Improving Athearn Blue Box 40ft Gondolas

When you look at Monk subdivision pictures of the 1960s and 1970s, a lot of traffic was travelling on flat cars. Mainly piggyback ones similar to the ones produced by Rapido, but also more mundane ones from earlier eras. Over the years, I accumulated a few Athearn 40ft flat cars through people giving away old broken rolling stock to the club. Must of them add stake pockets broken due to mishandling and one had lost a few stirrup steps. While these cars are outdated and not prototypical on CN, they still are close to a few groups of cars the company owned. So, since I have them, they cost nothing and can be improved greatly with some adequate detailing and paint, it was just a normal thing to use them.

As with many projects, this one started maybe two years ago when I went through a kitbashing spree then let them gather dust – literal dust – on my shelves. While tidying up my collection last weekend, I got fed up seeing that pile of Athearn undecorated shells and trucks lying around and thought I would complete the job illico presto.

The first main job, after striping the paint, was to add wood texture on the deck. As always, my trusty razor saw blade and some very coarse sandpaper helped me to achieve that result. It’s a matter of only a few minutes and it greatly improves the appearance of an ubiquitous kit.

 As for the other steps, it’s basically a straightforward project: cut the funny brake wheel stand, repair the stake pockets with styrene channels and bits, drill holes, install new metal grabirons and A-line stirrups where needed. The new brake wheel – an Accurail one from their old time kits – is mounted on a piece of wire secured on two little bits of styrene. If you are more motivated than I am, having a more detailed brake apparatus is certainly welcomed and you also can add a cut lever.

 

The big surgery I made was to the underframe where I cut a notch into the main fishbelly beam to add more weight. Lead wheel weight without the adhesive strips to save space were glued on the kit metal plate, then I put in place the frame. In this way, the weights are both glued and mechanically secured. I added about 1.25 oz. but could add more if required to get the NMRA recommended weight. To be honest, with metal wheels, they are already quite heavy. I will have to think about doing something similar with the Red Caboose and Tichy flat cars which are criminally feather weight.

 

When detailing and assembly was done, I covered the models with Mr Hobby mahogany primer which is quite useful when painting cars in boxcar red since it’s dark brown. When dry, a coat of Vallejo Terracotta paint was sprayed and left to dry. I find the different tones of Vallejo Terracotta paint to be extremely useful for a good Mineral Red/Red Oxyde/Boxcar Red color. The Air version is slightly more brightful while the regular version is somewhat duller/darker. Both looks good and I often mix them together.

Finally, just like all my other flat cars, the wood deck was painted with off white acrylic paint and aged with AK Interactive Wood wash. I'm always impressed how this small but significant touch of color makes a big impact on Athearn flat cars.

As for decals, they are custom made using an Intermountain 42ft flatcar and prototype CN pictures as a general guide. They were printed by Bill Brillinger at Precision Design Co. (www.pdc.ca) with many other decals that will be used for other projects. I always found his decal sheets to be very high quality and that’s neat to get custom decals made directly in Canada.