Tag Archives: upgrading plastic

Upgrading Accurail plug door reefers

Image from the Accurail website

Fenton Wells sent a summary of his HO scale plastic reefer kit upgrades. Here’s Fenton with the details.

The Accurail 8500 series kits are very nice, plastic injected-molded models of plug (sliding) door transition era, 40-foot refrigerator cars with ice bunkers. I model 1953 and found the prototypes were first introduced around 1950. I thought I should have one or two for my railroad.

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Lehigh & New England box car kitbash

Fenton Wells displayed an interesting HO scale box car kitbash at the RPM Conference in Naperville. He shared this summary from his Southern Piedmont Shops.

One of the fun things about this hobby is the inspirational people you meet and one of them prompted this kitbash. Clark Propst got me involved with this model. He sent me a prototype photo and some in-progress photos of his modeling. I knew that I must build this interesting car.

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NYC box car weathering

Dick Scott shared a recently weathered O scale New York Central box car on the Steam Era Freight Car discussion list. He supplied extra photos and details for a blog post.

Recently I upgraded this New York Central boxcar I built from an O scale Intermountain kit in 1992. It now has new roof walks, uncoupling levers, flexible brake hoses, brass sill steps, and placards. 

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