A few more freight cars for Sweethome Alabama

[Jon Grant 4472]

I haven't had much time recently to work on the new layout, so I contented myself with detailling and weathering a few freight cars.

 

The first batch were some Walthers centrebeam flat cars I've picked up over the years. I removed all the steel screws and replaced with brass, added some underframe detail, and drilled holes for the tie-downs. I decided to model 2 cars loaded and 2 empty.

 

I used a different wood load on each side of the loaded cars, so I can have 2 Louisiana Pacific loads if needed, etc, and modelled one of the cars with a less-than-full load, for variety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon

[Jon Grant 4472]

After the centrebeams, I set to work on a few gondolas and my solitary flat car.

 

The 2 Atlas gons are in the process of having removable scrap loads fitted and the only things I did to these cars was to add Kadees and brass truck screws,

 

 

 

 

 

The Walthers mill gon was modelled with fixed ends and I have put it into stone traffic (WS talus on a removable foam-core base). this has had Kadee wheels and couplers fitted, stirrup steps, brass truck screws and lead weight replacing the steel bar. I will add brake detail once I find suitable reference material.

 

 

 

 

The BN flat car is one of the excellent Intermountain cars with a Preiser cable drum load - all I added was brass truck screws and a bit of lead weight.

 

 

Jon

[shortliner]

Rather nice, Jon

[trisonic]

I haven't had much time recently to work on the new layout, so I contented myself with detailling and weathering a few freight cars.

 

The first batch were some Walthers centrebeam flat cars I've picked up over the years. I removed all the steel screws and replaced with brass, added some underframe detail, and drilled holes for the tie-downs. I decided to model 2 cars loaded and 2 empty.

 

I used a different wood load on each side of the loaded cars, so I can have 2 Louisiana Pacific loads if needed, etc, and modelled one of the cars with a less-than-full load, for variety.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon

 

Man, I saw a whole train of those running on the old LeHigh mainline at Roselle Park, NJ yesterday! Impressive! I was passing underneath on Rt.28 heading to Westfield.

 

Best, Pete

[Jon Grant 4472]

Man, I saw a whole train of those running on the old LeHigh mainline at Roselle Park, NJ yesterday! Impressive! I was passing underneath on Rt.28 heading to Westfield.

 

Best, Pete

 

 

Thanks Pete.

 

Did you happen to notice if the truck wheels were 33in or the larger 36in? I am trying to find out as Walthers shove 33in plastic wheels in the model, but they've been wrong on other models.

 

Jon

[Jon Grant 4472]

Not content with that I set about a few covered hopper cars.

 

The excellent Intermountain 100T hopper only required brass truck screws to bring it up to running order.

 

 

 

The Walthers 100T hopper required rather more work, and I had to remove all the moulded on grab irons, replacing with brass wire. I also added Kadee wheels, brass truck screws and lead weight to replace the steel bar. I retained the plastic steps for now but blackened the sides and back to make them appear thinner.

 

 

 

 

Looking at the second photo, I still need to add some roofwalk supports.

 

 

Jon

[Glorious NSE]

Jon, I would expect 36" wheels on the centerbeams as they will probably be 100t cars

 

Nicely observed tiedowns on the empty cars as well

[Jon Grant 4472]

The last batch of cars for this session were a few more covered hoppers.

 

I think the Cargill hopper is an Intermountain model - I bought it loose at a swapmeet - but the detailling is really nice, despite one of the steps being missing - I only paid the equivalent of $4 for it so I cant complain. Brass truck screws were the only modification. I managed to find a photo of the same car# on Railroad Picture Archives, when I did the weathering.

 

 

 

The cylindrical hopper is an early Atlas model with the solid roofwalk and was also bought cheap at a swapmeet.

 

 

 

 

 

The last hopper was 'extremely' weathered when I bought it (same swapmeet I think). Someone had airbrushed a heavy rust wash, as if the car had been dragged behind a tunnel motor for 6 months.

 

I cleaned off the muck with a scratch pen (fibreglass strands) and accidentally removed some of the 'Southern Pacific' lettering in the process. I quite like the effect it produced.

 

 

 

 

BTW, all the weathering on the cars in this topic was done by acrylic washes applied with a brush. Any excess was rubbed off with a thumb.

 

Jon

[trisonic]

Thanks Pete.

 

Did you happen to notice if the truck wheels were 33in or the larger 36in? I am trying to find out as Walthers shove 33in plastic wheels in the model, but they've been wrong on other models.

 

Jon

 

HA! My eyes on that good...........besides they were on a bridge and I was driving underneath.

 

Best, Pete.

 

 

 

[Jon Grant 4472]

I thought I'd just mention my source of photos for weathering the cars.

 

I try to weather from photos on Railroad Picture Archive, so the model looks at least a bit like the weathering on a real one.

 

For instance-

 

model

 

 

 

Rail Picture Archive

 

 

 

It's an excellent resource for modellers, especially those of us who don't live in the US, and you can generally find a photo of a similar car, if not the exact car number.

 

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsTypeList.aspx

 

Jon

[Jon Grant 4472]

HA! My eyes on that good...........besides they were on a bridge and I was driving underneath.

 

Best, Pete.

 

Hello Pete

 

Not the old 'they were on a bridge and I was driving underneath' excuse

 

I'm partial to 'the dog ate my homework'

 

I'm going to recheck some photos on railroad Picture archives, I have a feeling they will be 36in wheels.

 

Happy modelling

 

Jon

[JWB]

Out of curiosity, why do you replace the steel truck screws with brass? I use the Kadee 308 under-the-track uncouplers, and while they do cause problems with steel axles, steel truck screws don't seem to hurt. Nor, for that matter, do the steel car weights in almost all freight cars.

 

On the matter of 36 inch wheels, they are used on 100-ton trucks, 33 inch on 70 ton trucks. You can pretty much figure out which they should be by looking at the LD LMT line on the car data; if it's above 200000, then you need 100-ton. But also, and this is a smaller issue visually, the 100 ton trucks have a slightly longer wheelbase than 70 ton. Walthers puts 100 ton trucks under everything, as does Athearn. Accurail, on the other hand, puts 70 ton trucks under everything. So if you have a number of cars from all these manufacturers, you can swap them out where needed.

[Jon Grant 4472]

Out of curiosity, why do you replace the steel truck screws with brass? I use the Kadee 308 under-the-track uncouplers, and while they do cause problems with steel axles, steel truck screws don't seem to hurt. Nor, for that matter, do the steel car weights in almost all freight cars.

 

On the matter of 36 inch wheels, they are used on 100-ton trucks, 33 inch on 70 ton trucks. You can pretty much figure out which they should be by looking at the LD LMT line on the car data; if it's above 200000, then you need 100-ton. But also, and this is a smaller issue visually, the 100 ton trucks have a slightly longer wheelbase than 70 ton. Walthers puts 100 ton trucks under everything, as does Athearn. Accurail, on the other hand, puts 70 ton trucks under everything. So if you have a number of cars from all these manufacturers, you can swap them out where needed.

 

 

Thanks for the excellent info, I've learnt something there.

 

I still get car wobble with the steel truck screws, although not nearly as bad as with the steel axles. The steel weights only sometimes cause a problem - if they are fitted right up to the inside car end - but I prefer to replace them with lead sheet or 'liquid lead' where possible.

 

 

BTW, my magnets are normally fitted directly under the Peco rail ties, so have a quite strong attraction.

 

Jon

[Jon Grant 4472]

Over the last couple of evenings, I have been messing about with a couple of Proto 2000 Covered hopper kits for Frisco.

 

I fitted Kadee uncouplers, brass truck screws, oil/lube data panels and patched numbers to hide the Roman Gothic originals. I couldn't find any photos of any originals in service, so these may be out of period for the mid-late 1990s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon

[F-UnitMad]

Just caught up with this thread...

 

I especially noted all the straps fitted to your empty Centre-Beams... Respect, Sir..!!! B)

[Jon Grant 4472]

Just caught up with this thread...

 

I especially noted all the straps fitted to your empty Centre-Beams... Respect, Sir..!!! B)

 

Thanks, mate.

 

Last night I did a bit of work on a couple of Athearn boxcars.

 

The first was a Genesis hi-cube - I'm still not quite sure on the wheel sizes on this one (I currently have 33" wheelsets in). I gave the whole thing a brick red wash (Humbrol #70 acrylic) then scraped off the paint over the numerals and lettering. I then gave it a black wash and drybrushed it beige, before adding some graffiti with a gel pen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jon

[Jon Grant 4472]

The other Athearn car was the ubiquitous Blue Box boxcar.

 

I removed all the cast-on grabirons, replacing them with bent wire. I also removed the sliding door runners and added Kadee wheels and couplers and coupler boxes, as well as simulating some underframe detail.

 

The lettering was a bit dull so I removed it all, repainted the car CSX blue and re-decaled the whole thing (all done before last night). I weathered the car and added 1 set of graffiti with a decal and the rest with gel pen, before dullcoating it tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know graffiti isn't to everyone's taste but I am aiming to run the cars in a run-down country setting, where everything else is grotty too.

 

Jon

[Geoff Endacott]

I really like the weathering job you are doing, but what is the difference between Sweethome Alabama and Sweethome Chicago? (Yes, I know one is set in Alabama and the other in Chicago.) Is it the same layout with different stock, or are there two different layouts?

 

Geoff Endacott

[Jon Grant 4472]

While I was in photography mode, I decided to reshoot a few boxcars I'd weathered a couple of months ago, but the original photos didn't come out very clearly due to poor lighting.

 

 

I think this one is Intermountain

 

 

 

 

 

Athearn Genesis - again I'm not 100% about the 36" wheels in this one

 

 

 

 

Another Athearn Genesis, this time with 33" wheels

 

 

 

Jon

[Jon Grant 4472]

I really like the weathering job you are doing, but what is the difference between Sweethome Alabama and Sweethome Chicago? (Yes, I know one is set in Alabama and the other in Chicago.) Is it the same layout with different stock, or are there two different layouts?

 

Geoff Endacott

 

 

Thanks for asking.

 

Sweethome Alabama is an entirely different layout - a short switching layout with fiddle yard set in a run-down rural setting with lots of trees and is loosely set during the 1990s.

 

It is generic enough to be able to backdate it to the 1970s with only a change od rolling stock and some of the road vehicles, but that will be something for the future.

 

Here are a couple of (lack of) progress shots from earlier this year

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is an overall shot of what the exhibition presentation will be like.

 

 

 

 

All the rolling stock photos in this thread were shot on Sweethome Chicago, due to the lack of scenery on SWA.

 

Jon

[Allegheny1600]

The other Athearn car was the ubiquitous Blue Box boxcar.

 

I removed all the cast-on grabirons, replacing them with bent wire. I also removed the sliding door runners and added Kadee wheels and couplers and coupler boxes, as well as simulating some underframe detail.

 

The lettering was a bit dull so I removed it all, repainted the car CSX blue and re-decaled the whole thing (all done before last night). I weathered the car and added 1 set of graffiti with a decal and the rest with gel pen, before dullcoating it tonight.

 

 

I know graffiti isn't to everyone's taste but I am aiming to run the cars in a run-down country setting, where everything else is grotty too.

 

Jon

 

Blimey Jon,

For a minute there, i thought you'd posted a photo of the prototype!!!!

Thats SERIOUSLY good weathering, well done!

Cheers,

John E.

[eldavo]

Great work on the rollingstock. They really do look the business. :)

 

Cheers

Dave

[Glorious NSE]

Jon, I think the 60' high cube boxes will be 100t cars again, so 36" wheels is right (pretty sure the Genesis wheelsets were all 36"?)

 

The Cargill hopper will either be by Genesis or by LBF, both of them made these Trinity 5161 cars in HO. The Genesis one is now available with some mods (like more conventional coupler pockets) in the Athearn RTR range. I suspect if your one has a conventional coupler pocket it was made by LBF. Intermountain do these cars in N but not HO scale.

 

The graffiti is pretty ubiquitous for modern US freightcars, no matter how nice and pleasant your local area is those cars have probably sat in an inner city yard at some point...

 

The weathering on that CSX car in particular is superb, nice work.

[Jon Grant 4472]

A couple more CSX boxcars, this time from Intermountain. Not a lot of work required on these beauties

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I should really make a start on some tank cars now, but I find these hardest to weather and have had poor results in the past.

 

 

Jon

[Jon Gwinnett]

Looking good . What gel pen do you use for the graffiti? I've had no success trying to find a white one. Sharpie markers work well for other colours -maybe with a blast of dullcoat to flat them down.

 

For the tank cars, might be worth using enamels (I don't know what you usually use) as these can generally be removed if you're not happy. In my experience, once acrylic is on, its the very devil to shift...