Category Archives: Upgrades

FGEX mini-kit underframe assembly

Upgrades, ,

George Toman has tackled a mini-kit to transform an Accurail reefer to follow an early Fruit Growers Express reefer. He sent along notes on assembling the underframe so more people get their kits built. Here’s George!

I was one of the early registered attendees of the 2018 Chicagoland RPM and recipient of the HO mini-kit of details and decals for a FGEX truss rod reefer with a steel center sill. My thanks to Mike Skibbe, Frank Hodina, Ted Cullota, and others for making this mini-kit possible. It is currently available direct from Resin Car Works for purchase.

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Upgrading a Western Pacific 50-foot Automobile Box Car

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Pete Hall has been busy working through a few projects. Here’s his update on a pair of HO scale Western Pacific automobile box cars.

I had two 50-foot MDC/Roundhouse single-sheathed automobile box cars with end doors that were lettered for Southern Pacific, but the bracing was wrong. They languished in a drawer until Frank Hodina sent me reprints of some old articles about this car. These cars can be made into very good models of Western Pacific (and others) 40000-series prototypes with some work. I owe a debt of gratitude to Frank and to those who have published articles on this process before me. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

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Western Pacific 50-foot Automobile Box Car

Models, Upgrades, ,

Fred Jansz sent along photos and details for the recent Virtual RPM model collection, but we thought readers might want a little more info on these models. Here’s Fred with details on upgrading HO scale Western Pacific automobile box cars.

Triggered by a 1995 Mainline Modeler article by Page Porter, I wondered if I could build one of the lesser known Western Pacific freight cars. Their 50-foot, single-sheathed automobile box cars were built by Pullman in 1929. The WP rebuilt several of these cars in 1937 with as 15-foot wide, two-and-a-half door cars renumbered 19201-19250. A prototype picture of such a car can be found in the WP equipment book by Jim Eager.

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A Milwaukee Road Automobile Box Car with Chad Boas Resin Parts

Models, Upgrades,

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George Toman has kept busy with another freight car project. Here’s his latest work.

This project started with the intent of building a Milwaukee Road automobile box car that I had seen on display by Chad Boas at the 2015 Collinsville RPM meet. Little did I know at the time that there were at least four versions of these cars. I chose to build a PS-1 and a GATC version. Here’s a look at both prototypes, with the PS-1 on the left and the GATC car on the right.

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