Tag Archives: Resin kit builds

Speedwitch Erie steel-sided rebuilds

Resin Freight Cars,

Craig Zeni has been working on an HO scale Speedwitch Media kit for an Erie steel-sheathed box car rebuild. Here are his notes.

The Erie Railroad embarked on a rebuilding program to convert a series of wood double-sheathed box cars to steel-sheathed cars in the early 1930s. The cars had welded plate steel side sheathing and flexible metal roofs installed. They retained the original doors, earlier braced ends, a vertical shaft handbrake, and an interior height of 8-foot, 6-inches. The rebuilt cars were numbered in the 70000-70999 series with 978 listed in the January 1943 ORER. A set of automobile cars was also converted in a similar manner but with a door width reduced to 6-foot. These were placed into the 71000-71567 series with 565 listed in the 1943 ORER. Speedwitch Media kit K121.1 represents the Erie 70000 series of steel sided rebuilds.

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Southern Pacific 50′ A50-6 / A50-5 1-1/2 Door Boxcar

Resin Freight Cars, Uncategorized, ,

Charlie Duckworth offers another great resin kit build summary. His focus this time is a classic Southern Pacific automobile box car kit offered by Funaro & Camerlengo. Click on any image here to review a larger size. Here’s Charlie’s report.

History
The Southern Pacific had 2,000 of these 50-foot, single-sheathed automobile box cars built in 1923. The cars were built in two classes in A-50-5 and A-50-6. The A-50-5 had steel auto doors in the A end of the car. The cars were built with Z-bar framing, metal peaked roofs, and fish belly underframes. The A-50-5 were numbered 68000-68499, while the A-50-6 group were numbered 66800-67999 with single-sheathed ends. Prototype photos and additional history can be found on pages 71 and 72 in Richard Hendrickson’s “Focus on Freight Cars Volume One: Single Sheathed Box & Automobile Cars.” The book is available from Speedwitch Media.

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An RPM event at The Beach

Hobby Events, RPM,
Here’s a portion of the Cocoa Beach crowd. Photo courtesy of Ross Dando.

The Prototype Rails Prototype Modeler meet wrapped up in Cocoa Beach recently. Railroad modelers attended from all over the United States and one flew in from Sweden. Fifty speakers offered a variety of presentations through two and a half days for the 250+ attendees. Four modelers sent along their impressions of the event and some photos. We hope these personal stories and images inspire readers to attend a railroad prototype modeler meet in 2016. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

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Another MP gondola

Resin Freight Cars, Techniques,

Bill Pardie sent a note and some photos of his Missouri Pacific gondola build about the time Bill Welch posted his tips and techniques on the model. We thought it would be neat to show another Bill’s version of the same MP gondola kit! Here’s Bill Pardie with comments on his kit build.

My initial venture into serious model railroading was in detailing brass locomotives. I then wanted the rolling stock to be as well detailed as the locomotives. This started out with Ambroid and Quality Craft kits as these kits were the only way to have stand-off grabs and ladders without performing major kit surgery. I now want the trackwork to be as well detailed as the models, but that is another story.

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