NC&StL Watermelon Car.

Here we have an interesting model that I found fun to build even though it is a bit out of my era - the late 1950's.  The basis for this model was another badly damaged model in a box of other models I got at a Lionel Train Show years ago.  My brother is a big L&N/NC&STL fan and I went to him to get any details about this car.  I found out the NC&STL had some of these ventilated boxcars.  These cars were common in the South and are often referred to as "Watermelon Cars".   After restoring some of the damage done to the doors and ends, I began installing the brake system and the air lines along with the air hoses and cut levers.  I was able to complete the decals using a mix of Champion and Microscale decals.  The couplers are Monarch die-cast operating couplers.  I deliberately left the watermelons out of the car, since they were used to haul tobacco also.  Hope you enjoy looking at the car as much as I did building it.  Bill

More Roaming in the Attic

Here we have a scratchbuilt Soo Line/URTX wood reefer.  This car is made with Northeastern scribed wood siding along with Selley Custom Finishes, Keil-Line, Walthers, and Cal-Scale parts.  There is a complete brake and air system on the underframe.  These older wood reefer cars were found on several railroads into the mid-1960's and early 1970's.  This car is based on photographs of these cars from the mid to late 1950's and served the various agricultural industries of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.  Most cars hauled apples, cherries, potatoes, cheese, and other dairy products.  I saw several of these cars on the Milwaukee road south of Green Bay at the Reimer's packing plant along the Fox River.  These cars would haul pork carcasses for the famous sausage maker to the plant and were often used to ship out finished Reimer's sausages to parts unknown and known.  Hope you like the car.

More roaming in the attic

Here is an outside braced wood automobile boxcar from the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad.  This is a model of one of these cars that was upgraded during the 1930's during the Mathew Sloan administration.  I was painted in the bright yellow that several older and newer freight cars were painted as part of Mr. Sloan's attempt to bring the MKT into a modern operation.  This car started as a Walthers kit that was in a box of O scale freight cars someone had given me years ago.  I decided to finally do something with it.  I had lived in Joplin, Missouri for several years and had seen some of the MKT there.  I also had a package of black MKT decal, so I had an idea.  I added a complete brake system to the car along with Kadee couplers, air hoses, and cut levers on the ends.  The brake system was made with Selley Custom Finishes, Keil-Line, parts as well as K&S brass wire.  The car was built to operate on my 2-rail layout.  Hope you like it!

Here we have a model of a B&O M-26 boxcar.  This car was the B&O answer to the Pennsy X-29 boxcars that appeared throughout the Eastern US.  B&O saw the success of the X-29 and quickly began their fleet to cover the demands of their customers for strong steel boxcars for fragile shipments.  This car is scratchbuilt using several Walthers, Keil-Line, Selley Custom Finishes, and Cal-Scale detail parts.  The car was made of Northeastern Wood floor and roof along with wood siding underlays with cardstock sides embossed with riveting.  The trucks are Walthers die-cast trucks and has Kadee couplers.  There is a complete brake system along with air hoses and cut levers.  The decals are a combination of Walthers and Microscale.  This car will also operate on my 2-rail layout.  I have mentioned earlier that I am a fan of the B&O, but model the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from my youth.  B&O freight cars were found there often coming north on NYC or PRR trains to Mackinaw City and over on the train ferry to St. Ignace.  Hope you like this car as well.  I had a lot of fun building this one too.

Combing through the Attic.

Here we have a Milwaukee road 710000 series outside braced wood boxcar from this series built in 1928.  This car has a load of Ford auto parts that would have been sent to the Ford plant in Iron Mountain, Michigan before the plant was closed in the 1960's.  This car is scratch built from Northeastern scribed wood and various detail parts from Keil-Line, Walthers, and Monarch couplers.  The trucks are Athearn die-cast sprung trucks.  I used several photographs to get the details for this car and included complete brake system, cut levers, and air hoses.  This car will operate on my 2-rail layout.  Hope you like it.

Here we have a Baltimore and Ohio M-24 outside braced wood car from the early USRA order that was assigned to the B&O.  This car was scratchbuilt using Northeastern scribed wood along with various detail parts from Keil-Line, Walthers, and Kadee couplers.  The trucks are Auel die-cast Andrews trucks with ribbed wheel sets.  There is a complete brake system along with cut levers and air hoses.  I used several photographs of these M-24 cars to get the details for this car.  I am a B&O fan like my son, but decided to model the railroads I grew up with in the Upper Peninsula and Northern Wisconsin.   It is nice to model some of the other great railroads that covered our great country.