voir/valve is an unused MDC part. It was cleaned up and located between the truss rods. Strip styrene “timbers” were added, moved, removed, put back and moved again so that the cylinder and brake line, rods and levers aligned cor- rectly. Luckily this represents a very old car, modified more than once in its life- time. A small wire eye was added on top of the reservoir for the release rod ex- tending across the frame near the cen- ter of the car. Short cardstock angles plasticized with cyanoacrylate were mounted to support the ends of the rod and eyebolts were hidden behind the angles for extra strength.
The model is presumed to have had a long career on the C&V, and at some time a galva- nized steel roof was applied to the car (above). This type of roof is made of panels with in- terlocking seams. This close-up of the turnbuckles show how effective clear monofila- ment is at making it appear that the centers are open. The queen posts are old MDC parts.
Clear monofilament fishing line was used for the truss rods. That was sim- pler than bending four identical wires, and in photos the middle of the turn- buckles look open. The thin fishing line threaded snuggly through the cored turnbuckles (Details West or Tichy). The turnbuckles were glued onto sepa- rate lengths of line, then the monofila- ment was lightly sanded except across the center of the turnbuckle. The truss rods were rotated so that at least the outermost
turnbuckles showed their
“open” centers and glued one at a time under a small amount of tension. The original weight was attached with in- dustrial double-sided adhesive, insur- ing that the underframe will not bow. A- Line stirrups completed the frame.
Painting
The turnbuckle centers were masked with modeling clay and the underframe was sprayed with rust colored primer from a can. Dilute layers of black and dark brown acrylics were brushed on. The body was sprayed with gray primer. Once that basic painting was done the underframe was lightly glued to the body. Additional painting and weather- ing was done with very dilute acrylic paints and a small stubby brush, work- ing up numerous colors slowly.
staff could still run through its original hole, and there was room for the a left- over resin retainer and its line. The missing running board saddles were repaired with bits of styrene 2″×2″. A scrap roofwalk was cut to length and sanded thinner. It was added after the roof was painted.
Underframe
The underframe needed to be worked on before attaching it to the body. This was a trial and error process as the trucks were changed a couple times. The various trucks had slightly differ- ent heights and wheelbases, changing how far the truss rods could extend away from the MDC queen posts with- out interfering with the truck swing. A
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN
pair of archbar style trucks was select- ed. They are probably Athearn trucks with Branchline (now Atlas) .088″ semi scale wheels. Archbar trucks were still permitted in captive service during the C&V time period. The trucks needed the shoulders on their bolsters removed so that the coupler height was correct, yet the flanges cleared the truss rods rounding the C&V’s sharp curves. There was a lot of fiddling to do that. Styrene tubes were telescoped together into the frame bolsters to create new truck mounting posts.
The car is equipped with K brakes just for their looks (the NEB&W web- site lists 1953 as the last year K brakes were allowed in interchange service). The
combined brake cylinder/reser- Topping it off An interesting looking brake wheel
was selected for the brake staff. The staff stands in a Tichy vertical brake assembly kit. It looks roughly like equipment seen in photos of some old boxcars. The retainer line is .008″ bronze wire, the smallest diameter on hand. The car still needs uncoupling levers and its reporting marks and number. I’m hunting for dry transfers I have tucked away someplace. The shorty boxcar looks good on the
layout. Whatever sidetracked the origi- nal project no longer matters because the railroad’s history has grown with this unique car and I acquired a bit more skill to expedite the next big un- dertaking.
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