DT&I RBL's

[dti406]

Mask Island Decals came out with the decals for this car, and I bemoaned the fact that this car was not available anywhere to use the decals.
Somebody pointed out to me that Front Range/McKeen made this combo door car with the one plug a 6' version molded into the car body but that the underframe and roof were POS. I ended up cutting out the bottom of the car body with my Dremel Tool and installed a Details West Hydra-Cushion Underframe as that is what these cars were manufactured with, but I got rid of the coupler pockets on the underframe and installed Moloco ones instead as they are easier to deal with and maintain. 

Built the rest of the car with the  parts in the kit or others from my scrap box including the 8' Plug Doors that looked better on the model, also used Evergreen Rod to make the 4 rods per door rather than the two that came with the molded doors. Also used a spare Branchline diagonal panel roof in place the the kit supplied roof.

Cars were painted with Scalecoat II Armour Yellow, Boxcar Red and Silver Paints and then decaled with Mask Island Decals.  Cars were assigned to the Campbell's Soup Plant in Napoleon, OH and could found everywhere due to the volume of traffic that plant created.

Thanks for Looking!

Rick Jesionowski

[nsc39d8]

Looks great, Rick. DTI is one of those RR's I like and need more cars to represent it on my layout.

[annarborfan]

Nice job, someday I'll get around to finishing some of the offset door RBL's assigned to Campbell's service.

[fr8kar]

Those turned out great, Rick! Nice clean modeling and paint work. I always enjoy the prototype information you post with your builds, too.

[dti406]

I have completed the third ACF 50' RBL that the DT&I leased from Evans Products.



This is the McKean ACF Boxcar kit where I cut out the poorly done underframe of the original kit, with the replacement Details West Hydrocushion Underframe replacement below.



Here is the installed underframe along with the proper Moloco Extended Coupler pockets. I also used A-Line Sill Steps and a Plano Crossover Platform on each end of the car.



Here is the completed car, painted with Scalecoat II Armour Yellow, Silver and Boxcar Red Paints and lettered with Mask Island Decals. The DT&I had 20 of these cars in service for the Campbell's Soup Plant in Napoleon, Ohio along with myriad other 40' XLI Boxcars, 50' GATC RBL's and 50' FGE RBL's (of which we need a model made).

Rick Jesionowski

[icghogger]

Excellent work, Rick, thanks for sharing!!

[nsc39d8]

Are these the FGE car to which you were referring Rick?



So which McKean car do I need for this project and where do you get he second plug door?

[fr8kar]

Wow, you have my attention James! What's the story with this Southern boxcar?

Nov 9, 2021 19:06:01 GMT -5 nsc39d8 said:

Are these the FGE car to which you were referring Rick?



So which McKean car do I need for this project and where do you get he second plug door?

[nsc39d8]

Southern ordered these before the merger around 1979/80. There are several groups in 100, 200, 700 and 585000 series. Built/assembled by FGE.
The ends and 12ft plug are cast resin parts by Tony Sissons. The body sides were cut from an Athearn NACC boxcar as they are the closest I found to the
prototype. Other parts are scratch built, don't remember the under frame. The build is in the files of my RPM group on Groups.io.
If interested I can send the file as a PDF or put the build on here, I think I still have all the photos.
Don't use FB so that is out just to let everyone know up front.

I have begged Nick Molo to do this car but between the two of us we can find pictures of Southern which does not make it a top seller with one roadname.
I have heard that other members of the FGE group bought this car but no photos come to light.

[dti406]

James,

Here is a link to the FGE Car that the DTI got from the PC and WP also had some like this.

dti.railfan.net/Pototype_Images/rs/DTI20175JE80.jpg

The McKeen Car is a double door ACF car with the 6' Plug door cast with the car, I used an 8' Door off another Front Range or McKeen kit from my scrap box as the rivit detail etc matches the cast on door.

Rick Jesionowski

[dti406]

I​ built another DT&I 50' RBL, but this one started off differently, I contacted Nick Molo from Moloco Trains and asked which of his GATC RBL kits would be appropriate for the DT&I car, he let me know and also that a few modifications would be necessary to match the prototype.

Here is the kit pieces out of the box!



Here is the underbody with some of the detail added but not all, I have also attached the ends and the sides to the underframe, and with Nick's excellent parts they all locked in place neatly.




Underbody complete detail parts added, here I deviated from the original car as the DT&I car was built in 1968 with no roofwalk and lowered brake gear and ladders, I moved the retaining valve to next to the ABD valve.



Here is the end detail, with the lowered ladders and I plugged all the holes for the detail parts that were previously up high.




I finished off the car by painting and masking for the Armour Yellow and Boxcar Red sections, then added the side detail, the DT&I car had grabs at the one end so I substituted Kadee grabs for the ladders in the kit. All the side parts were added after painting. I decaled the car with a mixture of Herald King and Mask Island decals. Also note the DT&I listed these as XLI instead of RBL cars.



Rick Jesionowski​

[icghogger]

Nice job, Rick!!