Custom Freight Cars

Very nice Bill....

 

Alan

Hi Bill • Great job on the rolling stock

Thanks guys, always fun taking some beat-up rolling stock and applying a fresh coat of paint and decals.

I on the other hand have some custom jobs:

 

 

A year  ago I decided that if no one made the cars I wanted then I would just need to make my own. I have worked with the White Pass and Yukon Route in Alaska for a number of years and even though it's 3 foot narrow gauge I decided to model at least some of it in O-gauge. I started with an engine and went from there.

 

 

Here is my annual submission during college basketball.

 

 

Since we run almost all fantasy trains, I have a couple of custom reefers in the works.  I have some NASCAR 3 stooges decals that should work for that reeefer,

and am collecting some artwork for the Bugs Bunny Carrot Juice Tank Car.

 

A Three Stooges beer reefer would be an excellent choice.

Here are a few of my custom cars:

 

Morton Salt Hoppers:

 

 

Valley Railway Coal Hoppers - I made 22 of these!

 

 

Hoppers for my fictitious SLC Chemical Co.

 

 

And a few covered hoppers for my home road, the WHBL.

 

Starting point:

 

Finished car as of this weekend:

 

 

 

 

 

SP&S caboose

 

Great job on the freight cars, Bill.  I really dig the SP&S caboose!

 

Here are a couple of my Lionel Steel customs.  The Mo & Joe got new uniforms and are now working for Lionel Steel.  The flat cars were cheap and I shortened them, painted, lettered, and added 1/2 sections of track for loads.

 

 

I love the carrot juice idea!

MY CUSTOM CARS (THOSE I MADE FORM SCRATCH) INCLUDE ONLY MY LOGGING CARS AND THE FLATS. SEE THE VIDEO ONLY THE ENGINE (MTH) AND THE WATER TANKER (LIONEL) ARE NOT MADE BY ME

I did my first custom car about 7 years ago, since I couldn't buy what I wanted. I've done 30 or so since, and its probably one of the most fun, trying, tedious, but rewarding things I've done in the hobby. They certainly aren't perfect, but I do enjoy them. Here are a few: 

 

     Looney Tunes I have A 6 pack if three stooges beer, rail bender ale and duke beer (OLD LOCAL BREW IN PGH.) Choo Choo Kenny 

Here is a Reading caboose made by a retired Reading Company conductor, George Ether. He had a table under the grandstand during the York Meet. He wore his conductor's uniform. I always enjoyed talking with him.

I have always loved custom run cars. They are special. One of my favorites.

 

 

Jimmy you made so many did you keep a list of all the ones you had made over the years. I wish I would of kept track of what I have done. I always get a laugh when I am at a train show and come across a car I have done.  I ask the history of the car the stories are something then I tell them what I know about the car.

Here's a breakdown of my custom freight cars. I started with my version of a white pass cupola caboose.

 

 

 

 

Then I decaled this ore car.

 

 

 

 

Then I customized this bunk car.

 

 

 

 

And my last project was to customize this tractor trailer.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing  - excellent job on the rolling stock.

-Greg

Bill, the cars look great and SO fun to see Coeur d'Alene and Spokane represented on this forum!  Seems like its all Pennsy this and Santa Fe that.  Not that there's anything wrong with that .  Did you make your own decals?

 

-Nick

Doc. Weaver models has a spreadsheet on their website that you can download. It lists all the custom runs they made including  all of Jimmy's runs.

That spreadsheet is under the "archives" tab on the lower left column. Look under Ultra Line freight cars.

Thanks

My father had Andy Kriswalus of KMT to do some custom cars for him back in 1971.  In another thread I posted a couple of them, here's the 3rd style he printed:

 

 

I'm surprised that more dealers don't do custom run cars. They are great sellers. All of our custom run cars sold great. When you are the only dealer that has that car, you are in the drivers seat. We never kept a full run all to ourselves. We always offered them to other Weaver dealers. It was a wonderful time in the store when we were selling Weaver freight cars. Thom, we also did a cream colored Dubois Budweiser wood sided reefer. Some how, a picture of this car was left off the Weaver site. It was one of the last ones that we did. The car looks like

 

 

 

 

P.S. Thank you prrhorseshoecurve for telling Doc where he can see a list of all of Weavers custom run cars. That was very nice of you.