MODEL PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
The first Southern Railway 50-foot boxcars were built to serve the auto and furniture industries. They featured a 10′-0″ inside height
and off-center double doors, as on the model of No. 40148 (above). No. 40102 (below) has been repainted with the 1945 monogram.
Kitbashing Southern Rwy.’s first 50-foot boxcars
These 50-foot steel boxcars arrived on the line in 1938/Fenton Wells I
recently retired and have been get- ting more active in the hobby and the Southern Railroad Historical Association (SRHA),
specifically. I
highly recommend such involvement in historical societies to others, as it is both fun and rewarding. If you are a Southern fan the SRHA is invaluable. George Eichelberger is a SRHA direc- tor and is in the process of document- ing all the Southern RR freight cars. It is from the first volume of the series, the 50-foot boxcars, that we can thank him for this article. Everything you ever wanted to know about Southern steam-era 50-foot box- cars is in this book. It covers car histo- ries, assignments, drawings, all appli-
cable stencil diagrams and pictures, or, as we say down south “it don’t git no better.” In fact, this volume covers the 50-foot
boxcars through the early
1960’s, which will serve those who model a later time frame.
ROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN and a big fan of prototype railroading,
Being a long time reader of RAIL- especially
freight cars, I really enjoyed “The Es- sential Freight Car” series by Ted Cul- lota. It was a fantastic series and stim- ulated my modeling energies. In his RMC series, Ted covered the Southern class SU boxcars and the 40-foot, dou- ble-door automobile/furniture cars.
BEN ROBERTS COLLECTION, SOUTHERN RAILWAY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION: SHEFFIELD, AL; AUG. 1954
What is a Southern fan to do? Red Caboose and InterMountain, Branch- line (now Atlas) and Speedwitch have done a great job with the 40-foot, pre- war and post-war AAR boxcars, but if a Southern fan needs one of the first steam era, 50-foot auto boxcars it has to be kitbashed.
The basic information for Southern
Railway 50-foot, steel boxcar series No. 40000-40199 is given below. With their
RMC/Dremel Kitbashing Award........
I
wanted to model some Southern 50- foot automobile cars for my car fleet.
A minimum of $100 and a Dremel Rotary Tool Kit with a variable-speed Dremel 3000 rotary tool and acces- sories are awarded to the monthly winners of the RMC/DREMEL KITBASHING AWARD. Entries must consist of at least two photos (high-resolution digital pic- tures should be at least 3,000 pixels wide; color slides or 5″×7″ or 8″×10″ prints are also acceptable) and a short text. Models must use at least 50% commercial compo- nents; unused entries may be held future editorial use.
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 61
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100