when repainted red, because looking at photos they don't have the standard "Canadian" stirrups mounted to the bottoms of the ladders. I had to go back and change that with some Branchline parts after noticing it.
Since these are "modernized cars" - no roofwalks! CP's standard 1970's-ish mods were to remove the top roofwalk/running boards, cut down the A-end ladders, remove the stirrup steps at the bottoms of the end ladders (not the side ones), install handrails on brackets mounted to the ribs at the ends, and since the tall ladders at the B-end were left for the brake wheel, install a grab mounted on brackets that had previously held the roofwalk end down. Some styrene, 0.015" piano wire (and 0.010" brass wire for the corner mounts) made easy work of this. I later installed small pieces of styrene behind the two curved side mounts to make them stronger:
Some underframe rigging reconstruction had to take place with metal and brass wire, on account damage to the rigging when it was removed during the stripping process and during general handling (the plastic IMRC used for the rigging and other detailed parts is a bit on the brittle side when it comes to handling sometimes):
You can also see the sill re-enforcements installed behind the styrene extensions (I don't want to pick up the car and have the thin styrene of the new areas of the sill buckle in). The coupler boxes were also drilled and tapped for screws.
Next, the paint shoppe.
