36ft Fowler Boxcars - NC&StL 15337 (Part 3) Wrapping Up & Weathering

Time to complete the NC&StL 15337.

It's only been a few days since I posted Part 2 of this series, but I wanted to get the rest of the decals applied and then do some light weathering to get the car buttoned up.

Finishing Up

Decals

The rough level of decal completion at the end of Part 2.

Wrapping up the decalling of the NC&StL 15337 with the tare station NE 4 45 and the spec stencils for AB BRAKES and DIRT COLLECTOR from the OwlMt F-50 decal sets.

Underframe Detailing - Brake Hangers

I custom bent and installed three brake hanger grabs under the car.

The original plastic brake hangers didn't last through the decalling process.  So I cut off the cracked plastic hangers, which were part of the centersills.  Then I drilled replacement mounting holes and bent 0.012" Phosphor Bronze wire to shape with my Leartherman needle-nose pliers.  A quick dip of the grab legs in a scrap puddle of CA before applying fixes them in place.  The weathering coat later on will get these to blend into the rest of the underframe.

One step that still needs addressing, the hand brake staff should have a rod with sections of chain to connect the staff to the brake cylinder.  The Accurail kit doesn't have anything supplied for this.  I'll probably scratch-built a piece to replicate this with some spare 0.012" PB wire as well.

Brake Staff & Wheel

I shorted it to the kit specified length, which is actually too short according to the prototype photo.

Brake staff with brass OwlMtModels brake wheel soldered in place.

I used the Accurail kit staff, which is 0.020" wire, and soldered the brake wheel at the top end.  The brake wheel itself is a replacement casting from OwlMtModels 1011 F-50-series Common Standard Stirrup & Brakewheel set.

Freshly applied Brake Staff in place.

I secured the brake staff with a small drop of thickened CA glue at the bottom stirrup and also at the brake platform step.  It was about this point when I checked the prototype photo and realized that I'd cut the staff too short according to the prototype photo!  Oops!

Stirrup Steps

Stirrup steps applied with a small drop of CA, so I can still remove the body shell as needed.

I then attached the single stirrup steps from the kit.  Accurail offers two installation options for the stirrup steps on the 36ft Fowler cars.

Closing the Body

Time to close up the body for a while.

However, I do want the car to be "closed up" most of the time and don't want the stirrups getting damaged due to unplanned removing of the underframe and floor from the body, so I'm applying four small drops of thickened CA glue at the bolsters.  I will be able to 'pop' these glue joints when it comes time to open the body again.

Looking Pretty Good

3/4 view with the decals all applied.

At this point I took a little time to enjoy looking at the fully painted and decalled model.

A-end and Left Side.

I went over most of the larger decal areas with my sharp No.11 Xacto blade and sliced the board lines into the decals.  This was specifically done on the doors' slogan area to be sure that extra applications of MicroScale decal setting fluid was able to get rid of any air bubbles and gaps under the decals at the board joints.

Weathering

I decided to start the weathering process with a wash of medium brown and a depot buff color from StarBrand with my airbrush.  

Left side of decalled model.

It turns out that it was light enough that all it really did was knock down the brightness of the decals, which is a really good start!

Right side of decalled model.

The last thing I wanted to do was put down too much color and cover up all the decals that I just spent all the time cutting up to correct to match the photo and putting into place!

Left side - checking against photo.

The prototype car isn't weathered very much, so I want almost all the decals to be clearly visible when I'm done.

NC&StL 15337 - Fowler -TRRA photo, East St Louis, July 1948, Illinois, Joe Collias coll, Bobs Photo - Ted Culotta collection

In looking at the prototype, the board lines are quite visible.  Shadows and possibly some dirt are accumulating around the Z-bracing and mud from the boots of the brakemen has applied to the side of the car above each ladder rung... either that or the toes of their boots has rubbed off the paint from those spots.

The car was painted with SP FCR as a basic color, so it's pretty bright red.

The color still is a bit too consistent, and I'll need to see if there's a good way that I can highlight just the board lines like the prototype photo... however I think the Accurail kit has more board grain detail than actual board joint lines, unlike most kits.  So that might be trickier to do in the weathering process, than just toning down the model.

After a wash of acrylic black with isopropal alcohol.

I wasn't really thinking, and sealed the body with Testors Dullcote and then made an alcohol wash to highlight the board lines and details.  I also used some Pavement and Burnt Umber to avoid using only straight black to mix up the colors more.

This treatment really did change the SP FCR to more of a gray-brown, which is good.

What I forgot about is that the Iso-Alcohol attacks the teflon (dulling agent) in the dullcote and turns it white... so my weathering ended up fading the car and adding darkened shadows at the same time!

A bit more work balancing out the weathering.

I was able to moderate the whiting effects of the dullcote + alcohol by carefully working the wash and adjusting it, wiping some with the paper towel and also wicking away extra wash before it set onto the carside.

In Closing

I think it came out pretty well.  I really like how the sprayed wash and the alcohol wash settled into door boards around the "DIXIELAND" slogan, which I was concerned the decal would be too thick to look reasonable.

NC&StL 15337 - Fowler -TRRA photo, East St Louis, July 1948, Illinois, Joe Collias coll, Bobs Photo - Ted Culotta collection

Time for a final prototype photo check against the model.  With the details complete and some light weathering, my NC&StL 15337 is ready to enter service.

Looks like this 'Dixieland' car is ready to visit the Jawbone Branch.

I'll still be adding some chalk marks and other small details in the future, so the car's not really finished, but then what car ever really is?  I'm also planning the next time I'm doing staff-brakes for the SP Accurail kitbashes, I'll redo this car's brake staff a bit longer to match the prototype photo.

Follow Up Blogs on Routing Cards & Chalk Mark Details

I used the NC&StL 15337 model to show some of the techniques for routing cards and chalk marks.

Prototype side of the NC&StL 15337, with all the chalk marks and routing cards in place.

I feel that the cars just don't look "lived in" if they don't have a couple of chalk marks and a routing card or grading card here or there.

"Typical" side of the car, which I don't have a photo for.

The 'brightness' of the chalk marks can be toned down slightly by a damp brush wipe of 70% alcohol, with some water, which tones down the strength of the alcohol.  This is useful to 'age' the chalk marks and make them look like they've faded or been scrubbed by a clerk to partly wipe them away.

OwlMtModels 1220 Routing Cards

Gel Pen Chalk Marks

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

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

36ft Fowler Boxcar NC&StL 15337 (Part 2) Details & Decalling

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

Detailing Accurail Fowler Boxcar

36ft Fowler Boxcars - NC&StL 15337 (Part 2) Details & Decalling

Nearly completed NC&StL 15337 at the end of Part 2

In the last post in this series (Part 1), I was starting to work kitbashing an Accurail 36ft Fowler car to be a late-serving NC&StL car into the late 1940s.  Well, the time has come to finally get the decals together for my kitbash of an Accurail Fowler 36ft boxcar into NC&StL 15337, an XM-27 class car from July, 1948.  

NC&StL 15337 - Fowler -TRRA photo, East St Louis, July 1948, Illinois, Joe Collias collection, Ted Culotta collection with permission.

I reviewed my reference photo from the article on kitbashing Accurail Fowler cars, specifically the picture from Ted Culotta collection of the NC&StL 15337.  Thanks to Ted for permission to use this photo for this series of modeling posts.  The photo shows a couple of minor details that I hadn't bothered changing during Part 1.  So I'll be addressing those now, then doing a bit of minor paint touch-up around those spots before proceeding with the decalling.

Additional Kitbashing

Original Accurail Fowler Boxcar with low door stop.

The first change needed is with the door stops, they should be in a higher position than the stock Accurail model has them.

Right side of the boxcar with moved door stop and guide-strap added.

This wasn't too hard to do with a No.11 blade, shaving them off, then scraping some of the newer paint off, and reattaching them up at the correct position with Tamiya liquid plastic cement.

Adding Strap & Wood Block

Next I added a piece of Phosphor-Bronze etching sprue, bent to shape, then glued in place with thick ACC/CA cement (aka super glue).  The strap is bent to wrap around the two Z-braces.  The strap squeezed extra glue out, which I cleaned up with a paper-towel tip and scrapped away with the No.11 Xacto blade.

On the left side of the car the car had an interesting vertical wood block added.  I fashioned this "wood" block from a piece of left over OwlMtModels lumber sticker from building a load.  These are molded in straw wood color.

Overall of left side.

I then repainted the car-side again with FCR color.  The wood block is scrapped to match prototype photo.  I used an old wooden close-pin which resulted in the wood grain form being transferred.  

Decalling

NC&StL 15337 - Fowler -TRRA photo, East St Louis, July 1948, Illinois, Joe Collias collection, Ted Culotta collection with permission.

The car that I'm modeling is a challenge to find the right decals for.

New decals from K4 Decals - NC&StL Caboose & Boxcar sets

I went with K4 Decals' sets for NC&StL 36ft, 40ft Boxcar White and NC&StL Caboose White sets to get the mixture of data for the little 40-ton Fowler and also the right heralds and slogans for the 1940s era.  This will allow me to decal-bash and get the right bits to make this car match the prototype photo.

Starting to apply decals to the car.

The trouble with the decal sets that have been offered is that none of them have exactly this scheme's slogans, heralds, and even the "&" used in the reporting marks is different.  The "Caboose" set has the proper large san-serif paint-brush "TO AND FROM DIXIELAND" slogan and the "NC&St.L" Herald, as opposed to the older script "Dixieland" version and "The DIXIE Line" herald from the "Boxcar" set.

Partly done decals (left side)

The car number requires rearranging the numbers, and also some shuffling of the lower roadnumber stripe lengths.  The K4 Decals boxcar set doesn't have a data set for the XM27 class, but for XM28... So I cut out the "8" and replaced a "7" from the end-lettering set.

The "fat" style & in the reporting marks... isn't right.

I looked around through the two decal sets and found the other half of the "Boxcar" set has a non-extended version of the "&" which looks more like the prototype photo (below).  So I ended up removing the extended & from the model before it was fully set.

NC&StL 15337 - Fowler -TRRA photo, East St Louis, July 1948, Illinois, Joe Collias collection, Ted Culotta collection with permission.

So this car certainly is a tricky car to get the right combination of decal parts to match the photo.

Prototype left side of the car

Here's the revised bashed decals, using the "&" from the caboose set, along with the slogan and herald.  The rest of the reporting marks are from the boxcar set and the modified data set.  I still need to add all the build date and tare data as well.

Theorized right side of what the car should look like.

Decals are almost done here.  On the right side of the car, I just sorta went for the "typical" guess of what it might look like.  I didn't apply the same door-stop board on this side.  Otherwise it's very similar, so that either side looks highly detailed, no matter which side is viewed in a train.

Finished Decalling

K4 Decalling complete on NC&StL 15337, before applying chalk marks & OMM Routing Cards.

The remaining decals to apply are the tare station and date (N E 4-45), and some fine stenciling below the herald for the Dirt Collector and AB Brake equipped markings which I will draw from the spare OwlMtModels data sets.  Then I'll just go for the amount of weathering shown in the picture, which I'll do for Part 3 as I finish up the details and get the car ready for service.

In Closing & Sneak Peak to Part 3 - Weathering, Routing Cards & Chalk Marks

The car's not too beat up in the prototype photo, so as I'm modeling roughly in the 1947-1951 era, when this photo was taken.  Weathering will come in Part 3 of this series.

Finished model with Chalk Marks and OwlMtModels 1220 Routing Cards applied.

I also applied Gel Pen Chalk Marks and OwlMtModels Routing Cards to the car after this.  I've covered those techniques in their own blog posts. 

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

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

36ft Fowler Boxcar NC&StL 15337 (Part 3) Wrapping Up & Weathering

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

Detailing Accurail Fowler Boxcar

OwlMtModels 1220 Routing Cards

Gel Pen Chalk Marks

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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