Sunday, September 6, 2015

CN 40ft Insulated Boxcar - Part 3


While railfanning yesterday, I stopped by a hobby shop. Looking at car's price, I wasn't surprised at all that nothing could be acquired under 30$. I made me think I was probably doing the right thing in upgrading my old rolling stock to better standard.
 This time, we improve a Concor car and it will be the last insulated boxcar required on the layout.. In fact, the Concor boxcar is almost spot on the prototype and would be easy to upgrade to my new standard.


First, I marked where the sill had to be cut to fit the prototype.


Using an X-Acto and a jeweller file, I quickly made the sill looks correct. Concor plastic is however a little bit brittle.


Roofwalk holes were filled using the roofwalk's pin inserter from the bottom and glued in place. A quick way to reuse discarded material. When dry, I cut them down to fit the roof panel motif.


I then removed the grabirons and ladders. I'll replace them with Tichy parts. I didn't bother removing the car end's ladder. This is a painful process that doesn't look very good and have minimal influence on a car. I try to put my effort on more important things! I also removed the wrong Maple Leaf logo by wetting it with Solvaset and gently scrapping the lettering. Not perfect, but a new maple leaf logo will cover the spot. Anyway, back in the early 1980s, those surviving old scheme cars were beaten and almost illisible!


Here the car brake end with new ladder, some details, a Kadee brakewheel, a Kadee side roofwalk and  Tichy steel running board.



Here's the result of a few hours of work. Next time, I'll paint the new parts, add a scratchbuilt heater under the door and add missing decals.



2 comments:

  1. Quite pleased to discover someone tackled this project in a manner similar to my efforts. The underframe details on mine are not quite the same - different number series. Enjoy reading about your group's efforts! - James

    https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Wf_Q2PL26QCAsnPO0RbPQNMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

    https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/EU28bnUNwVi2Xl8u8tWa_NMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

    https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/434B4FSczPee4V4W1a454dMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

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    1. Thanks for sharing your work James, they looks pretty nice! The Concor car is an interesting model to modify. Finding correct insulated boxcar decals is quite hard.

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