Chicago and North Western 40' Riveted PS-1 Auto Car

 

The right side of the model

I finally found a few brief blocks of time to weather my model of CNW 57868, a riveted 40' PS-1 auto car. My build is the pilot model for the Speedwitch kit (more are coming) for these cars. An aside is that this is the most ambitious offering to date that I have offered for Speedwitch due to the large amount of etchings used to replicate the details of the prototype. It is one of the most challenging kits I've built, but not really more than some of the kitbashes I've done. Enough about the kit...

and the left side

Before painting, I blasted the model with 600-grit aluminum oxide. I painted the car with Badger Stynylrez grey primer followed by black for the ends, roof, underframe, and trucks. I violated the "rule" of painting light colors followed by dark because I knew that it would be easier to mask and paint the sides than the reverse. After applying masking tape, I touched up the areas of black overspray with more of the Stynylrez followed by Mig AMMO Dark Rust (no. 041), a good match for the CNW's freight car red. I applied a coat of Quick Shine to create a gloss surface for decaling. The decals, printed by Cartograf, went down flawlessly. I sealed them with a coat of Quick Shine followed by clear flat from Tamiya. All paints were applied with an airbrush.

As part of the finishing process, I applied some chalkmarks both before and after weathering. As I wanted a car that was weathered, but not derelict-looking, I applied a wash of Titanium White oil paint heavily diluted with odorless mineral spirits followed by a coat of Tamiya clear flat. I then added a coat of Bragdon Powders Grimy Grey, which is fairly light once sealed with a flat coat. I cleaned the truck wheel treads, added the couplers, applied paper routing instructions, and CNW 57868 was ready for service. I believe this is one of the finest resin kits I have built, although I am slightly biased

More on Lettering

San Diego, Sept. 5, 1955, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo

One of my early posts on this blog was about decal artwork from prototype lettering and I had a follow up post about the vagaries of lettering for the same road. Tony Thompson has had a couple of posts recently about lettering, as well, on his Modeling the SP blog. Recently, I again had reason to mull the subtleties of lettering. In the process of creating artwork for a decal set for CNW Emergency box cars, I noticed a peculiar difference in the lettering on the cars built by Pullman-Standard versus those constructed by American Car & Foundry. The Pullman cars followed standard CNW lettering, while the numbers on the AC&F cars (see '79350' below) were clearly non-CNW standard, using a more condensed type. The capacity and dim data also used a non-standard type, which can be clearly discerned in the builder's photos (not included here.) The reason is not clear. However, with the set, I make clear that I can only vouch for the set for as-built Pullman cars or repaints. This is just another illustration of the fact that even for the same cars on the same road, the lettering is decidedly not the same. Buyer (or modeler) beware!

 

Pullman-built lettering above and AC&F-built lettering below

Tacoma, Feb. 19, 1955, Col. Chet McCoid photo, Bob's Photo

"Fixture" on CNW/CMO AAR Recommended Practice Gondolas

Jim Gerstley Collection

Yesterday, I posted a question to the Steam Era Freight Cars list (STMFC) on Yahoo! Groups in the hopes that someone could identify a detail on the CNW/CMO AAR Recommended Practice Gondolas built between 1945 and 1956. Here is the query:

If one looks at photos of the CNW/CMO AAR recommended practice and related "11-panel" gondolas of 1945-1956, there is a distinctive detail at the lower right corner of the far left panel (adjacent to the left end). It appears to be a casting of some sort. In looking at my photos, I cannot identify it or its purpose. Since it is on both sides of the car, it is unlikely a defect card holder, as these were usually only on one side of the car. Does anyone know what this detail is? 

It can be seen in the articles on these cars by Jeff Koeller in Mainline Modeler, May and June, 2005. 

The Sunshine kits do not duplicate this feature.

Page 42 from May 2005 Mainline Modeler

I received a few requests for photos or at least to be pointed to photos. To that end, I have created this blog post. Click on any of these images to view a larger version. The two-part article by Jeff Koeller is excellent and I recommend adding it to your library if you do not already have it.

Detail of CMO 88173 from page 42 of May 2005 MM.

CMO 88173 has its defect card holder (a different type of defect card holder) mounted in the same location as CNW 70351 shown above.

Can anyone identify this detail? It almost looks like one of those beer bottle openers mounted to the face of a bar... just sayin'