Rolling Stock Update

 I just finished up the latest additions to my rolling stock inventory. Here are a couple of images of the results.

I bashed these three 24' box cars from APAG narrow gauge box car kits. The trucks are from Panamint models, the wheels from Reboxx, the brake ratchet from Tichy Train, and the couplers from San Juan Models. The car bodies are painted Model Master Intermediate Blue. The roofs are painted Tamiya (USAF) Tan. I did not use the kit roofs but instead scratch built them from styrene from one of my old real estate signs. I also scratch built the roof walks from Northeast Scale Lumber 2x6s with Tichy roof walk supports. The kit roofs were peaked but the ones I made are arched (radial). The roof walks were painted with Barnwood craft paint and then a Vallejo dark grey wash was applied. I bent the grab bars from 0.0125 Tichy phosphor bronze wire. I a built car #100 on the left more than a decade ago but tore off the original roof to remove the weight I had originally installed. Also, the color of blue I used back then dfid not meet my current standards. There are some slight variations between it and the other 2 cars. Note the difference in size of the door handles and the grab bars on the ends of the cars. Also, car #100 has bumper blocks on the end sills while the other 2 cars have a more modern style of end beam. The truss rods are made from 10lb, monofilament, fishing line and the turnbuckles are from Tichy Train.

I also completed 2 Bram Models' Harlan & Hollingsworth box cars. Harlan & Hollingsworth was a 19th century car building firm located in Wilmington, DE. They built cars for many, many railroads. 

These cars are 3D prints I purchased on Shapeways. They are lettered for the Philadelphia, Wilmington, & Baltimore Railroad. The cars are based on information and images from John White's book on the American railroad freight car. In his book, White notes that the record indicates the prototypes were painted an ivory color with red wheels and a canvass roof that was tan in color. I painted the car bodies Polly-Scale aged white and the wheels and trim with Poly-Scale red. Vallejo ivory is a match for the now no longer available Poly-Scale Aged White. The roof walks are painted barnwood with a Vallejo dark grey wash. The "canvass" roofs were painted Vallejo (USAF) Tan. This is where I got the idea to paint the roofs on the 2 Delaware Central cars shown in the 1st photo, tan. The decals are custom made. I chose the car numbers based on car #720 shown in an image in white's book. I opted to paint all of the hardware, except the truss rods and couplers, red. White's book indicates that the hardware was black, but I liked the red instead. My fictional Delaware Central interfaces with the PW&B in Wilmington. During the Civil war, the president of the PW&B complained of his cars being used on other lines and not returned to the PW&B in a timely manner. That is my justification of running these 2 cars on my layout. The wheels are from Reboxx, the trucks from Eric Cox, and the couplers from Tichy Train. I made the grab bars from Tichy 0.0125 phosphor bronze wire. 

As a note, the stone factory in the background was about completed when I saw what someone else had done by bashing together 2 of these IHC kits. So, this factory is just sitting on the layout waiting for me to build something similar to the kit bash I saw.