Equipment Roster

*Updated 07 April 2017 -- Added a few more cars; I think the roster is looking pretty solid now.

*Updated 18 March 2017 -- Mass update with acquisitions through this date

*Updated 19 July 2015 -- Moved some cars to individual pages.

With my recent visit to the Chicago March Meet O Scale Show and this post, the conversion to P:48 (O Scale) is fully on!  The roster of equipment is up to five boxcars, mainly because that's the most prevalent car type serving industries on the spur and one can never have enough boxcars.

Each of these will be a project in and of itself.  First is conversion it from standard O scale (using a 5' wheel spacing) to P:48 which uses the 1/4" to 1' scale and honors the prototype's 4' 8 1/2" wheel spacing and second is enhancing some of the details with replacement (Protocraft) couplers, wire grab irons, etc.

I'll try to structure this page with a photo of the model plus either or both prototype information and photos.

As is often the case with model freight cars, the manufacturers take several liberties with selectio of car numbers, application of paint schemes.  I wouldn't be surprised if I had to perform some renumbering along with the detail work.

Research on these cars is incomplete.  I give a fair amount of credit to RailcarPhotos.com for reference material.  Of course, this is only one of many sources and I'll be most grateful to any reader out there able to deliver additional research bits on these cars or the accuracy of the models themselves.

I need to dig out my ORERs from storage a see what else I can learn.

An additional research site that I recently found is: Eric's Railroad Car History

(Larger pictures can be viewed by clicking the reporting mark text links)

GB&W 7080

Conversion work has started on this freight car, see details on the GBW 7080 page.

IC 150022

This car is a 53' double plug door boxcar manufactured in 1971 (according to the printed car data) by the Evans Products company.  I (yet) wasn't able to find an exact prototype photo, but did locate one of a similar car lettered for the Frisco.   I also found several examples validating the paint scheme in the mid-to-late 1970s era.

RI 33821

According to the model lettering and box description, this is a 60' car intended for automotive service (stenciled return to Flint, Mich).  Having found this picture of a 50' car in the exact same scheme, I'm skeptical about the correctness.  According to the printed car data, it was manufactured in Nov. 1966 by the ...

L&N 100161

The manufacturer lists this as a 50' PS-1 boxcar and my (limited) research to date indicates that it is likely a stretched rebuild of a 40' PS-1 (Pullman-Standard) box car.  I found two examples of really good visual matches, albeit with different lettering schemes, doors and car numbers.

MP 265032

I don't have much on this car yet.  One search to date reveals many 60' MP boxcars, but none in this number series or door configuration.  A more refined search of "ex CEI" cars yields similar results.

ATSF 310137

Atlas PS-2 airslide intended for flour deliver to Safeway Bakery

DRGW 18109

Atlas PS-2 airslide intended for flour deliver to Safeway Bakery

BN 281430

Modernized 40ft boxcar for general deliveries to warehouses at the end of the line.

CB&Q 19861

Modernized 40ft boxcar for general deliveries to warehouses at the end of the line.

BN 875007

~17k gal tank car for chemical or oil deliveries

WRNX 14661

~17k gal tank car for chemical or oil deliveries.  This one likely has inaccurate stenciling, claiming to be built in April of 1958.

GM&O 59226

Atlas PS-1 box car for general deliveries

GN 72789

52'6" gondola intended for either line pole or wire spool deliveries to Southwestern Bell Telephone

LRLX 200

Specifically assigned 50' plug door box car for Masonite delivery to Schutte Lumber

SHPX 60905

Three bay cylindrical hopper car for plastics.   I might be able to use this if Styro Fabricators is modeled.

SOO 6748

50' box car for general deliveries to warehouses at the end of the line.  This is a older Weaver model and I'm presently unsure how it stacks up against the newer Atlas offerings.

SOO 18929

Atlas PS-2 airslide intended for flour deliver to Safeway Bakery.  This is a older Weaver model and I'm presently unsure how it stacks up against the newer Atlas offerings.

Undec 50' Flat Car

Currently undecorated Overland models brass 50' flatcar that will eventually find its way into either lumber service for Schutte Lunber or other deliveries to Swenson Construction.

BN 281430 (#2)

A second copy of the one featured earlier on this page.  Will need to rennumber

UP 518250

Another Atlas trainman 40' box.  This one came weathered to boot!

GBW 7080 - Part #3

This and successive postings of this title will follow the project to convert this 2-rail Atlas Trainman model of a ACF 50' boxcar lettered for the Green Bay & Western into a Proto:48 model.  See Part #1 and Part #2.

Couplers

With this installment, we continue with the change out of the couplers.  Fortunately, the grotesquely oversized Atlas coupler boxes are merely screwed on, making for easy removal.  After drilling and tapping new holes that line up the new Protocraft coupler boxes, they too mounted on with screws.

Just for comparison, here are the original (Atlas) and new (Protocraft) couplers side-by-side:

I decided to go with the Protocraft couplers on this build after the frustrations of trying to reliably assemble the San Juan couplers.  Their brass construction and reliable bottom-operating uncoupling mechanism were the main motivations and the fact that they come assembled sealed the deal for now.

Getting the couplers installed back on the underframe was painstakingly slow as I realized all of the tools I needed for this level of work and I didn't own.  Thankfully, "the internet" delivers relatively quickly.  :-)

A few shots follow to show the completed installation of the Protocraft couplers and wheels with narrowed bolsters from Lincoln P48 Engineering.  

I still have some work to do regarding the trucks.  The Protocraft wheels don't have the shaft length on them to still use the rotating roller bearings -- I need to try Jim Lincoln's replacements here.  There are some options here, but for now, at least it is back on the trucks.  Now I just need to build a test track so I can verify that the couplers are at the correct height.

Body Modifications

I've started on prep work for upping the detail on the body.  The plastic stirrups were clipped off in anticipation of building out the sill plate to the end and mounting new brass ones.  As mentioned before, part of the extra reinforced needs to be trimmed back to only be under the door.  Also begun was the process of removing the molded on ladders -- this will be a slow process and sure to result in the need for some repainting work.  Matching GBW yellow will make for an interesting project as well.

GBW 7080 - Part #2

This and successive postings of this title will follow the project to convert this 2-rail Atlas Trainman model of a ACF 50' boxcar lettered for the Green Bay & Western into a Proto:48 model.  See Part #1.

The first two items up for change are the couplers and trucks.  Choices for the couplers mentioned in the first post included Type 'E' models in delrin from San Juan Car Company or in brass from Protocraft.  The trucks are easy to modify (narrow) with drop-in bolster replacements designed by Jim Lincoln and produced by Shapeways.

Couplers:
I ordered one of each type of coupler kit offered by San Juan, with the difference being the "scale shank" versus one that fits in a Kadee coupler box.

Unfortunately, that means it doesn't fit an Atlas coupler box.   Plus, they are difficult to assemble to a reliably operating state.  Of the two-and-a-half I've put together so far, the first was a dud because what looked lie flash was mistakenly trimmed off and this rendered the coupler unlockable.  After replacing this part, it now one works OK and holds under a moderate load against another coupler, but the other one doesn't remain locked either (for a different reason).

The "scale shank" ones yielded slightly better results.   Out of the package, they looked more cleanly molded and sharper.  Maybe because I knew more about what to do, they went together more smoothly, but some of the same operating reliability challenges were still there.   Perhaps after a dozen pair of these I could get the hang of it.

The couplers from Protocraft come assembled and work right out of the box.  There are few subtle differences between these and the SJCC version, with the Protocraft ones looking just a bit bigger.   They come with the bottom lift pin mechanism already in place.   I'll post more updates when I get these mounted on a freight car and hopefully operating with the lift bar.

Here's a rather poor comparison photo of all four couplers. From left to right, you have Atlas Original, SJCC "standard", SJCC scale, and Protocraft.

In summary, with the Protocraft couplers starting out reliable and coming with coupler boxes, I'm leaning in that direction for general usage.   They are about three times the price though.

Trucks:
The first 3D-printed parts arrived that I ordered arrived and the use of the "black strong-and-flexible" material seems to be a good choice.  They cut away from the sprues cleanly and the finish somewhat resembles what a rusty metal underframe would look like.  Of course, one does not see much of the bolster itself in a model siting on the tracks, so the point is: they don't distract.

However, I'm again waiting on more parts from Shapeways, as the first two I ordered were for the newer style Atlas trucks, whereas the model I have has the older style trucks.  According to Mr. Lincoln, the difference is the width of the sideframe: Newer ones are 1/8" and older ones are closer to 3/16".

I put the Protocraft wheels in one truck anyway just to see what they'd look like and I am impressed.  There's some slop in them but that is due to the sideframe difference noted earlier.

The inability to immediately assemble the trucks with the narrowed bolster prompted me to think about freight car trucks in general.  The Atlas ones are a rigid frame design and based on some Proto:87 experiences of another modeler I read about, it got me thinking that I should probably seek out a fully sprung truck to hopefully better navigate the track.

Now that's mostly forward thinking because I don't actually have any track yet to run this car on and at the rate things are going it'll be a close race between the cart and the horse -- maybe I'll get a test track section built before winter arrives.  Nor do I consider that one source a doomsday scenario -- but P:48 is the same proportions as P:87, so flange depth and tread width are important concerns -- and I want to model rickety industrial track.  I'll have mass on my side though; O scale equipment is easier to weight down.

The conversation on the sprung trucks comes from the 'p48_modeler' Yahoo group.  An interesting read if you have the time and interest.

Future:
The latest Model Railroader magazine contained an article on modeling left over dunnage and generally sprucing up the interior of a box car.   I think I will follow some of those recommendations for this model, since it already comes with movable doors.

GBW 7080 - Part #1

This and successive postings of this title will follow the project to convert this 2-rail Atlas Trainman model of a ACF 50' boxcar lettered for the Green Bay & Western into a Proto:48 model.

The prototype is a lot (#11-06860) of 150 50' boxcar built in June 1979 by ACF Industries.
(Transcribed ORER data at the previous link is courtesy of the Green Bay & Western Historical Society).

They were used in general service and lacked any special equipment for one of GBW's signature traffic lanes: finished rolled paper.  However, quite a few other products were generated in their service area, so I should have no trouble determining a suitable lading for this car while in service on the Fairgrounds Branch.

I've only been able to find photos of these cars after they'd left GBW ownership; many were transferred to short lines, including these four that went to Hartford & Slocumb:

• HS 6474
• HS 6475
• HS 6482
• HS 6483

Serveral other photos of adjacent car series are also available: See this reference photo and the one included below as examples of the ones built by Evans-SIECO.

The 74xx cars were slightly more populous (200 cars in the lot) and are nearly identical, except for the squared off sill plate.

Proto:48 Conversion
Here's where the fun begins.  There are a few discrepancies between the prototype and the model, most notably the side sill.

Side Sill
Atlas' model appears to be a combination between the various GBW car series in what I could only describe as an attempt to please everyone.  The model has a two-step sill that is full height across the door and the adjacent four panels on either side.  It then steps down for one panel's width and runs about half height for one more panel length.  Along the length of the outermost panel, the sill is gone and the stirrups hang directly from the body there.

The stirrups and lack of sill match the 7450-7649 series car by Evans.  The angled transitions in side sill height match none of the 7xxx series cars, though having two different heights is reminiscent of the 7450-7469 series, except that the extra height reinforcement was limited to the space directly under the door.  I've seen examples of the height transition being both vertical and angled.

The cars in the 7400-7450 series that were constructed around the same time by FMC have a longer side sill reinforcement spanning more of the car length, but the sill runs all the way to the end of the car.

It would be nice if the Atlas model at least represented one of the series correctly and then the recovery process would be limited to decals.  Alas, some styrene and paint will be required to fix this up.

Summarizing the options:

To Series	Positives	Negatives
7000 to 7049	Has the two-step side still	Was built by FMC
7050 to 7199	Was built by ACF Is lettered correctly (lot #, car #, etc.) Has correct size door	Need to build out side still to full length Need to add under door reinforcement
7200 to 7407	Was built by ACF
7450 to 7649	Closest match for sill  at car ends Closest match for stirrups	Model has corner posts Was built by Evans/SIECO Latter half of this series was blue

The build out of the sill to match the 7050-7199 series car appears to actually be a combination of addition and removal.  The model's current 13" side sill seems appropriate for the reinforced portion under the door (based on some crude scaling in a few prototype photos) and would need to be cut down to approximately nine inches on the rest of the car and then extended at that height to the car ends.

This seems like the smallest amount of work, so the target car series will be the one the model intended -- by the manufacturer's car numbering, at least -- the 7050 to 7199 series.

Minor Details
The only other cosmetic upgrades I can see right away would be wire grabs since in this scale, the shadow behind those should be noticeable.  Plus, I already have to make new stirrups anyway.

The model has the newer "black-box" style COTS markings, but I'd have to confirm when this started to appear.  Atlas populated theirs with original dates, so it may very well be correct.  Followup: Seems that this is correct.  Tony Thompson's excellent research on the SP resulted in this rule applicability timeline, and two-panel COTS stencils were required on new cars starting in 1974.

The stenciling has the inside length off (short) by one inch.  ORER data indicates 50'7".

If I get excited, I'll see if there's an easy way to make a thinner lower door track.  Prototype photos show this being considerably thinner and having a shadow against the car than Atlas' representation.

Trucks and Couplers
Based on comparisons to the prototype photos, the trucks themselves look to be correctly size and proportioned.  Atlas' model has rotating end caps on the roller bearings.  Of course, I'll need to narrow the bolsters (planning to use parts from James Lincoln here) and get replacement wheels from Protocraft's selection.  I'll probably also go with the couplers from Protocraft or maybe San Juan Car Company