Boxcar Sunday, Let's see your boxcars.

My Milwaukee Road boxcar by Weaver.  

Well in honor of the approaching Christmas Holilday, here are a few themed Holiday time box cars.

A Kline "Dr. Pepper" Christmas boxcar from 1994... Note we live in Waco, Tx the birthplace of "Dr. Pepper".

Everyone making the best arrangements they can to get the tree home for decoration.  Boxcars are Menards.

So to pay for all those gifts and decorations, you have to cash out your Christmas Club and the Lionel savings bank boxcar is here to help you do that.

Best Wishes

Don

Boston & Maine steel boxcar #73199 (MTH Premier 20-93073, December 2001, MSRP $39.95) was pulled by B&M GP7 #1562 (Sunset/3rd Rail) on my 10'-by-5' layout. Boxcar models have certainly gotten much more expensive. B&M's car was built in March 1942.

MELGAR

Another fine Boxcar Sunday, PW Lionel 3357 from 62-64 Cop and Hobo Car known as the Hydraulic Platform Maintenance car. Fun action car for young lads and us older Joes.

Some great looking cars guys and plus the bonus of being able to see little shots of each of your layouts!

For this week's Boxcar Sunday, an American Refrigerator Transit Company boxcar. This unit sports the Wabash & Missouri Pacific logos as well as the A.R.T. shield. I have it in 6 road #s which makes a nice little unit train. It's made by MTH & has opening doors & roof hatches, see through roof walks, separate ladders and grab bars.

BANGOR & AROOSTOOK #2347.

CMP - with a nod to Dave Ripp

Weaver's commemoration of EMD's 75th anniversary in 1997:

One unusual feature of this car is the silver trucks, as most Weaver cars have black ones (My red Coke Santa t-shirt is reflecting in the rails, too).

I also "redesigned" the coupler tabs to get them to work on the modern FasTrack operating section:

Before:

After:

It's a simple modification that raises the "thumbtack" and prevents it from pulling out after repeated use. It will save me a LOT of money vs replacing the trucks and couplers. I plan to make this modification to all 16 of my other Weaver cars.

Bill - please, explain what your coupler mod is. Not clear from photos. Thanks.

Boston & Maine #13138 was a 40-foot refrigerated wood-sided boxcar built in 1923 and refurbished as "DF" (damage-free) in 1950. Model is Atlas O 6721-1. I don't see a listing in the Atlas O Archive but I think it was made around 2001.

MELGAR

This just arrived from Public Delivery Track (thanks Beth).  Next week we will see what is in it.

Mel, I’m not sure. But I believe the B&M Reefer was a custom run done by Norm’s O Scale located in Maine. This car was one of those hard to find ones for those collecting Atlas reefers. At one time Atlas or someone had a list with shipping dates on all the custom run cars.

Well Boxcar fans, here are a few old timers for you to look at.  These are all American Flyer but Chicago Flyer not Gilbert Flyer hence are all pre 1938 and all 0 gauge.

The first is an AF # 3012 enameled box car from 1930-1935

Next an lithographed "automobile" car (Yes they carried auto's in boxcars right up to the 1950's or 60's when the auto racks came along.  IAW the Flyer catalog, the 4 wheel version of this car was numbered 1112 and the 8 wheel 1115 but in reality either car could carry either number.  1919-1935

the oposibe

This is the opposite case to the one above again theoretically the 1112 was 4 wheel and the 1115 was 8 wheel but examples of the opposite are reasonably common so its likely the Flyer use what ever number was on the car body for either 4 or 8 wheel cars.  Again car available 1919-1929 in 8 wheel.

Best Wishes

Don

@Dave_C posted:

Mel, I’m not sure. But I believe the B&M Reefer was a custom run done by Norm’s O Scale located in Maine. This car was one of those hard to find ones for those collecting Atlas reefers. At one time Atlas or someone had a list with shipping dates on all the custom run cars.

Dave,

That's quite possible. At the time, I was buying a lot of Atlas O from Norm...

MELGAR

My Lionel 2023 Knights of Columbus Keep Christ in Christmas  boxcar.

Going home for Christmas, have a good Boxcar Sunday all!

Late as usual….

Weaver Factory paint scheme…

A few custom paint jobs by me…

All MTH Premier cars…

Tom

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

Bill - please, explain what your coupler mod is. Not clear from photos. Thanks.

Mark, the procedure is as follows:

1. Slide the thumbtack out of the coupler release assembly. You may need to gently twist the tack as you are sliding it out.

2. If the thumbtack pin is not nearly perpendicular to the head (it almost always isn't) carefully bend it until it is. You can check perpendicularity by spinning the pin between your thumb and forefinger and watching the head.

3. Cut about 1/8" off of the thumbtack pin and file the cut end flat taking care not to bend the pin you straightened above.

4. With a very sharp single-edge blade or x-acto, cut off the wide thumbtack "pad" right at the point it joins the  stud connecting the pad to the coupler release assembly.

5. Using a 1/8 twist drill bit, countersink the end of the stud without shortening it at all. This can be done turning the bit by hand.

6. Press the prepared thumbtack into the stud to ensure it goes all the way in. If any of the pin of the thumbtack is showing, cut or file the pin until the tack fully inserts into the stud. Slide the tack back out.

7. Thread a steel 4-40 machine nut onto the countersunk stud. Be sure the nut is going on straight. I insert the nut into a shallow 1/4" socket first and carefully hand turn it onto the stud until it "catches." Thread the nut onto the stud until the end of the stud is even with the face of the nut.

8. Apply a small amount of "Goop" adhesive to the face of the nut and stud and press the prepared thumbtack fully into the stud. The nut will have tightened the fit, so you will have to press fairly firmly.

That's all there is to it, Mark. I hope it helps you and anyone else wishing to do this.

Good morning boxcar fans. For today a MTH - GM&O that I posted when I purchased last year. I have since lightly weathered it to fit my era and added a load. The weathering shows better off camera.

Nice car Dave. The detail and weathering work is stunning. I like the personalized chalk mark on the side.

Here are two cars I finished during the past week. Both MTH 19th Century cars. I added some details and painted them.

The boxcar has Labell decals which are excellent. Soo Line…

The reefer (cold boxcar😉) is finished using K4 decals…

Tom

Lionel

Nice looking Boxcars guys, Have a good Boxcar Sunday. PW Lionel Erie 610 from 55 moving a few cars.

New Haven Railroad Alco S-2 #0617 pulled three boxcars on my 10'-by-5' layout. #78000 and #78006 are MTH products. #35238 was made by Weaver/Crown Model Products. I'm going to have to get some new boxcars to post on Boxcar Sunday...

MELGAR

Last week I showed the newly arrived box from Beth.  There were 4 cars in it, three were boxcars.  Here is the first one: the new B&O Wagontops from AtlasO.  Now I ordered these back in 2021 and instead of waiting, I purchased some Weaver Wagontops last year.  Now I have lots of Wagontops.

This car is in the 1946-1955 Post War 13 Great States scheme.  It is a lot darker than my same era Weaver car.

Here is a comparison of the Atlas car on left and the Weaver car on the right.  You will notice the Atlas car is lower on the trucks.  Seems too low to me.

Well following @MELGAR I have to include today my NY,NH&H boxcar by Marx.  This and the also pictured UP box car is from the era 1940-1957 when Marx was trying to penetrate the "scale" model train market.  Although these cars are quite accurate "S" scale models, they are 0 gauge and rode on Marx's 3 rail 0 gauge track.  These cars are all lithographed and have metal tilting fork couplers, the plastic tilting fork coupler not becoming widely available until 1953.  The cars themselves are marked for 1941 but it is likely that the war production board ruling against metal toys in 1942 limited actual production until 1945.

I would like to draw your attention to the imaginative lithography on the UP end ladders.  Note that the 3d effect using a "shadow" makes the ladder look like it extends out from the car body.  In reality the visual effect is great but the ladder and its "shadow" are flat.

Yes I know that these show some "patina" i.e. wear and use but candidly I sort of like that as I imagine it means that they fulfilled their mission of providing some young person great model railroading adventures.  Remember these are some 78 years old, nearly as old as I am, so we have to be a little understanding of their condition.

Best wishes everyone, Happy Holiday Season

Don

This is an Auburn/Kusan livestock car that I picked up at the Dixie Division TCA show in Lebanon, Tn. on 12/9. I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

Nothing too fancy today. Some REA head end cars from K-Line and Lionel.

Lionel

Weaver Lehigh & New England PS-1 40’ boxcar, with Kadee couplers and weathered …

I often run Waldbaum's (PSRX1006) and Schaefer Beer (NJHR21) refrigerated boxcars behind engines of the Long Island Rail Road. Waldbaum's had stores in New York City and on Long Island. Schaefer Brewing Company was located in Brooklyn. The engine is LIRR B-6sb #170 by MTH Railking...

MELGAR

Happy Boxcar Sunday! Here is a MTH that I weathered & un-weathered over and over. I'm still not happy with it but it's getting better. I tried my first rust scratch and hopefully it looks ok.

The Rutland had 200 automobile boxcars. In the years I model they were used on a variety of jobs as I can’t picture them being used in auto transport. They were only 40 ft. cars. The Rutland never saw a new steel car till 1954. They were built from the same order that produced their standard 8000 series boxcar in 1924. As far as I can tell looking at pictures. The only difference was another slightly cut down door was  door added. About 3/4 length. A prototype can be seen at Strasburg. So I had some good photos to look at. Atlas produced a fairly good replica of the standard car years ago. I had a shell in my junk box that served as a donor for parts and experimenting. I picked up a DM&IR that had the more correct ends. I blasted the lettering off with an air eraser, made a trip to the local hobby shop for some styrene strips, ordered some door guides from Atlas, ordered some K4 Decals and made a few cutting guide jigs. I basically just cut the door opening and framed it out.

  A quick mock-up was made testing out the styrene. The tedious part was cutting the door down and removing the latching hardware. I also removed the 2 doorstops and added the extras using Precision Scale parts. I used Tamiya Dull Red Laquer for paint.

the first shot is the stock Atlas car and the modified car together. The lettering font of the K4 decals is slightly larger. Protocraft also makes a decal set that matches up with the Atlas. Funny thing is. MTH did a recent run that also has the larger font. I preferred the smaller lettering. But in order to make life easy. The K4 set just require cutting out a 6 and flipping it to make a 9. The Protocraft set would have required moving multiple numbers around. Not so easy when doing the car ends. Kadee’s went on and a light coat of weathering. It was a fun project and I’ll pickup another car to do at some point.

Just a few miscellaneous cars I have painted. A bunch more in the shop now…

@Dave_C posted:

The Rutland had 200 automobile boxcars. In the years I model they were used on a variety of jobs as I can’t picture them being used in auto transport. They were only 40 ft. cars. The Rutland never saw a new steel car till 1954. They were built from the same order that produced their standard 8000 series boxcar in 1924. As far as I can tell looking at pictures. The only difference was another slightly cut down door was  door added. About 3/4 length. A prototype can be seen at Strasburg. So I had some good photos to look at. Atlas produced a fairly good replica of the standard car years ago. I had a shell in my junk box that served as a donor for parts and experimenting. I picked up a DM&IR that had the more correct ends. I blasted the lettering off with an air eraser, made a trip to the local hobby shop for some styrene strips, ordered some door guides from Atlas, ordered some K4 Decals and made a few cutting guide jigs. I basically just cut the door opening and framed it out.

  A quick mock-up was made testing out the styrene. The tedious part was cutting the door down and removing the latching hardware. I also removed the 2 doorstops and added the extras using Precision Scale parts. I used Tamiya Dull Red Laquer for paint.

the first shot is the stock Atlas car and the modified car together. The lettering font of the K4 decals is slightly larger. Protocraft also makes a decal set that matches up with the Atlas. Funny thing is. MTH did a recent run that also has the larger font. I preferred the smaller lettering. But in order to make life easy. The K4 set just require cutting out a 6 and flipping it to make a 9. The Protocraft set would have required moving multiple numbers around. Not so easy when doing the car ends. Kadee’s went on and a light coat of weathering. It was a fun project and I’ll pickup another car to do at some point.

Very interesting project and great job, Dave!  Thanks for the thorough explanation.

If you like hot STUFF here it is. Texas Pete Hot Sauce.

GG1GUYY

Well commenting on the post by @dave c.- Yes they did transport automobiles in box cars starting from the early days.  Here is an American Flyer "Automobile Car" from about 1932.

In my case, since I am traveling back to the East Coast for Christmas, I got nostalgic for "Old Bay" seasoning...can't wait!

Best wishes and Happy Holiday

Don

My Dad’s Anniversary just passed ; so I’m reposting a kit car he made 70 years ago.
Thanks Dad!

Dave C,

Great work on that Rutland car. I really enjoy the boxcar posts that show challenging mods—they motivate  me.  I’ve done quite a few, so now I grab a prototype photo and keep it a file labeled “ cars I’ve done” along with my model photo.

Thanks for showing us your work series.

Don

Dave C and Krieglok,

I can't let your modeling work go without comment. Always outstanding.

MELGAR