Today's project is improving/kitbashing an old Roco depressed center flat car. I acquired that car a few years ago but I no remember where. It wasn't a top priority in my project stash, but when I stumbled upon a set of Black Cat decals for CN depressed cars, I knew it was time to do it. Anyway, I was in that spree of flat cars and gondoals building, so why not continue the trend.

A kitbashed Roco depressed center flatcar

First of all, a bit of caution here. The Roco car, while looking quite similar to CN depressed center flat cars from the 1950s is too short. The 699900 series cars built by CCF in 1950 and 1953 where all 59'-9'' long while the Roco car is about 50ft long. That's quite a noticeable discrepancies and they also rode on different and longer 3-axle trucks very similar to what GSC did use back then. The Roco 3-axle trucks are much shorter, with wheels too small (Roco cars always had these weird 28" wheels instead of 33" ones) and follow a Bettendorf type.

Original car out of the box

Knowing that, I had to draw a line somewhere. I could do a heavy kitbash, which I wasn't that much motivated to endeavor since at that point, a full scratchbuild would have made more sense. Another option was to track down the Roco prototype and repaint it in a correct paint scheme (non-CN)... or simply be reasonable and find a middle ground. That's what I did and here's my reasoning.

While shorter, the Roco car really capture well the general appearance and type of construction found on CN CCF-built cars. The proportions look alright, thus, it's acceptable. Another thing is the truck. I could swap the trucks with GSC ones, but they would be too large for the car. And having smaller trucks makes the car looks longer, which is my goal. So I kept the truck. However, the car ends were very different, with CN ones having flat steel plates there with stake pockets and imposing jack pads. I thought if I had something to improve and that would make a huge visual difference, it was rebuilding the ends. So I did.

Slow chiseling work to thin the wooden deck

The first big step was to spend a lot of time making the fake wooden deck thinner and removing all kind of pesky plastic knobs and bumps inside the car to make room for lead. I haven't glued the weight yet, but I did some test and I can reach the NMRA prescribed weight, which is fantastic for a flat car.

This car won't derail!

The ends were built using styrene scraps and the jack pads were crafted using thick styrene. Yes, I sculpted them individually the old school way! A new brake wheel was added and Tichy stake pockets were glued on. Sure, there number is smaller than on the prototype to take into account the shorter car. However, it was a matter of balancing the number and how the decals would be placed.

Rebuild end

Painting was really straightforward and the wooden deck received my typical mix of light buff paint and AK Wood Wash over it. Decals were also easy to fit because I did take some measures when building the car. This is a rare case where I was thinking of lettering placement before even committing to modify the car.

Car ready for final paint and decals

All in all, it now looks like a decent CN depressed center flat car even if one could argue it's a total foobie. It will rejoin the Monk fleet where it will likely haul transformers for the paper mill in Edmunston or the hydro power plant at Armagh.