Pennsylvania Railroad X43A Model Complete

I recently completed the pilot model for the PRR X43A box car (as built and Shadow Keystone repaint models.) They were postwar AAR-design box cars, but with welded sides and underframe. More info about the prototypes can be found in a previous post via this link. The models capture all of the details of the prototypes, down to the random waviness of the side panels ("oil canning") although sadly that very nice subtle detail doesn't render well photographically on the finished model. I am biased, but this is one of my favorite projects ever. I am quite pleased with the finished model!

My model represents a 22 month old car so weathering was minimal. I added a very dilute overall wash of titanium white artists' oil and a little wash of burnt sienna artists' oil around the side sills and underframe. As some of you will no doubt inquire, the 50s PRR freight car color is a mix of Tamiya paints: Red (60%), Hull Red (~10-15%), Red Brown (~5%), and Orange (20-25%). The chalk marks are from National Scale Car set D135 (note that if they show as out of stock, he probably needs to pack more.) 

These were unusual (for Pennsy) in that the roofs of the cars were coated with black car cement. I used Tamiya flat black for the roof and trucks.

The underframe components were welded, in addition to the sides. The crossbearers, crossties, and brake arrangement all faithfully follow the Pennsy's cars.

These kits also feature Apex Tri-Lok running boards and brake steps sourced from a new commercial etcher. The grid material is "taller" than "wider" and with the correct number of strips, exactly as on the prototype.

All-in-all, I am thrilled with how this car replicates the details of the prototype. On to the Central of Georgia Emergency box car kits...

Pennsylvania Railroad X43A AAR-design Welded Box Cars and Model Underframe

 

The Pennsy received 1,500 X43A welded box cars based upon the AAR design of the late 40s/early 50s (car nos. 602000-603499.) The "standard" design of the era primarily used riveting for construction, but these cars, built by American Car & Foundry, employed welding for the sides and underframe. Each side had 12 panels, compared to the typical 10 of most riveted cars. Other specialties included R+3/4 Improved Dreadnaught ends, Murphy diagonal panel roofs, postwar Youngstown corrugated steel doors, Ajax power hand brakes, Apex Tri-Lok running boards, and National C-1 50-ton trucks.

As delivered, the cars were painted in the familiar circle keystone scheme, with one highly unusual twist, at least by Pennsy standards: the roofs were painted/coated with black car cement. In mid-1954, the PRR briefly adopted the "Calendar" scheme, and at least one (and likely more) of the X43A class was repainted in this scheme, PRR 603116 shown above. 

By mid-1954 to the late 50s, the scheme was changed to the "shadow Keystone" scheme shown above, including its various nuances and iterations over the remainder of the 50s.

By the 60s, the "plain Keystone" scheme and its iterations were used until the Penn Central merger, as illustrated by PRR 602469. Note that there were other changes as well, including removal of the running boards, shortened ladders on the A end (and B end on some, if not all, cars) and strengthening of the side sill support and lower door post/side/side sill support junction, as shown above.

Some of the X43A class made it into the fleets of other roads. Western Maryland 461213 is an ex-PRR car with reinforced side sill support and lower door post/side/side sill support junction, albeit different than the PRR solution. Also note that the hand brake (and ladders) on the B end remained at the original high-mounted location.

B&O 463529 is another example of a secondhand X43A.

The kits for these can be found at the Speedwitch Models page. All versions of PRR lettering, Penn Central, Western Maryland, and Baltimore & Ohio are planned. The welded underframe features many of the nuances of the prototype, including the non-linear shape of the flanges of the crossbearers and crossties (if you look, you will notice that the flanges are not straight-edged, but rather wider and narrower at various points, as on the prototype,) the "perforated" bottom crossbearer cover plates (the perforations allowed the surfaces inside the "cutouts" to be welded, too, increasing the surface area of the welded surfaces,) Wright pipe hanger, the stringers that were riveted and welded on those closest to the center sills and welded only on the outer stringers, the accurate "teardrop" openings in the bolster cover plates, plus the bulb angle side sill supports and channel bolster tabs, shaped exactly as on the prototype. The brake arrangement also accurately replicates the prototype, down to the welded "grab iron" rod hangers and complex dead lever assembly.

There will be a follow-on post showing the finished model coming in the next week (or so.)

Plate C Pennsylvania Railroad G32 family Gondolas

 

The "ghost" lines on the model from printing are only visible from certain lighting angles (barely at that) and should disappear under paint, lettering, and weathering

One of the highlights of the PRRT&HS annual meeting (for me) was seeing the new PRR G32 family of gons from Plate C. Adam from Plate C brought along a handful of each type to sell and I snapped up a G32 (the only one suitable for my late 1952 modeling era.) Adam also created 70-ton versions of the Scullin L-V trucks that some of these cars had. The kits are available from 3D Central

PRR G32 370600 with 70-ton Scullin L-V trucks, Collection of Tom Martorano

The kits are extremely simple, with a 3D printed body with almost all details integral to it, a bag with hand wheels and screws, another bag with wire and grabs, a separate floor print representing the welded floor of the prototype, plus a weight that nests between the floor and underframe members. The G32 and G32A had tiedown loops in different locations and the different kits for each accurately capture this as well as the trust plate data. There are also kits for the rebuilds that had corrugated sides.

My model from these pictures was given a quick shot of Tamiya red fine surface primer from an aerosol can to "fix" the print before adding the details. Like I always seem to do, I plan to make a few deviations from the kit. I am going to replace the ladder "treads" with etched ones and I also will replace the Ajax hand brake housing printed on the model with a Kadee Champion Peacock housing and wheel. For trucks, Adam may produce a 70-ton National C-1 that some of these cars had. For the time being, I am using a set of Tahoe 70-ton ASF A-3s as placeholders.

I will write up my full build, including prototype and model photos and submit it to The Keystone Modeler. Congrats to Adam on a fine replica.

PRR Early Welded Box & Auto Cars from PRRT&HS Annual Meeting

 

I attended the PRRT&HS's annual meeting in Gettysburg, PA this past weekend and had the pleasure of presenting a clinic, as well. I discussed the Pennsy's early welded box and auto cars, an interesting topic given the PRR's fairly large scale efforts at welding for freight car construction. It's also personally on point as I have been working on upgrading a Sunshine X41B box car and also preparing kits of the X43A and X45 for release. I will keep updating progress on the X41B here and the release of the X43A and X45 kits will be announced in all the usual places. 

Here is a link to my presentation file in pdf format. Thanks to the PRRT&HS for allowing me to participate.

Pennsylvania Railroad G28 Gondola in HO

 

I recently completed the pilot model for my latest kit, the Pennsylvania Railroad G28 gondola (prototype details can be found via this link.) I am biased, but I think it is one of my finest yet.

Plate C produced some exceptional 70-ton National Malleable Type B trucks to match the prototype's.

I finished it to represent a one year old repaint circa 1952, so the weathering was minimal. I added sparing amounts of Tamiya Brown Panel Line Accent Color at all of the structural members on the side. It is hard to capture photographically, but the effect is convincing. I am especially happy with the Universal lever-type hand brake, the underframe and brake arrangement, and the board-by-board floor inside the car. I did mess up one thing: I installed the drop end doors reversed (the outside should be inside) and don't have the heart to tear things apart, so cut me a little slack on that.

 

The chalkmark decals are from National Scale Car, set D135.

Coming over the horizon, metaphorically

 

If you market just about anything these days, you are only as good or relevant as your last offering. With the Milwaukee car in production, I have been transitioning to the next car to be released, the PRR G28 mill gondola*. Now that I am casting parts, too, that is a natural part of the thought and design process as well as a source of potential angst! This car is one where I was worried about how I would be able to cast the body. The person who cast most of my kits in the past did not view it as a huge obstacle. However, given that the sides and floor are 0.020" thick, getting resin to flow through that thin a profile over a fifty+ foot car body made me nervous. Turns out, it is actually proving to be far easier to cast than the Milwaukee auto car bodies have been. Thus far, I have cast several bodies, with little in the way of issues. I can also report that they look really good, too. I am very excited to build up the pilot model for this one. It should be a lot easier than the previous few builds, but be no less attractive a model when finished. Coming soon!

*the G28 was a 52'6" drop end mill gondola, similar in concept (but not design!) to the other prevalent mill gons of the era, including the Erie/Greenville design (think Proto 2000,) the LV/Bethlehem design (Tangent Scale Models) plus the Pennsy's "other" one, the G27 class. The G28 class was 1,900 cars built in 1940-1941 (car nos. 342600-344499.) It had a trait common to many PRR-design gons, with side structural members of two different sizes, with some being markedly "beefier" than the others. It also featured a welded underframe with some unusual crossties, making it an extremely cool modeling opportunity (for those of us who care about underframes.) 

Some cars were equipped with racks for auto frame loading, like shown above and a small group also received roofs, making them covered gondolas. Jack Consoli covered the making of the these roofs in The Keystone Modeler issue 57.

We have also made a spectacular (we may be biased) replica of the Universal lever style power hand brake shown here, including an amazing etched lever that is as gorgeous as it is durable.

Pennsylvania Railroad X32A model photos

 

This post picks up the finishing of the pilot model for the Speedwitch X32A parts set (or with Shadow Keystone; note: if you want to peruse the instructions for these sets, the linked file can be found via the two previous links.) The model was painted using Polly Scale light freight car red, followed by Polly Scale zinc chromate primer. I lettered the model with National Scale Car's set for the PRR X31/32/33. Weathering included some streaking using artists' oils, dilute washes and more artists' oils (especially on the roof to simulate pooling of sooty/dirty water, etc.,) plus application of PanPastels in select places. The chalk marks are also from National Scale Car. The placards on the doors are images of actual placards that I had printed on decal paper. The route cards are from Owl Mountain.

I found the base color I airbrushed to be a little too dark for the prototype so instead of repainting the entire model, I sprayed the center of the panels on the sides and roof with a lighter color, resulting in a shaded outcome that was appealing (to me, at least)

I added oils to simulate the spray from the wheels of adjacent cars

The underframe was one of the impetuses for this entire project

Where we are at...

 

I am typing this from an almost horizontal position. I was supposed to be arriving at Naperville today, but my balky back made other plans. So, I type this from home. It's been a couple months or so since I started things back up in earnest, including casting. As the "RPM season" sets in, I thought it a good time to share a little bit about what's coming over the next few months.

Some old Speedwitch stuff turned up: DT&I gondola, MEC ARA box car parts, NYC stock car roof and 50' combination rectangular and diagonal panel roof (some prototype details here.)

Parts sets have proven to be a good way to dip my toes in the casting pool. I mostly learned a few things about what shape of mold works best for me and how I like a few varieties of silicone. I am adding a couple wrinkles to the existing offerings. First, for the ATSF Bx-34 parts I have added the 1959-1970s scheme, illustrated in the photo at the top of the page. In addition, I have added Shadow Keystone decals covering 1950s+ schemes for the PRR X32A parts. 

This and the following three photos are of the R-40-25 parts

On the parts front, there are also a couple other offerings nearing release. The first is the PFE R-40-25. This set is intended for an undecorated Intermountain R-40-23 kit or any Amarillo/Intermountain PFE R-40-25 that is NOT the delivery scheme as the UP medallions on those cars are incorrect (I will share info on that when these parts are released.) The sets include correct resin ends and etched parts to correct/upgrade the underframe, side sill details, ladders, hatch cover supports, steps, etc. [there is a companion set for the R-40-26 that is in the works, as well; see undeframe photo below.] The other parts release is for the ITC 1937 AAR box cars with AC&F Carbuilder's ends and also includes resin details, etchings, and decals.

R-40-26 underframe floor casting... board-by-board!

Illinois Terminal AC&F Carbuilder's end for 1937 AAR box car (pre-production before changes)

Photo illustrating the extremely subtle ripples in the side sheathing of the PRR X43A

I am also charging ahead with some full kit offerings. The first is the Milwaukee 50' single sheathed auto cars that I teased awhile back. It will be released November 1st via the Speedwitch site (all decals, etchings, trucks, and other parts are already in house so they will ship immediately!) Another project is the Pullman-Standard-built Central of Georgia 10'0" inside height Emergency box car (PS if you have National Scale Car's set for the A&WP/WofA/Georgia, those decals will work on this model, as well.) If the CofGa offering proves popular, I will add Birmingham Southern, as well. I also have three PRR cars in the hopper: the G28, X43A and X45. The G28 is a project that I started years back. It will be a showstopper, with full underframe detail... and the underframe was a unique welded design with very interesting crossmembers so it bears full attention! The X43A was a 40', mostly postwar AAR design car, with welded sides. I have created patterns with extremely subtle waviness to the sides that I am extremely pleased with and they were unusual in the PRR universe in that they were delivered with black roofs. The last of these three is the X45, a proprietary PRR design for a 50' welded box car. I again added waviness to the sides and the Pennsy proprietary details, including the underframe, are really cool. 

The last of the full kits, but by no means least, and listed in its own paragraph, is a Western Pacific flat car built by AC&F in 1942 that is a fully 3D printed offering. It is spectacular. More details to follow on this gem...

A final tease... several years back I presented a clinic including details about scratchbuilding board-by-board patterns for single sheathed cars. I have been fruitlessly looking for those patterns for over a year. I thought they were lost in the past year's move. Well, a few weeks back, they were presented to me. Turns out I had sent them to someone along with a bunch of other stuff and they were returned! Here is the end for the car in question. IYKYK