Ventilators were built into the car ends. These have frames around them and a rod that ties the slats together and can be used to move them to the opened or closed position (left). The vents were open when the car was loaded with produce in transit to provide air flow through the load with the ventilator side doors opened. Usually the lower end vents were closed during transit to keep out rain and track dust. They were opened upon deliv- ery to improve ventilation while unloading. Note that the brackets of the brake staff plat- form are modified to avoid blocking the vent openings. The underframe of the car (above) shows some added details including trucks fitted with brake shoes in line with the wheels, code-88 narrow wheelsets with ribbed backs and the piping for the air brakes.
rate from the one-piece body casting; consequently, the load was built onto the floor section and inserted into the carbody after all was finished. As this car kit did not include any screening for the door, I added some fine-mesh brass screen from the military modeler’s sec- tion of the hobby shop.
A closer photo shows the load visible through the ventilator door in this car. The melons’ stripes and the white ends en- hance the illusion that the car is loaded with fresh watermelons. Note that the car doors are usually labeled with the car own- er and a left or right designation. The left side of the car was determined by the left side as seen by an observer facing the car at the end with the brake wheel. The door labels enabled the unloading crew to more easily identify the car and the preferred side for unloading in the confines among busy sheds. Also, it was sometimes the practice to remove the doors when loading or unloading, and labeling them helped to get them back onto the appropriate cars.
These were assembled in a similar way. The FEC car has a door with four slat ventilators, rather than a screen, so the load would not show from the outside. This model was finished with the stan- dard door in place as it would be for a car on a return routing. The Seaboard car does have a rod/screen ventilator door and this one was also fitted with a melon load. In this case the construc- tion was such that the floor was sepa-
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
Among the less-visible spotting fea- tures of the watermelon cars are the ventilators in the ends. These were open when the car was loaded with produce in transit to enable ventilation though the load with the open ventilator side doors. The lower end vents were closed during transit to keep out rain and track-dust but were opened upon delivery to help static ventilation while unloading. Be- cause of the ventilators, the brackets of the brake staff platform are modified to avoid blocking the openings. On this car I installed coupler cut levers and air hoses, details beyond the standard kit. Usually I also add a bit of chain to the base of the brake staff, but I see somehow that didn’t happen here. The underframe of the car also shows some additional details. I fitted the trucks with brake shoes in line with the wheels and applied code 88 (narrow) cast steel wheelsets with ribbed backs to match the 1920-1930 era. I generally include the train air line through the underframe sills and the tee connec- tion to the dirt collector on the K-brake cylinder valve, as well. Small lengths of plastic wire insulation are used as join- ers between the various fittings and to simulate the cut-off valve. Also includ- ed is the retainer valve line from the brake end of the car that connects to
the brake cylinder triple valve. Typically, cars of this era also had a bleeder valve actuator rod hanging from the left side that enabled the air brakes to be released by a brakeman on the ground without climbing onto the car. I flatten the ends of the brass wire used for the brake rods and add a plas- tic nult-bolt-washer casting to the flat part to simulate the pins (at a clevis or pivot) on the prototype brake rigging. In the era when these cars were used, brake cylinders were stencilled with the last date of cleaning or repair, and the underframe was also stencilled with the railroad and the car number. (Truck bol- sters sometimes had the car number on them, as well.) Such labelling was often handy in reassembling the pieces after a wreck. If I have left over decals, I usu- ally apply the small numbers and let- tering on the cylinder and the sten- cilling on the frame. Most of this is invisible on the layout, but it adds to the appearance and authenticity of the car when it is displayed. (Besides, some of my friends are serious nit-pickers about such things.) Finally, how long were watermelon cars in regular use? The January, 1961, Official Railway Equipment Register still lists 110 ventilator boxcars (AAR car type VM) on the Seaboard Air Line spread over three number series. The cars were nominally 36 feet long and 40-ton capacity. By then, neighboring FEC had none and ACL had a number series allocated to ventilator boxcars but it was vacant. In October of 1965 SAL was down to ten cars, and they were gone within about a year.
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