Prototype extras

Shortly after the last blog post published, I received a few prototype photos from Ray Breyer. These are great additional resources to help anyone follow Fenton Wells’ kitbash for the Southern 40-foot, double-sheathed, truss rod box car project.

Ray’s photos remind us of options for additional roadnames on these cars.

Photo from Bob’s Photo, possibly taken by Col. Chet McCoid

The Southern controlled the Mobile & Ohio and often added similar freight cars to the M&O fleet. The image above documents one of these cars in the later GM&O lettering with a 1953 weigh date stencil and AB brake hardware.

Photo by Col. Chet McCoid taken in Fayetteville, NC, Jan. 12, 1952, from , Bob’s Photo

Here’s another GM&O car that appears to be wearing fresh paint and lettering with AB brake hardware and 1951 weigh date and repack stencils.

Photo from the Westerfield Models AC&F builder photo collection

A couple of builder images are found in the Westerfield Models AC&F collection. These document the original M&O appearance with the half-door for automobile service and a different steel end.

Photo from the Westerfield Models AC&F builder photo collection

The B end view highlights the details that differ from the Southern prototypes.

Photo from the Keith Retterer BC&F builder photo collection

Now we come back around full circle to Fenton’s original model project. Above is a 1923 Baltimore Car & Foundry builder photo of the original Southern 40-foot automobile box cars. It was the later modifications of these cars that inspired Fenton’s modeling in the previous blog post. I have a feeling he will be working on a GM&O version soon.

Whether you model the late steam post-WW2 era, or the mid-1920s into the 1930s, these are a couple of prototypes you can kitbash in HO scale from Westerfield Models kits and parts.


Many thanks for Ray Breyer for sharing a few prototype image files. We hope these inspire more kitbash projects following Fenton Wells’ lead to build versions of these interesting prototypes.

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