Detailing the X72 boxcar cars,
classified as X72A because of their slightly increased height, leased in 1973. The cars were seen all over the country and became part of Conrail’s roster
in 1976. A few cars roamed
around in full Penn Central livery well into the 1990’s, while others were painted into a variety of Conrail schemes. The boxcars served faithfully through Conrail’s years, with some ending up on the rosters of Canadian National, ANAX (General Electric), and York Rail, among others. Western Pacific also acquired ten cars of this same design in 1972. Jim Eager and Todd Sullivan wrote an article back in 1989 for Railmodel Journal outlining the use of the origi- nal Life-Like car, which had truck- mounted couplers and an incorrect un- derframe. On the Walthers re-release the underframes were corrected, they made the couplers body-mounted, and they added metal wheels on the correct 70-ton Barber roller bearing trucks. The shell remains exactly the same as it was when originally released, which isn’t at all a bad thing. In fact, the door detailing is quite remarkable given the car’s entry in the market as a toy. While there are factory-painted models quite similar to what is de- scribed below, the additional body work would necessitate re-painting the whole car anyway.
Preparation To start the process, strip the paint from the model, at least to some de- gree. I chose not to use a commercial stripping agent, and I have seen brake fluid do a number on model shells, so I simply used 91 percent isopropyl alco- hol and 600-grit sandpaper to scrub the painted logos off the car. Just be careful not to sand off the weld seams on the car sides no matter what you do to remove the lettering.
The next step in the demolition process is to cut off the molded stir- rups. Then, using a chisel blade, care- fully start scraping away at the molded side ladders. I found the best way to re- move the ladders while protecting the line of rivets at the end of the car is to score a line along the rivets, then gen- tly scrape towards that line from the inside of the ladders. Once the side lad- ders are removed, go ahead and scrape off the end ladders, cross hand-holds, tack boards, and brake housing. When scraping off the tack boards, use the same technique as on the rivet lines on the sides of the car, making a score line to control the cuts. As you carve and sand off the tack boards make them as close as possible to the shapes that the ribs should be, then dig in fur- ther and finish off the new rib section.
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A good Penn Central/Conrail X72 carbody was hidden under the garish promotional Life magazine paint. After stripping the model using alcohol and 600-grit sandpaper, the next step was to remove the molded-on ladders with a No. 17 chisel-shaped knife blade.
Be extremely careful when chiseling off molded details and be sure to use good, sharp blades. Push firmly on the blade without forcing it and make mul- tiple passes working away from you. Always keep your other hand behind the blade, never in front of it, no mat- ter how good of a grip you think you have on the model. Also, don’t expect the whole ladder to come off at once. You’ll gouge the shell that way. As with many facets of this hobby, patience will be rewarded and your fingers will thank you.
After you have the rough scraping
done, use needle files to clean out the rest of the plastic. For the sides, a flat jeweler’s file applied gently against the rivet line will clean up the corners. On the ends, a triangular-shaped file run gently back and forth between the ribs will give you a nice start. Once you have the profile roughly shaped, move on to using a round file, slowly working in from the edge to where the rib pro-
file widens out. Use a stiff brush to re- move any plastic shavings, then a piece of 600-grit sandpaper folded in half to do the final cleaning and polishing be- tween the ribs and on the sides. Go over the scraped ends gently with the fine paper to take down any accidental burrs or gouges. Finally, sand these working areas with a finer grit paper, such as 1,000 grit, to create a “just out of the mold” smooth and shiny surface finish. At this point, the shell is ready to be detailed, but set it aside while you go on to the under- frame.
The underframe Scrape off the coupler boxes and
clean up the opening, then carve and sand off the molded-on brake reser- voir, brake cylinder, and triple valve. Clean up everything with files, as done on the body. Cut a piece of .010″ styrene to fit from the bolster to the end of the frame on both ends and
AUGUST 2012
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