My presentation from the St. Louis RPM

This past weekend, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to present at the St. Louis RPM, at the convention center in Collinsville, Illinois. If you have not had the chance to attend, the only way I can describe the event is a supersized RPM times two. The attendance figures are approx. 1,000 and the sheer number of vendors and display models is mind boggling. It is an experience all who attend RPMs (and even those who do not) should enjoy at least once. 

My presentation was the Pennsylvania Railroad's early welded box and automobile cars, an evolving project as my models come to fruition. The file can be found at the Speedwitch files page, linked here.

Over the next couple days, I will also post about an interesting model kit from the meet and some photos of display models. Please check back

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.)

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 X41B - Brake Equipment

Siding near Maclay St., Harrisburg, PA, Oct. 19, 1947, Bob Charles Collection, NMRA

While it has been mostly a few minutes here and there as opposed to a long productive session, I have managed to add the AB brake equipment to the Sunshine Models X41B box car that I updated several weeks ago. The location of the equipment was based primarily upon photos from the sides of cars, as I didn't have a brake arrangement (and while it is available from the Pennsylvania State Archives, I did not feel it necessary as I could obtain the majority of what I needed from photos.) 

I included the photo above to illustrate a couple points. The waviness of the welded panels is rendered extremely well in this photo. The other interesting detail is that this car was not equipped with a Royal Type F brake regulator. From this, I would assume that some groups of cars received them and others did not. Note that this car is assigned to grain service.

To simulate the equipment, I used the following:

• Tichy AB brake set
• Tichy phosphor bronze wire (0.010", 0.012", 0.015", and 0.020")
• Royal Type F brake regulator from Shapeways (no longer available through Shapeways given its demise; Kadee has a nice part from their PS-1 underframe)
• Pipe "tee" from Tom Madden part
• mounting brackets, etc., created from excess etched metal "frets"
• A-Line 40 links/inch chain

I have included more photos than is probably necessary, but I wanted to provide plenty of different views to so the details are visible from many angles to help those following along

The bracket for the cylinder was created from spare fret material from a sheet of etchings

The mounting brackets for the reservoirs are from the same fret material, trimmed and bent as shown. For all of these, I used Barge cement thinned with MEK as the main adhesive, followed by some ACC to firm things

The main brake components were also installed with the Barge cement mix followed by ACC, except for the Royal Type F brake regulator, which was attached with only ACC.

The pipes between the brake components were simulated with 0.012" wire, except for the pipe between the dirt collector and trainline tee, which is 0.015" wire. All the parts were pre-drilled prior to installation on the underframe, to accept the wire

The photos tell most of the story. The clevises and brake levers are etched parts that are actually held together with a piece of 0.010" wire that passes through holes in each, simulating the prototype. There are still some rivets and nut-bolt-washer castings that will be added after the model has been gritblasted to prep for painting. One detail I omitted (that could have been added fairly easily but would now be extremely difficult) is the "handle" that should be on the brake lever in the Royal adjuster, extending out to the right in the photo directly above. The photo below (from a different prototype and oriented as if inside a car body looking down) illustrates how the "handle" would appear.

Up next are the ladders, grabs, steps, and end details....

Pennsylvania X41B Underframe

 

The (mostly) finished underframe, as described in the following text with photos

In my last post, I discussed my recent clinic for the Philadelphia Chapter of the PRRT&HS. Part of that presentation was about modeling PRR welded box and auto cars and specifically, the work begun on a Sunshine X41B. This post continues that. The focus of this post is the underframe, which is scratchbuilt and relies heavily upon etchings. The images herein provide a mostly step-by-step look at how I replicated the X41B underframe, continuing what had been presented in the clinic. Note that the X41C underframe, shown via photograph in the clinic file, was quite similar, with the difference being that the X41C substituted pressed steel crossties (which can be seen herein and will be noted as such) in place of the two center crossbearers located under the door posts on the X41B, meaning the B had four crossbearers while the C had two.

The image above (all images can be seen in a larger format by clicking on them) was recorded after all the stringers between the bolsters and the four main pairs crossbearers were added. The flanges of the center sills, 0.010" x 0.060" strip styrene were also attached, completing the center sill sections between the bolsters. Note that the crossbearer sections that are located where there are separate side sill support tabs extend past the edge of the floor. This is because these will tie directly into the channel shape of the etched tab sections.

These two images provide other views at the same stage as the photo referenced previously. One interesting (and cool to this freight car geek) thing is the difference in "height" of the stringers between the crossbearers (five scale inches) versus the stringers between the crossbearers and bolsters (three scale inches.) The difference is quite pronounced and shown to good advantage in the photo below. Note that the floor had not been glued into the body (yet!) at the time of these photos.

The floor had a slight bow to it from end to end. In addition, it was necessary to tack the floor into the body, yet leave the areas away from the center of the car "free" in order to ensure proper orientation of the crossbearers and their corresponding side sill support tabs. I carefully secured the center portion of the floor into the carbody with ACC, in the area highlighted in the graphic shown above. This served to secure the floor into the body, yet allowed some "play" to adjust the alignment of the floor relative to the carbody when securing the outer crossbearers and their tab segments.

The preceding three images illustrate how the crossbearers and the tab side sill support sections are integrated and attached. The beauty of the etchings is that they are thin enough in profile to accurately mimic the prototype and yet are still quite durable. Again, note that the ends of these crossbearers extend past the bottom of the side to nest into the channel of the tab.

The crossties were created by drawing the basic shapes with fold lines in the appropriate spots for etching. These came out exactly as planned, nesting into the center sill flanges and clearing the stringers. The ones between the side sill support section in the center of the car required some shortening to fit. The ones at the tab sections nest into the channel "behind" the tab sections. The photos above and below illustrate the crossties.

The side sill support tabs that have been replaced with etched parts are visible in this side view of the model

The lower bolster cover plates feature "knockouts" in the exact shape of the prototype. They were bent slightly to match the shape of the scratchbuilt bolsters.

The image above shows the underframe after the addition of the bottom bolster cover plates, as highlighted in the previous photo

The two preceding photos highlight the addition of the bottom crossbearer cover plates. While I etched pieces for the segments that span the center sills, I opted to use 0.005" styrene as I found it generally easier to work with and the shape is a rectangle, as opposed to the complex shape of the outer portions of these unusual plates, where etching made the work of matching the shape far easier.

The channel section crossties had a small rectangular steel brace that was welded to the crossties and the center sill. This is simulated with an etched piece, as illustrated in the two photos above.

The stringers between the bolsters and end sills incorporated trapezoidal-shaped plate that was welded to the ends of the stringer and to the end sills, tightening things up a little more. These are simulated with etchings, as shown in the two accompanying photos.

While there are still a couple of things before the underframe is completed, including truck mounting and simulated bolt heads on the stringers, as well as the brake equipment, the basic structure is complete. The next post will pick up to cover brake equipment and other details. Stay tuned...