Getting close to the end....

[doctorwayne]

...continued

The rest of the cars are all old Train Miniature cars, picked-up used and in varying condition. All got metal steps and grab irons, and some form of brake gear as outlined below.
The first one is a plug door boxcar, a little too modern for a '30s-era layout:



I shaved-off the tack boards and plug door details...



...then re-worked the car as a door-and-a-half boxcar. The doors are left-overs from Red Caboose X-29s, with the half-door narrowed and re-assembled. I used some Archer rivet decals to replace those which would have been under the original tack boards and the new tackboards are from Tichy, I think:



It's meant to represent an older car (BLT 1922) which has been upgraded with AB-type brakes and that second grab iron mentioned previously. The reservoir is the stock one from TM, while the cylinder and triple valve are from an Accurail car:



There are two of these 1923 ARA single sheathed cars. They got the single grab iron treatment at the left end of the sides, and new steel doors, modified from Athearn ones, but the rest of the car is pretty-much stock:



I did, however, replace the cars' wooden ends with steel Murphy ends from Tichy. Unfortunately, while the Tichy ends are the correct height for these low TM cars, they're a bit too narrow. To correct this, I used two ends to make each useable end, cutting them as shown below. From left to right are a stock Tichy #3020 end, the back side of one, scribed to be cut, then two already cut apart, with the first one having the wide portion on the left and the next, the wide portion to the right. The next is two wide portions before joining and finally, a joined wide-pair. Above these are the narrow leftovers - anybody need some ends for narrow gauge cars?



Here's the "B" end of one of the cars. The only filling required was for the two moulded-in holes intended for the Tichy brake platform supports:



As you can see in the photo above, these cars are equipped with the split-K brake gear, which necessitates the retainer pipe to cross-over on the car's end. The components are from Tichy, with the rodding made from soft brass wire. Only the piping which can be seen from trackside is modelled, as I strive to have a minimal amount of derailments featuring roll-overs, where an inspector might discover the ruse. Here's a look under the car:



This one is a double sheathed TM car, but I've converted it to one also with double doors. The doors are from Bowser, whle the doorstops are from Red Caboose and the ladders from Tichy. I sanded the car's original sills flush with the siding, then scribed them to match the boards already cast in the sides, thereby making a taller car. Below that is a strip of Evergreen .060" angle, representing the new side sill:



This car got the same modified ends as the single sheathed cars, but I decided to give it a power (geared) handbrake, although it retained its split-K brake system:



Here's a peek at the underside, with a slightly different lever arrangement from the previous cars and similar to that used on many of Pennsy's X-29 steel boxcars:



The next car is another TM single sheathed boxcar, and was purchased in order to use-up a Seaboard Air Line decal set from Champ which I had on-hand. There are several pictures of SAL single sheathed cars in the Essential Freight Cars book, including the B-3, B-4, and B-5, and I decided to model mine as a B-4, with characteristics of both the earlier B-3 and more modern B-5. My original intention was to simply change the car's ends, add the usual details and then add the paint and lettering. However, this car seemed to have its own ideas about what needed to be done.
First off, the prototype cars are versions of the 1924 ARA Standard boxcar, with the B-3 having Murphy ends (as on the cars shown previously), while the B-4 and -5 have flat steel ends, much like Pennsy's early X-29 boxcars. The sides' structural members were all arranged in a Pratt truss configuration. Unfortunately, TM's version of the car has the structural members laid-out in a Howe truss configuration. (The 1923 and 1924 designs were very similar, but more prototypes of both were built using the Howe truss version than the Pratt style - they became know as the ARA "alternate" designs.) So, changing the ends was do-able, but did I really want to change the sides, too?
While I was pondering this, I noticed that the herald included in the decal set (meant for a 40' or 50' steel boxcar) was too large to fit between the structural members anyway, regardless of whether they were in a Pratt or Howe arrangement. Well, no matter, I guess, but the herald also read "SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILROAD" rather than the more-correct for my era "...RAILWAY". I managed to contact the SAL/ACL/SCL historical group and enquired about the availability of a proper herald, and when I told them of this project, was able to secure a set intended for this particular car (I'll be picking it up this coming week). That pretty-well convinced me that it might be worthwhile to re-work the car's sides, even though this car will likely be only an occasional visitor on my southern Ontario layout.

The diagonals were shaved-off with a #19 X-Acto blade, then the siding re-scribed using a #11 blade and a dental tool. The new bracing is simply .005"x.055" styrene strips capped with HO scale 2"x2" styrene. The door is from Westerfield, cut apart both vertically and horizontally, with sections removed to make it both narrower and shorter, then cemented back together. The grab irons were bent from soft brass wire and the underbody is a USRA-type from Tichy - it's not correct for this car, but what I mentioned previously about major derailments should cover the faux pas. Here's what it looks like:



The braces in the end panels of the sides are flat strips of .005" styrene, and on the prototype are fastened to only some of the boards which enclose the car. I used Archer rivet decals to model this, first cutting the strip of rivets from the sheet, then carefully slitting the decal film between the individual rivets. The strip was then placed on the car, as shown in the first photo below, and water applied to it. The individual rivets were then manipulated into place with tweezers and the tip of a #11 blade:



...and here's one with the rivets in place:



Here's a view of the car's "B" end. The brake gear and modified ladder are from Tichy, and rivet detail by Archer:




I'll be gone next week to visit friends in the U.S., and will post pictures of these cars when I return and have an opportunity to finish them.


Wayne