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lettering, gently sand these areas us- ing 1,500-grit polishing paper until you can no longer feel the raised lettering against the painted car side. Once the lettering has been re-


moved, mask the side sill around these areas, as well as the deck, leaving only the rectangular areas of the removed lettering exposed. Airbrush them with a similar, but not perfectly matching color, then remove the masking. In this case, Floquil Boxcar Red was used, as it was a close, but not perfect match and shows that the car had a patched paint job applied.


Container pedestals can be taken from leftover kit parts or the Details West pedestals can be used (their part No. 1015). These should be painted sep- arately from the car in the color used for the patches, then installed on the deck. Install the pedestals beginning at the centerline of the car working outward toward the ends until all four sets of pedestals are mounted, then overspray the deck in the color used for the patch- es. Once dry, apply a heavy weathering and rust coat onto the deck surface. Reporting marks on secondhand cars can be either hastily applied stencils or carefully applied graphics matching the owner’s equipment standards. Re- ferring to prototype photos is best to insure accuracy. A variety of stencil and Gothic style alpha-numeric decal sets are available to do new reporting marks, and modelers building a fleet of cars may find it easier and more cost effective to obtain custom decals. In the example illustrated here, the reporting marks were part of a custom set I commissioned that included vari- ous waste industry flat car markings taken from photos. Since this was sim- ple lettering without graphics the cost of the set was equal to purchasing com- mercially available sets to do the mark- ings one letter or number at a time. In addition to changing the report-


This 89-foot TOFC flatcar has had its trailer hitches, bridge plates and deck guide rails re- moved, then four sets of container pedestals (above) from Detail Associates were in- stalled. Before the patch paint job was done the unwanted lettering was sanded off.


added. This is an easy conversion. The example here began as a Walthers Southern Pacific 89-foot TOFC car, which I chose because of its rather plain paint scheme, making it a good candidate for a secondhand patch job. To begin the flat car conversion, re- move the factory-installed trailer hitches, then carve off the guide rails using a hobby knife with a chisel blade. Just slice off the guide rails flush with the car deck. The holes left from re- moving the trailer hitches can be filled


RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN


using Squadron putty or styrene plugs. Sand the deck smooth, leaving only slight hints that it had guide rails at one time.


The reporting marks and any TOFC graphics will need to be painted over to indicate the secondhand nature of the car. However, simply painting over them will allow the factory applied stamped lettering to show through the paint as raised “ghosts,” which will not look good. To remove the SP reporting marks, “TWO 45” and “CUSHIONED CAR”


ing marks, the LIGHT WEIGHT markings were also changed to reflect the changes made to the deck of the car. The factory-applied car weight was patched over with a short length of black decal striping, then a new stencil style number was applied over the striping, further reflecting the second- hand nature of the car. Completing the car from this point is simply a matter of weathering the flat and adding the containers, then open- ing up a new revenue source for online or through traffic on your own layout. Although adding waste traffic may ne- cessitate a sizeable roster, utilizing fac- tory decorated,


ready-to-run equip-


ment combined with a little simple kitbashing can provide a fair-sized fleet in a very short time.


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