Kitbashing Southern Rwy.’s first 50-foot boxcars
After the doors (above) are sanded down, they should fit the door tracks. Then, with a hobby knife, modify the latches by trimming off the lever handles over the left side roller. The new stirrup steps (right) and roof running board are among the details added to the car. A Kadee Universal brake wheel was added to the B end.
er way to add the underbody detail. If you go this route you will need to file the floor down to match the new interi- or dimension.
Use Evergreen Scale Models .030″ sheet styrene for the new sides. I cut the sides slightly larger than the open- ing, then filed the sides to fit. Again, the goal was to keep the body putty work to a minimum. Once the sides were a good fit I placed them back on the work bench and scribed the panel lines and door openings with a knife blade. The doors are not centered in the sides. Start from the right edge and measure in 21′-6″ in and scribe a verti- cal line there. This will mark the right edge of the door opening. Use the back of the point and scribe lightly. Next, measure another 12′-6″ and scribe an- other line for the left edge of the door opening. This should leave you about 16′-6″ from the right side of the doors to the end of the car.
These dimensions are not exact; I can’t scribe lines that close. Now with a ruler, divide the right side of the car between the door and the end to lay out seven panels. These should be about 3′- 5″ wide. Mark the panel lines and lightly scribe the edges of these panels, then do the left side, five panels meas- uring about 3′-5″ wide each. The last panel on each side will only be 3′-1½″ wide. I eyeballed it to get the correct number of panels since I am a “close enough” modeler and don’t have the ex- act prototype dimensions anyway. Once the sides were laid out and scribed, glue them into the car. Don’t cut out the door opening, since the doors will be glued right onto the sides. Why make more work for yourself? Now, modify the kit side reinforcing sill to match the prototype. This is a ten inch deep channel that is 28 feet
64
long at the top and tapers at a 60 de- gree angle at each end. Use a piece of .030″×.060″ and glue it to the bottom of the existing sill. The new sill should extend about 4½ side panels to the right of the car door opening and about 1½ side panels to the left of the door opening. File this smooth and file the end angles to match. You will also need to file out the other pieces of the side sill to match. These lines are on the in- side of the bottom car side sills; so cut and file to match these lines. Look at the inside of the car side sills and you will see them. Lay out the grabs and ladders for the
sides. Although there are better look- ing grab irons available, I used the kit supplied grabs. The lower grab is ap- plied 2′-4″ up from the center line of the draft gear, and next one is 2′-4″ in above that. The left side of the grabs are attached right next to the car end rivet strips. Don’t install them yet; just drill the holes and test fit everything to make sure it fits and looks correct, then glue them in place. I usually have trouble getting the grab irons to be perfectly horizontal. As a consequence, I drill a little larger hole than the tab requires so I have some room to maneuver them into cor- rect position. If you are using cyano- acrylate to bond these parts in place now may be a good time to recommend the cyanoacrylate debonder.
Being
rather sloppy at times, I do spill glue or get glue fingerprints on the part I’m working on. A little debonder on a cot- ton swab can do wonders in erasing the traces of sloppiness and errant cyano- acrylate fingerprints.
I also used the kit-supplied ladders and applied them just inside the end rivet strip. Since we cut the car height down you need to modify the ladders,
but they are still seven rung ladders. Here again, drill the holes, test fit, then glue them in place. Next, modify the top door guides by adding Evergreen Scale Models .020″× .020″ to either end of the existing top guide. This guide should extend about seven inches into the second side panel to the right of the doors and about sev- en inches into the third side panel to the left of the door. Sand these down to match. Then glue a .010″×.030″ strip for the whole length of the new guide with the overlap on the lower side to hold the door top. The bottom door guides measure
.030″×.030″ and are the same length as the upper guides. Sand these smooth so they appear as one track. For the doors, I utilized Westerfield part No 2863, 5-6-5 Youngstown doors. (Note: Westerfield is back up and run- ning with the new owner, but you could use any other Youngstown doors.) You will need two pairs to do one car. After doing a few of these cars, I found it eas- ier to glue the doors onto a piece of
NOVEMBER 2012
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