Hey all, I'm about to do a small mod job on a boxcar, and figured I'd share it here with you all. So I was at a swap meet the other day and picked up some old MDC/Roundhouse Union Pacific boxcar "kits" that I don't have in my roster. Once I got home, I checked the road numbers in my 1986 ORER (official railway equipment register) and it shows UP had 126 cars in this series (300300 - 300449). Awesome, since I model the late 80's, these cars will fit right in. Here's what we're working with Next up was to try to find some prototype pics of these boxcars, and the fallen flags website never disappoints: 2 things jump out at me right away - the bottom sill is painted silver, and the trucks sit in quite a bit from the ends of the car. The sill should be pretty easy to paint, but it looks like I'll have to cut up the metal floor of the kit to get the trucks to sit in. So here we go! -Mike
To match the silver on the roof and ends, I used Modelflex Santa Fe Silver, brush painted on. It's a bit too "shiny" but weathering will tone in down. Weathering will also get rid of some of those brush strokes I see. Don't forget the brake wheel! On to the frame! -Mike
Looking at the left side of the car in the 2nd prototype pic above, showed to me that the middle of the truck will be right around the vertical rib between the road number 3 and 9. In fact, it looks like it's just to the left of that rib. Sitting the frame on top of the car and sliding one side over to that position showed that I could cut the frame along the one underside rib and that would be where the other truck bolster hole should sit. Looks like I'd need to get rid of the flat end part of the frame as well. So I decided to make the cuts here I put the larger chunk of frame in and eyeballed where to line up the bolster hole on the left side. By turning the small chunk of frame around, and butting it up against the larger chunk, the bolster holes lined up pretty good with those outside carbody ribs. Up to this point, frame is just a test fit, nothing has been glued. More to come... -Mike
I believe this must be a cushioned underframe car? That's what I seem to recall of those cars which had the trucks appearing to be a bit further underneath.
Ken, you might be right. But I have yet to come across this much inset on a boxcar in all my picture wanderings on the internet. Here is an example of a cushioned underframe with the trucks and wheels pushed all the way to the end of the car. so who knows? -Mike
In order to really check the frame mounting position out, I needed to get the trucks on. But what size of trucks? The ORER states the CAPY is 192K, so that's a good estimate that this car will need 100 ton trucks and 36" wheels. Checking the LD LMT and LD WT printed on the side of the car shows 193000 and 70000, which added together give you 263000. 263K equals 100t trucks and 36" wheels. Good job Roundhouse for getting those numbers correct! So Micro Trains trucks are out, since they are a 70 ton model. BLMA makes awesome 100t trucks, which I use a lot of. But here's a little known fact. Those MDC trucks that come with these old kits are 100 ton trucks. Surprise! And toss on some Fox Valley 36" wheels, they look great! There is one mod that needs to happen to the MDC trucks, and that is filing down the small lip around the top of the truck. The truck on the left has the lip, the truck on the right has been filed. And here is the car so far Pretty close to me! Now we just need to glue the frame together and add some styrene supports for the couplers. -Mike
Yeah, the ORER I have says it has a cushion underframe. But the ORER also says that car I posted with the trucks all the way to the end has a cushion underframe as well. So got me! -Mike
Added a couple pieces of .030" styrene to the bottom and glued on the coupler boxes. I took a guess at how for out to stick the couplers. One thing that is sorely lacking in N scale is a good cushion draft box. A standard Roundhouse boxcar with MDC 100ton trucks at the bottom and the modified Union Pacific boxcar at the top. When sitting alone, it doesn't look like the trucks were moved in much, but next to the standard frame position, it's a big difference. Here's the finished product, minus weathering. Adds a uniqueness to the roster of 50' boxcars. I'll get this bad boy all weathered up in the next few days to put a "finished" stamp on this build. I hope you all enjoyed following along as much as I did modifying this car. It doesn't take much to change a stock car around to closer match it's prototype, and it also gives you a unique car to have in your roster. -Mike
From the pictures it looks like the proper stance does make a difference. Nice job and I'm interested in the rest of the transformation. A thought on if that Mod changes the Cars Tracking?
It looks great Mike. The truck positioning on the prototype must have something to do with the style of cushioning draft gear used. Doug
Not that I can tell. Its running around my test track loop with 15" radius curves and no problems with front, middle or rear of train. -Mike
For cushioned coupler pockets, check out the ones made with brass tubing on this thread: http://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=21980.0
I remember when Gary stared that thread, had forgot about it until you brought it up. There is a lot of work involved to use the brass, so a mass produced plastic one would be great. I've actually been talking to a guy that does stuff on shapeways, and if all goes well, a good box will be available soon. -Mike
So I finally got the chance to take some pics outside with the sun out after weathering this boxcar. I went a little overboard on the roof though, so not real happy with that. And lets just say outside lighting is a lot less forgiving when taking pics that inside lighting :/ "A" end "B" end After adding some ACI labels, there was one more modification I noticed while looking over the prototype pictures during weathering. On the bottom sill, the recessed area coming from each end is about one rib further towards the middle of the car than the stock Roundhouse car has. The razor blade took care of that. Don't know why I didn't see that from the beginning, as much time as I took looking at the trucks and where to mount them at..... -Mike
