I’ve been building freight car models for many years. I got into building resin cars when I was in the Navy and long boring periods at sea meant I had time to build models. I also found pretty quickly that locker full of Athearn boxcars could be finished well before the ship returned to port! That’s when I discovered Westerfield, the older RPI resin kits (made by F&C) and Storzek. I’d bring along a box of kits, build them on the ship, and finish them up (painting and weathering) back on shore. At first I added the trucks and couplers while I was still onboard the ship – I stopped that practice after a couple of almost-finished Westerfield H21s and a quick starboard roll followed by a sharp “snap” to port meant the hoppers, made out of the brittle “dark gray” resin rolled with the ship – and kept going. That old black resin really didn’t do well against the bulkhead and deck.

Several of my shipmates took quite an interest in the trains, and the captain even got into the act building a working live steam locomotive from brass tubing and pieces. It wasn’t an accurate model at all but quite a work of art and it was presented to me at my fairwell party when I transferred from that ship. From there I went to the cruiser Navy with little time for such frivolous activities – and a much less stable ship!

The photos show some of my personal favorites. Some are sentimental in one way or another, others I like because they came out particularly well. All are resin cars, and I’ve got a bunch more like them.