CP 245386
Philip Buchwald Photo
From Philip Buchwald:
I've attached a view of my Burlington box car. I based it on a picture in an issue of Rail Model Journal, which had an article on wooden sided versions of the AAR 1937 box car. I'm going to go back and do the NP, Nickel Plate, and (If I can get up the courage to do a Viking roof), a C&NW war emergency box. I don't own a good digital camera, so I scanned this one in using the scanner at work. It was a bit lumpier than your typical sheet of paper, but it worked ok! I only wish the light got up under the car a little better, so that the brake gear showed up more.
Anyway, the model is a kit bash, using an Athearn 40' box. The prototype used 5/5 dreadnaught ends, even though it had an inside height of only 10'. I lowered the thing 6 inches by removing the top covers from the coupler boxes where they interfered with the ends. I made up a new underframe, using only the separate piece that contains the center sill, lateral frames, and bolsters. The underframe is built up out of Evergreen styrene, with the original sill glued on. The weight is moved up inside the body. I removed both sides entirely, and scratch built new sides, again using Evergreen styrene. The "rain gutter" running along the top is built up out Evergreen .010 x .030 and .010 x .040, set at right angles. The trusses are built up out of .030 x .040 strips and .030 x .010 strips with the rivets embossed using a dulled sewing needle in a pin vice. (It really didn't take that long!) The best advice I ever got about embossing rivets was from an article in MR, where the author suggested laying down 3 or 4 layers of plain old masking tape on the "positive" side of the part, and pressing the details through the part, into the tape. The tape acts as a female die, and eliminates the "puckers", so you end up with nice, well defined rivet heads.
The decals are Microscale. Paint is Floquil ATSF Oxide Red, lightly weathered after the decals were put down.
There are two glaring discrepancies to the model, both of which were impatience on my part. The grabs should not be drop style, but that is what I had handy, and I didn't feel like bending up that many on my own! Same thing with the door. You will notice that it is a post-war Youngstown, with the corrugations which contain the rivets going out instead of in. They were close, they were handy, and what the hey, maybe the originals got damaged!
Modeler: Philip Buchwald
