36ft Fowler Boxcars - NC&StL 15337 (Part 1) Accurail Kitbash

Back in 2018 I picked up one of the new Accurail 36ft Fowler boxcars.  I already knew these cars were not seen in uncommonly large numbers on the Tehachapi Pass area. 

NC&StL 15337 kitbash coming together

So I decided I'd get one of the new models to add to my 'signature car' fleet.  This group of cars I've been working on generally follow Ted Culotta's RMC articles years ago with the same name.  Generally, these are unique and easily identifiable cars that did show up regularly around the US. 

These include cars such as; "WWII Emergency" Boxcar, NP "Double-Sheath" boxcar, Milwaukee "Rib Side" boxcar, B&O "Wagon-top" boxcar, PRR X29 boxcar and NYC "Standard" boxcars just to name a few.  I believe all of these could show up on the Jawbone from time to time

The only one that I found at a local hobby shop was a painted "Data-Oxide" version.  I'd already been doing some digging on-line, and I'd found several great research pages which explain what needs to be done to the Accurail model to make it more accurate for specific RR prototypes.

Around the same time, I'd also picked up a Westerfield Undec CP/Soo Line version of the Fowler car with a 5ft door cheap at a convention.  I'd also picked up a couple more Canadian car kits to build at some point, including a CP 'Mini-Box' which is an all-steel boxcar with a small 5ft wide door.  I also already had an Accurail USRA-clone CN single-sheath 40ft boxcar. 

Prototype History

I basically have the choice to model one of the following prototypes: CN, CP, Soo Line, or NC&StL. 

ACCURAIL’S NEW SHORT BOXCAR MODEL AND ITS MATCHES PART 5: THE 1100-SERIES FOWLER BOXCARS by Ray Breyer

Detailing Accurail Fowler Boxcar

But for now, I'll see what this Accurail model can be turned into.  The Accurail model only works for 6ft door cars, so all CP cars are out, along with the Soo Line cars, but the Soo Line cars might work for my Westerfield resin car.

Crunched data based on Rey Breyer's Fowler article.

Based on the research from the above links, CN and CP certainly would be the largest fleet owner.  Both used the majority of their Fowlers in the grain movements within Canada.  Some of the linked photos in the above articles show one CP car with a tare date of 1952 still fitted with K-brakes and arch-bar trucks!  The arch-bar trucks were banned in interchange service by the ICC in 1940.  So I selected NC&StL, as one of the more accurate kitbashable models to make from the Accurail model.  There were still several hundred of these cars in service in 1950, and I don't have any NC&StL boxcars in my fleet for the Jawbone Branch.

The most likely finish the Westerfield resin model as a CP car for these cars would be bringing Canadian grain down into the US.  Cars in that service would probably be returned empty to Canada by reverse route, as there were Service Car Orders (SCOs) in place after the Canadian Railroads complained that too many of their cars were not making their way back to Canadian rails in any fashion of a timely manor.

Starting My Model

Basic Construction

Stock Accurail kit with the box slightly shaken.

I didn't really do anything special to the basic kit so far.  Here's the basic body and underframe assembled roughly in 2019.  Much has happened in my life since then, so it's nice to open a 'basic kit' up again and do some kitbashing.

Roof Modifications

The CN cars received replacement metal roofs by my modeling era of 1946-1954.

I'm starting into the roof modifications by removing all the running board supports.  Easily done with a chisel blade and carving them off.  The corner grabs are also shaved down and removed.  I'm not worried about re-scribing the board detail as all of that will be sanded off.

About an hour of sanding and filing later I'm getting the roof cleaned down.  - I'm going to pause here to deal with the underframe and weight.

Weighting the Floor

 Kadee 'whisker', 'scale head' 158 couplers installed with the stock draft gear boxes.  At this point in the build, I was thinking about doing the conversion to make a CN car, but eventually I decided to shift to NC&StL prototype.

Floor interior is scribed to help the RTV Silicone grip the plastic floor. 

Clear RTV Silicon applied to interior of the floor and weight ready to apply.

Weight applied to Silicone and waiting for it to dry.  OK, back to sanding the roof!

Continuing Roof Modification

Roof is finally sanded down smooth, removing the wooden roof details of the stock model.

A quick CAD calculation of the new metal roof spacing for the joint covers.

The end ribs are made by 0.100"x0.020" styrene strips.  The narrow ribs are 2"x4" scale styrene strips.

Styrene strips are applied starting at the end with 0.100" x 0.020" strip and the first of the standard joint cover ribs from scale 2" x 4" strip.

Following ribs are marked with my Tichy boxcar weight bar used as a spacing tool for my pencil marks.

Double checking the exact spacing with my calipers.  Trimming to length with my sprue cutters after the Tamiya liquid glue to dry.

Completed roof ribs all glued in place.  I knocked down the edges of the ribs at the roof edge with a stroke or two of fine sand pad.

The running board was inserted into the four holes in the roof and additional bits of 2x4 strips were slipped under to create the supports.  The supports were cut to length with a No.17 chisel blade, and then Tamiya glue was applied with the brush applicator.  The body was then inverted and the running board was then pressed onto my flat working surface to compress the arch out of the 2x4 pieces and get them to adjust to resting over the peak of the roof.  This process worked well, but it was best to do no more than about two supports at a time, then pressing, and then continuing.

AB Brake Conversion

The NC&StL car that I'm basing my model on was upgraded with AB Brakes and U-section AAR trucks.

I cut the K-brake in half, removing the reservoir section.  New AB reservoir and triple valve were taken from one of my Accurail 40ft USRA-clone boxcars, (which will become an SP B-50-8/10/11-series car).

New brackets and mounting pads were fabricated from styrene strips.

U-Section Trucks

I've also changed out the Accurail Andrews trucks to some second hand Athearn-MDC heavy U-section AAR trucks, which are similar to the trucks in the photo of the NC&StL prototype.  

In Closing

The NC&StL 15337 kitbash coming together as of 2022-06-20.

Stirrup steps still need to be applied.  I did pick up a set of CP decals for the Fowler resin kit when I checked with Andrew this week.  So I'll probably do more on the CP Fowler and other cars while waiting for Westerfield to re-run the NC&StL Fowler decals..

Jason Hill

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