CN 50' Box Car ...


goscrewyourselves

goscrewyourselves

I'm the one
Started painting and detailing my 50' Standard Box Cars. This may not be prototypical but you all know I am not that sort of modeler in terms of "rivet counting" accuracy.

I have no idea what era or type of box car this is, but this is how I am hoping mine will look:

WsjVmSH.jpg
 
The top car is a 60 footer, pretty much a "vanilla" boxcar from the 60's on.

Your car is a bit different, the double plug doors are less common. A quick google finds the following:

This 53' boxcar was manufactured in the 1960s and '70s by Evans Company and was used primarily to haul produce, wood and paper products, and canned goods. The prototype is an insulated RBL featuring a 16 foot opening and double plug doors.
Click to expand...

https://www.petersensupply.com/category-s/96.htm
 
Thanks for that info Bob, appreciate it. I did realise that the two were different from the picture. Truth is, I wasn't too worried about that, it was more a case of I liked the color and I could make it. Not very diligent I know.

I think from now on, I will be getting the bigger box cars that are a bit more for the here and now. Originally, I bought the 50' cars for my wife's small layout but she didn't like them, thought they were too big for what she had, so I inherited them and well ... the rest is history really.

PS: I've never really been a prototypical modeler and probably never will. I'm a rivet counters worse nightmare :)
 
Don't know if they did it on the BB models, but the newer, more detailed and road specific models, often have in their printed details the Built Date. In the case of your CN example, at the bottom left it says NEW 7-66. Gives you not only the year but the month of production.
 
Giving this some thought and perhaps I should try to get things a "little" more prototypical. I know it is my layout and I can do whatever I want, but well a little more realism wouldn't hurt.

This project has revealed (to me) an interesting thing about Micro Scale - why do they make white decals on such light colored backing paper? It is hard enough to see what decals are what being N Scale without them blending into the backing paper color :(
 
wombat457 said:
Started painting and detailing my 50' Standard Box Cars. This may not be prototypical but you all know I am not that sort of modeler in terms of "rivet counting" accuracy. I have no idea what era or type of box car this is, but this is how I am hoping mine will look:
Click to expand...
In general, freight cars with no roof walk were built after 1966. Roof walks were supposed to be removed from existing cars by 1974, but it got extended to 1979. Since this car has short side ladders one can bet it was built after the 1966 date.
 
Horseman,

Thanks mate and after doing some exhaustive research ( clicking on Google) you are right, this car was built around 1966.

All three box cars are still in the workshop getting painted, now in Dark Tuscan Oxide, the correct color for the car and for the railroad names I have decals for. Now I have the Royal Pacific completed I can get back to the "work horses" :)
 
Well, I decided to start doing my N/S Box Car, as per the Micro Scale recommendations and gave up. Firstly, the decals are so small I can't see what is what and they are white on a very light blue background which, frankly, makes no sense at all.

The larger decals are not an issue but the small detail decals - they may as well not even be there for my eyes, even with a magnifier. About the only thing I can do is the larger decals and just guess at what the others are and put them where a decal is supposed to go, even if they are the wrong ones.
 
Wombat, not sure if you're still lettering this car, or if you repainted it as something else...

CN had few small groups of blue 50' cars in the CNA 794xxx number range. These were generally used in automotive parts service and were mostly transferred up from subsidiary Grand Trunk Western.

Most of the photos I've seen had single doors, but there was at least one group with double doors:

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=cna794559&o=cn

Not sure if any of these 50 footers had plug doors though, and most of the photos I've dug up don't have the large CN logo on the right side of the door(s).

There were a bunch of 60' and 86' auto parts cars in blue as per the other model photo posted above.
 
wombat457 said:
This project has revealed (to me) an interesting thing about Micro Scale - why do they make white decals on such light colored backing paper? It is hard enough to see what decals are what being N Scale without them blending into the backing paper color :(
Click to expand...

A trick I've heard is to colour the back of the paper backing sheet behind the white decal with a black sharpie. The ink wicks through the paper but doesn't actually affect the decal. This give a dark background to actually see the decal lettering.
 
cv_acr said:
A trick I've heard is to colour the back of the paper backing sheet behind the white decal with a black sharpie. The ink wicks through the paper but doesn't actually affect the decal. This give a dark background to actually see the decal lettering.
Click to expand...
Great tip Chris. Thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top