Built Up Vintage Kits - Rolling Stock

Would there be a market for old passenger cars as well? I have at least a dozen that I was planning on redoing but at my age, it's wishful thinking. If someone is interested, I will post some pictures.   Bill

Nice repairs Martin, I assume an Arvid Anderson R-2 to start with.

@Tom Dempsey posted:

Nice repairs Martin, I assume an Arvid Anderson R-2 to start with.

Probably a safe assumption. It was not very well assembled, but good enough to salvage and possibly save.  Then again, all 3 hoppers might be on my table in Strasburg next Sat.

Finished a Quality Craft kit for a N&W 2-bay hopper. Quality Craft was the actual manufacturer behind the Ambroid branded wooden kits, and having assembled a few Ambroid's at this point this one went together easy.

~Chris

@Bill Park posted:

Would there be a market for old passenger cars as well? I have at least a dozen that I was planning on redoing but at my age, it's wishful thinking. If someone is interested, I will post some pictures.   Bill

Depending on the cars, I have been purchasing vintage heavyweight kits.  Mostly All Nation cars as they are about as close to CNJ commuter equipment as I am likely to get in this scale in my lifetime. I have 10 so far of which four are new in the box kits.  The rest are restorations to be.

I will post some pictures of them.

This is a car I've had for a few years. Bought it built up. A friend of mine (who builds a lot of kits) thinks its a kit from the '40s, but not sure by who. This car recently became my first Kadee conversion, since the car had miss matched couplers when I got it (one die-cast, one plastic).

If anyone has an idea of the manufacturer of this car, I would appreciate it.

"Ed Boemer-....white courtesy phone please...."

The hardware makes me think All Nation, but the side doors and braces don't match up to my catalogues for similar single sheathed 50' wood cars kits by AN.

Excellent looking car though.

Rail Craft gon before:

after rebuilding:

Very nice job on the gondola.

Agree, great looking P&WV lettering and herald too, decals or dry transfer?

The deck treatment is neat too, did you stain the wood before cementing it in? or..?

Wow!

@atlpete posted:

Agree, great looking P&WV lettering and herald too, decals or dry transfer?

The deck treatment is neat too, did you stain the wood before cementing it in? or..?

Wow!

Decals!

Stained the decking after installation.

Not quite done with this car - needs a little more to make it "interesting".

Nice to see the underbody detailed.

@PRR Man posted:

Nice to see the underbody detailed.

There is no acceptance of naked underbody syndrome here  

I recently completed a kitbash of an All-Nation kit. Originally a 50’ double door boxcar. I accurately converted it to a PRR 50’ X41b boxcar. Modified the lower side sill. Filled the door opening with metal from spare sides, changed all details and used accurate doors, complete underbody brake rigging.

I also plan to do the double door X41 version.

@PRR Man posted:

I recently completed a kitbash of an All-Nation kit.

Nicely done - the door ties it together neatly!

Yup, plus the fill job on car body side to the left of the door is remarkably unobtrusive and skillful as in you have to know it's there to see it, these 50ft single doors are quite under-represented in O IMO.    Excellent looking model!

one item to note: I never use the brads (nails) included in an All_Nation kit. They are too obtrusive. Rather I use Weldwood contact cement to attach the sides, ends and roof. Has never failed me.

@PRR Man posted:

one item to note: I never use the brads (nails) included in an All_Nation kit. They are too obtrusive. Rather I use Weldwood contact cement to attach the sides, ends and roof. Has never failed me.

Same here.  But I do save those various size brads, etm., in vials - every now & again I find them useful.

Hartley kit...roof is removable for an interior; sides are embossed paper as are the window parts. Drop steps at each end.

Martin, very nice!

Dan Weinhold

IMP tank car...w/o any details.

or underbody brake details....

I’m starting this Walthers kit today, I may be sorry but I will try it.  It is the standard from Walthers at the time, wood and cast metal.  The worst part to me is the sanding sealer to get smooth surfaces but it has to be done.

The orange box makes me think it might be one of Walthers early versions of the H30, they did at least two or more "versions" as they steadily improved the materials and assembly design of it over the years. I rebuilt an early version and it proved very challenging in that I had to solder all of the railing and bracing on the ends, which for me was tricky since my brass soldering skills are woeful in a  "Fred Flintstone-ish" manner.

I have no doubt Malcolm though you will do this justice and look forward to seeing the finished model.

@atlpete posted:

The orange box makes me think it might be one of Walthers early versions of the H30, they did at least two or more "versions" as they steadily improved the materials and assembly design of it over the years. I rebuilt an early version and it proved very challenging in that I had to solder all of the railing and bracing on the ends, which for me was tricky since my brass soldering skills are woeful in a  "Fred Flintstone-ish" manner.

I have no doubt Malcolm though you will do this justice and look forward to seeing the finished model.

Pete,

This kit has already thrown me a curve.  The instructions tell me to solder the frame as you mentioned but this kit includes cast ends.  They look like tank car ends with the tank supports removed.  I think I have it figured out but I’m also thinking of scratching the frame ends following my Weaver model.  We will see.

@Brother_Love posted:

I’m starting this Walthers kit today, I may be sorry but I will try it.  It is the standard from Walthers at the time, wood and cast metal.  The worst part to me is the sanding sealer to get smooth surfaces but it has to be done.

Got one of those in the queue as well.  Been putting it off after looking inside the box,

With Walthers cast ends for tank cars and the covered hopper, where the assembly calls out soldering the soft pot metal castings to a brass or tinplated steel part, I've used JB weld and put the assembly in a premade jig to assure it will be flat and square when set.  I just leave it overnight and the next day it's ready.

Here is a Walthers tank car I built using some PVC pipe for the tank in place of the kit's wood dowel.

S. Islander

@S. Islander posted:

Here is a Walthers tank car I built using some PVC pipe for the tank in place of the kit's wood dowel.

How'd you shape the ends?

The tank ends are discs of 1/2"tick poplar (basswood would also work) I cut to fit into the 1 1/2" ID PVC pipe I used for the tank.    The discs were sealed with lacquer before gluing them into the PVC by about 3/4 of their thickness.

I also drilled four holes and drove in escutcheon pins around each tank end to secure them. After a day or so, I ground off the pin heads and shaped the tank ends with a bench sander, blending the PVC and wood into the final contour. The tank ends were sealed again.

The tank was lightly sanded, rubbed down with fine steel wool and given a coat of primer.  I also drilled a 1/16" hole in the tank to compensate for changes of temperature and air pressure. The hole is hidden by the center sill. I built this model in 1983. Now 40 years later, the wood in the tank ends are still smooth and no seams show.

One more thing.  I built the model so the tank and underframe can be easily separated. Two small screws run up through the center sill hold them together.  Doing that made installing the air brake piping and rigging on the underframe a lot easier!

Below, another tank car, with a scratch built steel tank.  I found it on Ebay a year ago. I added the tank railings, ladders and underbody details as well as trucks and couplers.  Its tank is also easily removed from the underframe if need be. The ladder bottoms and tank bands have pins which slip into holes in car side running boards and bolsters to allow that as well. 

S. Islander

@Brother_Love posted:

Pete,

This kit has already thrown me a curve.  The instructions tell me to solder the frame as you mentioned but this kit includes cast ends.  They look like tank car ends with the tank supports removed.  I think I have it figured out but I’m also thinking of scratching the frame ends following my Weaver model.  We will see.

Yeah I would agree with S Islander, those ends are lead based so they can be soldered to but you can screw them up in a few seconds too.  I think the JB weld is a great option. My reference are several of the early Waltehrs tank cars with the same ends.  The early ones were bronze and I love those, easier to work with.  There pot metal ones I tried to pin to the center sill and also used a brass pin to attach the walkways then soldered to pin to the brass walkway. I'd bet the JB weld woul dbe the best option  for the hopper, or like you said, maybe take a shot at a scratch end platform first and if you don't like it you still have the stockers to use.

Dennis,

Thanks for tip.  Yes, I’m going to follow the advice of you and S. Islander and go with JB weld.

Malcolm

Here are a couple of All Nation wood reefers I picked up recently. The both need some work, but are pretty solid I think.  I was able to add a set of A-N trucks to each so they are at least somewhat complete till I get around to working on them. That last one is the Schlitz kit I have about 1/3 done so far lol. The DICX I threw some prewar Lionel trucks on and will run it as prewar hirail....  Guess I should not post that picture here lol.

Seems like a halfway decent built Athearn PFE reefer here too.  Again, I had some Athearn trucks to install and it has the original couplers and seems like a good enough car to keep as is.

I got an old mainline express reefer off the bay a while ago. Mostly wanted it for the PSC trucks but when I got it the car was a solid square well built body. Figured it was a good candidate for an ATSF express car. I punched a hole in the siding for epoxy soaked shot for added weight and covered the exterior with thin styrene. The Santa Fe did the same thing with steel on wood side cars. Archer decal rivits, brass grabs and appropriate trucks made for a unique car.

beautiful work

Finished car ready for the Grand Canyon.

Nice

This is a Sante Fe RR37 refrigerator car built from a Gloor Craft kit.

The kit is a box of sticks. Most of the kit castings were discarded and replaced with better detail.

@David Eisinger posted:

This is a Sante Fe RR37 refrigerator car built from a Gloor Craft kit.

The kit is a box of sticks. Most of the kit castings were discarded and replaced with better detail.

These are two Lykens Valley Models "box of sticks" kits that I assembled years ago:

That "Santa Fe" 3+ inch square decal was a bear to install; with the help of Hank Knapp, we got it right!

I have always liked the Big John hopper so another Lykens Valley kit was attempted:

I did replace the wood centersill with an octagonal brass rod to add some weight. And, oddly, I dated this project:

I could not do this anymore due to shaky hands!

@PRRMP54 posted:

These are two Lykens Valley Models "box of sticks" kits that I assembled years ago:

That "Santa Fe" 3+ inch square decal was a bear to install; with the help of Hank Knapp, we got it right!

I have always liked the Big John hopper so another Lykens Valley kit was attempted:

I did replace the wood centersill with an octagonal brass rod to add some weight. And, oddly, I dated this project:

I could not do this anymore due to shaky hands!

Dave, I remember that big Sante Fe box car. I also remember Hank Knapp from the tractioneers. I had a party at my house and one of the guest as a Fran Knapp. I asked her if her father was by chance Hank Knapp. turns out Fran is Hanks daughter. about that decal. I had trouble applying that Sante Fe map on the reefer in one piece. it turned out fine but if I had to do it again I would apply it in more manageable sections pieced together.