Many years ago I was looking to add some more lumber cars for my fleet. I came across the Bowser X31 & X32 class cars that were painted in Northern Pacific scheme, showing 1951 tare dates.
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| NP 39159 with black car-cement roof applied to the model |
Unfortunately, as we'll see, these weren't exactly what I was hoping they would be useful for once I dug into their history.
History
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| Fresh X32 NP boxcars on ATSF freight with 260-class F-units, 1961+ Walong - Richard Jahn collection |
In 1961 the Northern Pacific leased 40 and 50ft round-roof boxcars from PRR/DT&I for lumber service. Bowser released these models in the 1990s and early 2000s, I picked up a couple of each based on the printed tare dates on the models. However, I did learn that the models are not accurate for the 1950s era that I model, but are more properly accurate for post-1961 layouts.
X31 40ft Round Roof
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| NP 39159 with black car-cement roof applied to the model |
The 39159 has the roof painted black to represent the change to the car's paint for service on the NP. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a coating of black "Car Cement", which was a water-proofing tar-like material to seal up the roof on these older boxcars for finished lumber loading on the NP.
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| Basic Bowser model with light chalk marks. |
I'll still need to apply the black roof to correct the model. Also changing the tare date on the model is still needed.
X32 50ft Round Roof
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| NP 39648, a 50ft X32A weathered from service on the NP in the 1960s. |
These two 50ft models will need to have black roof coating applied and the tare dates changed. The cars should have a "JN 9-61" as the tare date, based on the NP Historical Society special run of NP X32s available here, which just need the roof painted black: https://store.nprha.org/bowser-ho-scale-x-32-50-np-round-roof-boxcar/
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| NP 38715, another example of an X32A boxcar, which will need minor changes for the 1960s. |
These cars will hopefully still find a good home to provide lumber service after the slight corrections to the era of service.
In Closing
These models are nicely painted and another example of the "Shake-the-box" kits from Bowser. Once the modeling community realizes which era these are correct for, I think they'd make a great bit of "something different" for the 1960s era modelers of the Pacific North West, and also a chance to model an NP car that could be off-line as well.
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| PRR 59505, an X32A Bowser model. |
I'll be covering two PRR cars of X32A in Part 2, which is a bit more historically accurate out-of-the-box.
Jason Hill
Related Articles:
Weathering NP 11661 - A Rapido Double Sheathed Boxcar - Prisma Pencil & Acrylic Weathering
Outside Links to Bowser's X31/32/33 type kits and RTR models in HO Scale.
Bowser's Current Offerings - Link to available kits and RTR models from Bowser. (looks like mostly Undecs for X31/32/33 variants.
X31 History Offerings - Past production runs of X31 type cars (Including 2 & 4 door, along with 4 door "Turtle Roof" version)
X32 History Offerings - Past production runs of X31 type cars (Including 2 & 4 door versions)
X33 History Offerings - Past production runs of X31 type cars