In adding to my fleet of service cars I finally came up with a model of this car which was built by the GN in 1929. So what is it?
Hmmm. Well, from the grill on it's side and the stacks, I'd say it's a heater car. I'm curious to see how this will be painted when done. Boxcab E50
Another shot from above and correct on it being a heater car. This was made by using an American Limited core kit that I had previously canabalized and an extra Brass Car Sides kit for a GN Baggage Dorm. Sunrise provided the steam generator parts and the stirrup steps are Gold Medals diesel steps. The roof walk and the side ladders are from MT replacement parts. I used the trucks and diaphragms from the American Limited kit. I had previously tried using the Bmann short combine but never to any satisfactory results. The prototype is the GN car #5 which later went to the SP&S. The smooth sides and standard non clerestory roof made this car a departure from the norm of the clerestory roofed surplus mail cars that seemed to be used for the earlier heater cars. This may have been made from a surplus tender and its general length of 47 feet seems to suggest that.
Some additional comments. The first coat of paint always exposes the areas that need some attention, but this unit will stay in the basic pullman green color, after some sanding at the joints around the roof. This fits in with my 1940s era of pre Empire Builder painted cars and is part of a bigger project where I am cutting down a batch of Rivarrossi and Lima cars to 65 and 70 foot Pullmans to go with the Bmann 65 footers and the Wheels of Time cars and the new 60 foot MT RPOs. Some photos of them will follow soon.
Will be looking forward to further pictures of this model! Are there any photos on line, of either the GN or SP&S prototype? Boxcab E50
Hi John, Yep, a heater car it was. It did not spend a lot of time running though and with its sister usually was found attatched to the steam lines at the Vancouver roundhouse. A great replica. Good work as always. Rick Ernest Home of the North Bank Road
Unfortunately none that I have found. There are a lot of the other GN heater car photos ranging form the older heavyweight converted 60 foot RPOs that went through at least one prior conversion before conversion to heater cars, the bvoxcar conversion which should not be to hard to do, and of course the FB units, mostly F3s that were converted. My only photos of this unit are in several of my SP&S books after it was sold to the SP&S around the 1968 timeframe along with one of the converted RPOs. Several of these did get Builder colors and they did see service both on Lines East and Lines West. The FB unit conversions did see both Big Sky Blue and BN colors and a few made Amtrac.
And what started it all. [The Wheels of Time 65 foot cars got me started on creating a train of shorter passenger cars that would look better on the typical sharper curves of a layout, take less room in the staging yard and on the passing tracks etc. So I took some surplus Atlas and Rivarrossi cars and took out the section shown in the photo in front. The cars included some Pullmans and two diners and one obs. I already had in hand the Bmann 65 foot combines and coaches and of course the Wheels of Time baggage and coaches. I also had a rare Bmann 65 foot obs that I didn't know i had until I started the project. I also added two of MTs 60 foot RPOs and lettered one for SP&S. The heater car just kinda materialized with all the ruckus. Since I canabalized a American Limited core kit for some battery boxes, water tanks, and vents, and I found myself looking at the remains and the heater car popped up. Each train, there are two full consists, never can do just one, has a minimum of 8 cars with headend equipment varying. They represent the heavyweight versions of the NCL and EB as run in trains 1 and 2 on the SP&S. Power for now is two Mintrix Pacifics with modified tenders for oil. Later perhaps they will get a couple of Northerns. The 2nd photo shows the Bmann 65 ft obs and the shortened Rivarossi obs.
[/url][/IMG] Finished heater car. Decided to stay with the pre-builder version and in GN lettering. It just gets loaned out once in awhile. One problem with using the brass sides is that the doors tend to disappear with a coat of paint. So I did a little weathering around the door frame to make it stand out. The remains of the brass sides are posed in front. Hmm what to do with these guys which are about thirty foot or so in length. So what ideas do my Peers have?
