Scratch built Sundays

Welcome to Another Edition of "Scratch-built Sundays"

L&N 50 foot double door boxcar #99196.

This is an early Athearn Pacific HO Menzies boxcar that was missing several detail items and needed quite a bit of repair.  I first stripped the car,  then the paint, and repainted and lettered it for the L&N.  It has been detailed with cut levers, brake details, air hoses, and it has a load of CELOTEX panels inside.  This care was rebuilt with Proto Hi-Rail trucks and couplers to run on my 3-rail layout.  I like to rescue older scale O cars that have been mistreated or are considered only for parts and then update them and rebuild into nice cars for my layout or even for friends.

40 foot double sheathed Union Pacific Wooden Boxcar

This is an early kit car that was in a box of derelict O scale trains I bought about 2 years ago.  I held onto it with the hope I could someday fix it up and use it or sell it.  I got the idea for this car while reading one of my books on the KATY railroad.  I found a picture of a Katy switcher at the Wichita Falls freight house with just such a car behind it.  Since I had some older Union Pacific Decals and time on my hands I decided this was the right detailing for this old car.  It has some more details added and has a "K" type brake under it.  It is an O scale car with Monarch type E operating couplers.  There are air hoses, brake details, and cut levers added on.  The trucks are early Bettendorf trucks which are sprung die-cast with steel wheels.  This car would have been found on the Union Pacific up through the early 1950's before being scrapped.  Many did receive AD type brake systems after WWII.  

Scratch-built Sundays 1st Edition

Scratch-built Sundays

C&NW Bay-Window Caboose.  
This was an old All-Nation kit that was in rough shape.  The cupola was missing and the trucks were incorrect for the 36 foot C&NW cabooses that came later in the C&NW history.  I used Keil-Line bay windows as well as Selley Custom Finishes, Cal-Scale, and some Walthers parts to update the caboose.  I mounted KTM caboose trucks under it to more closely resemble the correct trucks for this caboose.  It has a combination of Champion and Microscale decals and is finished in Flo-Quil caboose red paint.  It has full underframe detail using Plastruct and K&S brass parts for details.  

C&NW PS-1 Boxcar.  
This is a model of a very early Clinton. Iowa shops rebuild from 1957.  It has Pecos River Brass trucks, All-Nation sides and ends, Selley Custom Finishes, Cal-Scale, and Keil-Line detail parts as well as Selley Hi-Rail couplers.  I scratch-built several of the details such as cut levers, brake linkage and air lines, roof catwalks, underframe details Plastruct structural pieces, K&S brass parts, and Microscale O gauge decals.  SInce I am modeling 1958 through 1960 on both the C&NW as well as the Milwaukee Road, I felt this car would fit in nicely to my layout.

Green Bay and Western PS-1 boxcar 
This is a model of the 1953 order GB&W made to update their cars for the paper trade out of Green Bay and Wisconsin Rapids.  These cars were often spotted in C&NW freights around Wisconsin and Michigan moving paper products to other parts of the country.  These cars remained on the GB&W into the early 1970's.  This one is another All-Nation Boxcar which has been customized with additional detailing using Selley Custom Finishes, Keil-Line, and Cal-Scale parts.  In addition there is Plastruct and K&S Brass used to create the underfame details and other detailing.  Having grown up I saw a lot of the GB&W trains.