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Wabash Automobile boxcars

Resin Freight Cars,
wab_47440_xa_Model1_web
Speedwitch Media Wabash Automobile boxcar.

Charlie Duckworth returns with comments on a pair of interesting resin kit builds.

History
The Wabash had a large fleet of single-sheathed automobile boxcars starting in the 1920’s and running these well into the 1950’s. The designs were basically standardized with radial roofs, wood or steel doors, and Murphy or Dreadnaught ends. These were tall cars having 10-foot high interiors. Wabash 46000-46999 had 5/5/5 Murphy ends. The 47000-47999 had 3/3/3 Dreadnaught ends. Another group numbered 17000-17299 had Dreadnaught automobile end doors. For prototype photos and additional history, consult page 80 in ‘Focus on Freight Cars Volume One: Single Sheathed Box & Automobile Cars’ by Richard Hendrickson.

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Storzek Soo Line boxcar converted to a NOT&M boxcar

Models, Resin Freight Cars, ,

notm_xm_action_web

Charlie Duckworth returns with another interesting build summery.

History
In 1921, American Car & Foundry (AC&F) built 500 single sheathed boxcars for the New Orleans, Texas & Mexico Railroad. These cars had peaked roofs and wood ends with steel bracing. The Missouri Pacific added these cars to their boxcar fleet when they acquired the Gulf Coast Lines railroads in January 1925. The cars were repainted into the parent company’s standard with the revised ‘Mopac buzz saw’ (the revision being the addition of ‘Lines’ to the logo) now appearing on the sides of the newly acquired GCL and I-GN equipment for the first time.

Although the cars only had 8-foot high interiors, they lasted quite a long time with 451 still on the roster in 1948. Due to a shortage of cabooses on the Mopac during WW2, 90 of these boxcars were converted to war emergency cabooses with personnel doors and windows added to the carbody. After the war, many of these cabooses were transferred to maintenance of way service.

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Helper Service – Streator pt 1

Layout Design,

Helping others plan their layout is a fun activity which doesn’t cost anything. At least it doesn’t cost me anything; some of my friends though might have a different opinion. I’m currently helping with a layout concept based on the Wabash Railroad’s Streator branch. This was a line which originated from a small yard on Wabash’s Chicago/Decatur main line at Forrest, Illinois, and headed northwest to Streator Illinois.

wab_StreatorBr

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Fun Builds – 2

Resin Freight Cars

CB&Q_45508_web

Here’s a freight car I built straight out of the box with no additions. This HO scale CB&Q, 50-foot, single-sheathed automobile car is an old Speedwitch media kit. I pretty much followed the instructions to the letter for the build.

The car was weathered with various washes of Testors Model Master paints with a final dry brushing of the base color. Sometimes it’s fun not to think and just build.

– Frank