Completing the Kadee Santa Fe Class Bx-57 40' PS-1 Box Car

The first installment on the Kadee Santa Fe Bx-57 illustrated some of the changes effected to replicate the differences on the prototype. It is worth reiterating these major details. Of note, the Bx-57 class employed US Gypsum expanded metal brake steps and running boards, while the model was equipped with Apex Tri-Lok running boards and steps (Kadee has since produced the correct US Gypsum parts, resulting in a “drop-fit” replacement for the running boards; the brake step is a Plano etched metal part using the Kadee supports after carefully removing the Apex Tri-Lok step.) The Bx-57 also used the “upside-down” version of the Improved Youngstown door, while the model uses the more common version; a Southwest Scale door was substituted, along with scratchbuilt placard and route card boards. 

Kadee did replicate a few quirks of this class. Counter to usual Santa Fe practice, the Bx-57s did not have transverse-mounted brake reservoirs. Also, this class had the “SHIP AND TRAVEL Santa Fe all the way” slogan on the left side and the name train slogan on the right (Super Chief on this car) which was counter to Santa Fe painting and lettering practice. Kadee replicated these details faithfully, as well as the Royal Type F brake regulator, Ajax power hand brake, and ASF A-3 Ride Control trucks.

A note about the body color and paint matching is in order. As I replaced the door, I had to closely match the Kadee body color. I used three Tamiya colors to arrive at a satisfactory match. The mix is 50% Red, 25% Hull Red, and 25% Red Brown from the Tamiya acrylic line. As an aside, I love the ease with which Tamiya paints airbrush so this mixture will be my go-to Santa Fe Mineral Red-Brown for all future projects.

The brake test stencil on the reservoir

I replaced with wheelsets on the trucks with Kadee 0.088” tread width replacements. As I was modeling a car approximately 16 months old, I lightly weathered the car with a single application of Bragdon’s light gray powder, which mostly disappears under a clear flat coat (Tamiya). I added chalkmarks (a combination of pen and ink [a forthcoming post will cover this technique] as well as Speedwitch decal set D135) both before and after the weathering. I also applied a fresh paint patch over the repack stencil and added a late 1951 repack stencil. The door latch hardware (to the left of the doors) was salvaged from the original doors. I had to scrape off the ‘L’ and ‘R’ stencils to accommodate the door hardware so I added new ones from a Santa Fe box car decal set prior to weathering. I added a brake test stencil to the reservoir (even though I replaced the brake equipment, the original reservoir lacked this detail, too.)

After all of these subtle enhancements, I painted the angle cock/air hose parts black and gray. I added a final flat coat over everything. I polished the treads on the wheelsets, replaced them in the truck sideframes, and attached the trucks. Lastly, I added bits of paper for route cards. With that ATSF 31382 was ready for service. The PS-1 from Kadee remains one of the finest models ever produced in any scale. I look forward to adding a couple more from other roads to the fleet.

Kadee U.S. Gypsum Expanded Metal Running Board

A few weeks back, I started writing about modeling a Santa Fe Bx-57 PS-1 box car. One of the necessary changes was to replace the Apex Tri-Lok running board with one of the new Kadee U.S. Gypsum Expanded Metal running boards. The photo above shows this new running board. It is spectacular. It captures the lacy look of this style of open grid running board. It suffices to say that Kadee has done it again.

Note the board as shown here looks greyish because it was blasted with aluminum oxide, but not yet cleaned.

I will post the details on the finished model very soon.

Kadee Santa Fe Class Bx-57 40' PS-1 Box Car

When Kadee released this model of the Santa Fe Bx-57, I eagerly ordered one, thinking I could easily add a ready-to-run (RTR) car to the fleet. It’s rare that I find a model that meets my standards and is RTR, so I was thrilled to have it. I was recently in the process of finishing a few models and decided it was a good time to add a little weathering to this model so that it would be “complete”. Easy, or so I thought...

I did have a question about the trucks. I was curious if the trucks were black or mineral red. I consulted with Ed Hawkins and while he did not have specific information about this group of cars, he opined that if they followed Santa Fe practices of the period ordered from AC&F, then the trucks should be mineral red. So, I sandblasted the sideframes and wheelsets and while I was doing that, I also blasted the ladders, grabs, running boards, brake steps, hand brake and housing, underframe components, and other engineering plastic parts to aid in the adhesion of a flat coat to be applied prior to weathering the model. On the sides and ends, I masked the areas adjacent to the ones to be blasted to prevent lettering from being removed erroneously. The photo above shows the side after the ladders and bracket grabs were blasted. The transition from the unblasted area to the blasted area is clearly discernible near the ladder, due to more advantageous lighting at that part of the car.

Kadee and Southwest Scale Productions Improved Youngstown doors shown side-by-side for comparison

I referred to my copy of John Dobyne’s Santa Fe Boxcars 1869-1953 (currently out of print) to make sure the locations of the placard and route card boards on the model’s doors matched the prototype. Not only did they not match, but the doors on the model did not match the prototype -- see photo above. The Bx-57 used the “upside-down” version of the Improved Youngstown door, not the version on the model. Fortunately, there is a version of the door available in HO that is every bit as finely rendered as the details on the Kadee PS-1, making it a perfect complement. The door I am referring to is available from Southwest Scale as part number FC-622. The door is slightly shorter than the Kadee part, but the prototype’s door roller track is actually taller than the version on the model, so all is not lost.

New door and roller track plus placard and route card boards installed, masked, and ready to be painted to match the car body.

I removed the doors from the Kadee model. I also carefully removed the lower door tracks. I applied a coat of Mr. Surfacer 1200 and once that had dried, I carefully wet sanded the area with 400 followed by 600-grit sandpapers to clean up any telltale traces of the door guides or my poor removal of the guides. I glued the Southwest Scale doors to the Kadee model, using sparing amounts of MEK.

The door roller tracks were fashioned in a few steps. First, I added mounting “brackets” for the tracks. These were created by adding bits of 2x2 to a 0.005" styrene strip that was 2 scale inches wide. For simplicity, I created a long strip of 2 scale scale inch wide 0.005" strip and added the 2x2 bits to the strip. I removed the brackets one at a time as needed, adding 7 for each door. I added the four under the door opening first, followed by adding the 1x3 guide. I added the 3 outer brackets last, sliding them under the 1x3 guide, all the while making sure that the guide remained straight.

The placement of these brackets along the side sills corresponds to the location of rivets on the faces of the door roller tracks as shown in the photos of these cars in Dobyne’s book. The door roller track is a strip of HO scale 1x3 styrene glued to the brackets. I completed these tracks by adding rivets in the appropriate locations.

One last detail for the doors was the placard and route card styrene boards. These were scratchbuilt. The basic placard board was constructed from 1x3, 1x6, 1x6, and 1x3, glued edge-to-edge to create a 18" height, all glued to a 0.005" backing. I trimmed these to a length of 27". I then added the frame/mounting brackets using 2" wide strips of 0.005". The route card boards were created from single pieces of 1x6 12 scale inches in length, glued to a 0.005" backing. The frame/mounting brackets were again created from 2" wide strips of 0.005" styrene.

I had also wanted to add a piece of small chain between the brake cylinder and lever to capture that nice look of a dangling chain when viewed from the side. I was not aware of how easy it is to remove the center sills, crossbearers, and crossties in one part, with little effect on the overall underframe detail. So, I decided to upgrade all the AB brake details, as I was going to paint the underbody and details (as well as the doors and tracks) mineral red. I removed the Kadee brake details and added the aftermarket parts and wire, as shown.

An additional "construction" detail that will be covered in the next and final installment on this car is the replacement of the running boards. The model came with an Apex Tri-Lok running board. Kadee has since released a U.S. Gypsum Expanded Metal running board that is accurate for the Bx-57. I will also provide details about my paint matching efforts, as I feel that the color I used is extremely close to the factory model, and will be virtually indistinguishable with a small amount of weathering.