Charlie Duckworth shares a classic resin freight car kit build.

History

The SLSF 145550-144749 series were at one time the third largest block of boxcars on the road, with 1200 installed. Originally built as automobile boxcars in 1923, they had 7-foot wide door openings with a Samson radial roof. The ends had 7/8 outward facing, Murphy corrugated steel stampings. By the 1930’s, the 7-foot doors were too small for automobile loading and the cars were placed in general service. The railroad listed 1,024 of these cars in the 1940 ORER as general service box cars (XM). There are no listings in this number series by the 1956 ORER.

Prototype painting was an oxide red with black asphaltum applied to the underframe. Stenciling was white. The famous SLSF coon skin with Frisco Lines was modified in 1947 with Frisco being used thereafter by the railroad.

The Model

The kit is made up of seven major resin parts (roof, underframe, sides and ends). Detail parts such as the doors, underframe crossties, bolsters, and roof walk are also resin. Brass wire is included for the various rods and piping used on the underframe and brake details. Instructions cover building all the prototype railroads that kits were issued for (CB&Q, NP, SLSF; six kit versions overall), so one should to read carefully as to what details cover which prototype railroad you are building.

Construction

I’ve built several of the Sunshine Models single-sheathed boxcars. This kit is a straight forward build, just sand the sides to ensure they are straight and equal in length, remove the flash around the ends and wet sand away the flash around the smaller parts. There are no hidden problems and everything fit well. To my eye, the decals are very close to the SLSF standard lettering.

My only addition to building the kit are four cut down Lego blocks positioned in the corners to ensure the carbody is straight and there’s a wide surface to glue the ends onto.

The car was painted using Tru-Color Oxide Red. To prep for decaling, I spray a coat of Tamiya Clear on the carbody as it drying to a high gloss. The trucks are from Tahoe Model Works. The car was lightly weathered with military pigments and the car is sealed with thinned Testors Dullcote from an airbrush. The roof walk was painted in oil paints to denote weathered roof. Brown pencils were used on the boards and door to highlight individual boards being weathered too.

Charlie Duckworth

Thank you, Charlie, for sharing your work here on the blog. Take time to visit Charlie’s website for layout photos and Mopac info. Questions and comments can be posted below. Please follow the instructions so your comment can be posted. All comments are reviewed and approved before they appear.