GN 10784 Plywood Boxcar - Quick Weathering

Time to dive into weathering my new Bridgetown 2023 acquisition, a GN "Plywood" boxcar.   Normally, I've thought these cars were gaudy and strange.  

Orange... in a freight?!

To be fair, I'm not much of a GN researcher, but I do want to model GN cars as foreign cars showing up on my Southern Pacific layout.  Over the last two years or so is that these cars did run across the area that I model, namely Tehachapi and even the Jawbone Branch.

Great Northern Paint Schemes?

IMRC/IMWX boxcar kit painted in the 'normal' paint scheme for 1948-1956.

While I'm more used to the classic brown GN boxcar fleet, adding this bright orange car will certainly be an outstanding model, drawing attention.  

Timeline of GN paint schemes:
1941: Side Facing Goat Herald introduced. First FT's delivered (first orange and green livery).

1948: New/repainted freight cars use "Great Northern" instead of "Glacier Park" in logo.

So oddly, the IMWX/IMRC kit has the post-1948 herald with the Great Northern, not the Glacier National Park phrasing in the herald.  Orange/Green paint scheme on the plywood car started back in 1941 with side facing goat. - Good to know, I'll have to change the tare date anyway on the brown car kit, which will work to be a 1948 repaint, probably just remove the "NEW" and leave the "F" date.

IMRC 46055-03*, a RTR GN "Plywood" panel boxcar in orange and black.

These cars were built in 1947 at the St. Cloud Shops with the upgraded post-war steel ends, and retained pre-war design of panel roofs.  It looks like there were two groups of cars, one of 500 cars built in 1945, then 400 cars in 1947.  The GN 10784 would be in the second group of 400 cars.  It would also appear that within the first three years, about 7 cars were destroyed and struck from the roster.

GN 10000-series 'plywood' composite boxcars ORER data 1950.

These were some of the first cars built with plywood sides.  Some PFE reefers were also rebuilt/built with plywood sides, but ended up being changed back to other materials within 5-8 years as the early plywoods failed faster than standard board or steel-side construction.  I don't really know what the disposition of the plywood-sided boxcars on the GN, but clearly they existed into the early 1950s and roamed freely.

Minor Repairs

Somewhere along the route from IMRC's Chinese factory to my hands the car seems to have been dropped and had the steel weight knocked loose from the inside of the floor.  Thankfully, there was not very much glue holding the roof to the upper body edges, and I was able to remove the roof to reattach the weight.

Interior with re-glued weight.

I used some standard automotive RTV-Silicone.  Don't forget to be sure the weight is centered on the floor and with a bit of RTV around the edges to hold it firm.  Then the RTV was allowed to gas-off for a couple days before reattaching the roof with MEK (Tamiya glue).

Weathering Goals

Generally, I want to keep the weathering on this car moderated.  The 1947 build date can mean that it showed up on my railroad within the first year or two.  Given that I model into 1954 with RSD-5s, then I could have them with nearly 7 years of weathering.  I'll aim to go with some grime weathering on the lower car, and also some washes on the panel-edges. 

Some basic roof weathering with Pavement and Territorial Beige highlights along the running board.

Dusty/sooty roof gets a bit of typical weathering.  Rain washed-effects of the Pacific North West should play a part in the weathering too, which will extend onto the car side.

Weathering with Acrylics

Right side with weathering starting.  Ladder mud/boot kick marks onto the side.

 The trucks and underframe are Pavement wash and highlighted with Territorial Beige.

Left side with panel lines.

Most of the side weathering at this point is just highlighting the panel edges with grimy wash and a bit of Pavement from Apple Barrel. 

Weathering with Chalk Marks

Right side chalk marks.

A couple light chalk marks for release lever and hand written "Seattle".  Dark chalk mark of "21" at the left end of the car.  I decided to make the sharp dirt/soot drips from the ends of the door track with my new dark gray Gelly-Roll pen against a straight edge ruler.

Left side chalk marks.

On this side I went with a "Mill St" chalk mark and a very faint tally mark set to the left of the door.  I also did the same dark gray Gel-pen marks from the door tracks.  Generally these streaks can be done with a fine brush, but I wanted to try making sure that they were straight by using the straight-edge and pen method.  It seemed to work.  I can also use a bit of 70% iso-alcohol to feather the end of the streak down a bit more.

Routing Cards

On many of my cars starting in October 2023 and moving forward will have a couple of the OwlMtModels 1220 Routing & Grading Cards applied.

Right side with routing card

On the right side I put a simple routing card under the 7 of the car number.  The car's plywood sides could be hammer-stapled to, thus allowing the cards to be placed pretty much anywhere, although I'm sure GN would prefer the clerks to use the card boards, fitted low on the doors!

Left side with routing and a grading card.

The left side has a Grade "B" card over in the right side data block, below the herald.  There's also a routing card placed over the "Mill St" chalk mark.

In Closing

The basics of weathering this car to this point only took a little over an hour.  So don't be afraid to do a "quick and dirty" weathering pass on a model.  

Wrapped up and ready to roll.

I may experiment with some chipped paint showing a section of the plywood layer failing in a follow-up Part 2 post.  I may also make a light pass with the airbrush to blend everything together a bit.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

Routing & Grading Cards with OwlMtModels 1220 Decals - Prototype Routing & Grading, demonstrated on NC&StL 15337.

Consist Photo Analysis (Part 2) - Owenyo Local, Circa 1950 - GN Plywood Boxcar at Little Lake

GN Paint Schemes - off-blog reference resource

Walthers 50ft Auto-Boxcars (Part 3) - GN 43952 Gets End Doors

GN 43952 renumbered into the 43000-series last post, is almost done with tare dates and chalk marks.  Just one little problem...

In the last article in this series, Walthers 50ft Auto-Boxcars (Part 2), I wrote about upgrading the historical standing of these cars by changing the road number into a correct series.  However, two of the cars I have are above the cutoff number of 43900, which means they should have end doors, or I'll have to lower the 'hundreds number to something below a '9'.  Given that 400 of the 500 cars are not end-door cars and I only have four cars, I should probably only do one car with the end door.

Edit: Thankfully Doug Polinder pointed out in a comment to me that: "the model is a Howe truss. GN's cars were Pratt." So at best these cars are really going to just be 'stand-ins' for the GN prototypes. Sadly this is one aspect that the ORER fails us, using it as the only research material.

Swapping Ends?

Sister car, GN 41951, with door end side-by-side.

I found a couple of ends the old boxes for these kits.  I also found the incomplete GN 41951 in one of these boxes, and needs some more work.  The extra end-doors were still in the boxes, so I was able to find one to use on the GN 43952.  Of course the new end doors weren't pad printed by Walthers, so I will of course have to decal the whole reporting mark on the A-end door piece.

I first removed the plain A-end of the car.

The first step with the conversion is to take the floor out of the car, then carefully pop the old plain end out of the body.  Thankfully, 20-year-ago-me didn't soak the end with glue, to 'hard weld' it in like I generally do now.  So it was very easy to pop off and only a little cleanup along the top edge, under the roof.

GN 43952 with test-fitted A-End Door.

The new end's test fit is pretty good.  The end-sill opening around the draft box is rather tight, and I will need to press the 'snap pins' into the end harder when the glue is applied.  Generally the end-doors make the cars look more complicated, which is cool. 

However looking at 43500-series we find double-door 50ft boxcars which should match closer to the Walthers model.

Historically, many cars with end doors became problematic to keep serviceable, so many were fixed in the closed position or welded closed.  It would seem from the ORER 1950 that these 96 cars still had working end doors.

Interior view of the new End Door dry-fitted.

I applied Tamiya Liquid Glue to the four alignment pins and then wicked more in with the brush from the bottom edge up both hinge lines and some into the center.  Then pressed the end into the body carefully.  When the alignment pins were softened just enough with the glue, there was a small 'pop' and the end slid a little farther into correct alignment.  Before the glue dries, I have to be sure the whole end is properly seated.  I also wicked in some glue along the top edge of the end-roof joint, but not much more movement happened in that area.

In Closing

This has been a fun kitbash to balance out the four of these cars I have.  Of course, I'm not addressing the lower 43000-series cars, which were only single-door cars.  These cars still fill a great spot when modeling lumber train traffic into Southern California, of the early 1950s.

GN 43952 with the new door-end in place with road number decals in place and a few more chalk marks.

I had some fun on the chalk-marks on the new car end.  Specifically marking the locking bar mechanism and a hinge that was damaged, but looks like the carmen has chalked the OK for both.  This photo also  showed me that the "2" on the end out of alignment.  So I re-wet the decal and was able to adjust it before I used the MicroScale setting fluid on it.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

Modeling Auto-Boxcars (Part 1) - Walthers 50ft Double-Door Single-Sheath Auto-Boxcars - An Overview

Walthers 50ft Auto-Boxcars (Part 2) - Renumbering GN Cars to Correct Series - Renumbering the Walthers GN cars into the historically correct number series for 1950 era.

Weathering NP 11661 - A Rapido Double-sheath Boxcar - Some basics of weathering with Acrylics on double-sheath boxcar.

ATSF 129872 WWII War Emergency Boxcar Weathering with Pencils and Acrylics - Continuing the weathering on a single-sheath boxcar with Acrylics.

Walthers 50ft Auto-Boxcars (Part 2) - Renumbering GN Cars to Correct Series

In the first installment of this series, I just did a general survey of the various Walthers 50ft Auto-Boxcars that I had.  Sadly many of them aren't correct, but in this post, I want to address one of the simpler fixes to get a couple of the cars into more 'historically accurate' number series.

One of the nearly completed Great Northern 50ft OB Auto-boxcars by Walthers, from the early 2000s.

These cars needed a bit of work, so lets look at what's involved with updating and correcting a couple of issues with the stock model.  I'm not going to get into the odd brake equipment arrangement in this post, as I don't think it's the first think I look at on a freight car like this.  Even if the model is going to be a stand-in, I would like the primary exterior visible parts of the model to be mostly correct, i.e. roof, ends, sides.

Edit: Doug Polinder pointed out in a comment to me that: "the model is a Howe truss. GN's cars were Pratt."  So at best these cars are really going to just be 'stand-ins' for the GN prototypes.  Sadly this is one aspect that the ORER fails us, using it as the only research material.

Historical Data

Pre-relettering look of the car in the GN 41700-series.

To find out if the car's even existed and had the right door arrangement, I turn to my Westerfield Models CD of ORER 1950 fleet data.  Under the Great Northern, I can see that they do not have the stock model road number listed.

Clipping from 1950 ORER - No 41000-series cars active on the GN this year.

Great Northern's entry in ORER 1950 does not show the 41900-series is empty by 1950.  However, don't give up hope on your model yet.  Search the rest of the company's roster.  There may be another series, or the original road number may have been changed during a rebuild, etc.

However looking at 43500-series we find double-door 50ft boxcars which should match closer to the Walthers model.

 The ORER does show 43500-43899 series show steel frame, 12ft staggered-doors. The 43900-43999 are similar, but also show full end door. The Walthers models come with end-doors as an option in the kit, so it would be possible to model either series if some minor decalling and renumbering was done.

Renumbering

So I'm doing some renumbering of the GN cars that I have into the 43k series, which should be easy to change the 1 to a 3.  The 43500-43899 and 43900-43999 show as XM (General service boxcars) in the AAR Mechanical classification column.

Removed the "1" with a No.11 blade scraping carefully.

I started the renumbering work with a No.11 X-acto blade carefully scraping the surface just down through the pad-printed ink of the "1".  If I go too far, a small drop of darkened FCR paint works to fix it, although the new "3" will be covering most any scratches that happen.

The new decal in place with a bit of water still around.

I'm keeping the renumbering simple with Micro Scale's Block Gothic Alphabet and Numbers, White #90051.  The 9" lettering is what I'll need to change the side road numbers.  If your decal collection has a more "GN" standard lettering style, then obviously it's better to use that.

Buckled End Joints

One of the problems of putting the optional ends on is getting solid joints in the corners.

Given that I built these models about 20 years ago and some of them saw years of service, getting knocked around, the ends were starting to come loose.  So I wicked in some Tamiya Liquid Plastic Glue, which is lower viscosity than water into the corners of the ends.  Then I carefully pushed the end in to get the mitered joint to close.  

After closing the end up with liquid plastic glue to secure it.

The end looks much better after closing the openings.  A little bit of plastic actually squeezed out from this process, but that's easily cleaned up.  I did a little wash with water and AppleBarrel 20512E Burnt Umber to dull down the new white decal to match my previously weathered numbers on the cars.

Adding Tare Station & Date

I also need to add some basic 'tare dates' to the cars.  This is a station code, month-year stenciled onto the side of the car, usually in the panel just inboard of the car's weight data block to show when the car was last weighed to 'zero' it.  This allows the clerks working the car scales to be accurate within 200 pounds of the car's loaded weight when billing cargo by weight.  The weighing also allows the railroads to detect over-loaded cars which are a safety hazard and could cause additional wear and tear on the engines, infrastructure, and bridges.

The Great Northern has a very odd system of station codes, using an alpha and sometimes a number as well.  Some of the great past researchers of railroad history have documented these codes and what they station they represented, so I'm able to 'build' plausible station tare date codes for my models.  One GN car that I've done already has A-1 on it.  I made it out of some spare 3" stencil white decal "A" and a "-1" from the January month of a decal tare data set.

Operations Notes

ATSF 140 BK-4-H Cliff Jan 8, 1953, (at LMRC in 2018, Jason Hill photo)

Most of these GN cars traveling to Southern California would be in the lumber trade with finished lumber in these big double door auto-boxcars.  The routing usually would be GN, then interchanged to the WP at Bieber, then to the Santa Fe at Mormon Yard (aka Fresno), before routing to Southern California on the Santa Fe on symbol 'GWS' over Tehachapi.  Eastward routed cars onto the Santa Fe, would be switched over to N-34 or BK-symbol at Bakersfield to Barstow, then they would be worked into the eastward symbols from there out of San Bernardino.

If it was heading to a Southern Pacific destination, the car may have be interchanged at Bakersfield to avoid additional congestion in the LA basin.  So this ends up being more of a Santa Fe-centric modeling post for today, but the skills are good to learn for any prototype modeler that needs to do renumbering of the freight cars.

Open Doors or Closed Doors?

GN 43741's Left side with doors closed, representing a loaded car.

One of the nice aspects of the Walthers model is the option to model the car with the doors open.  While normally, you don't want cars running around loaded where the stuff inside can fall out or be stolen, often the empty car doors wouldn't be properly secured.

While the Right side of GN 43741's doors are modeled open, for returning empty towards home.

This lead to a tendency for the doors to open themselves with the slack action in the trains.  On layouts with reversing loop staging, it is possible therefore to set up one side of the car as the "Loaded" side, and the other as the "Empty" side.  At La Mesa Model Railroad club, this trick is really only visible in two places (Caliente-Tunnel 2 and at Walong on the Loop).  

More Tricks!

For discussion during a video shoot with TSG Multimedia, I cut down a couple OwlMtModels 3004 lumber loads to make a lighter weight faux load for the Walthers boxcar.

In one of the TSG Multimedia videos I filmed a number of years ago on the new OwlMtModels 3004 lumber loads, I talked about putting them inside of boxcars in a cut-down form.

OwlMtModels 3004 Lumber Load inside Walthers DD boxcar.

So that's always an option too if you want to show an open door as the load and claim the closed door is empty!

SP 67789 with a stash of 3004 lumber loads hiding inside at King Lumber in Bakersfield, at LMRC. Jason Hill photo circa 2018.

Another option is the photo below, where I staged a photo at King Lumber to show the car being unloaded.

Pondering future options, it might even be possible to put magnets inside the lumber load to remotely move them back into the ends of the car to hide them. - Although, I've not actually tried this --- yet.

In Closing

The majority of my cars are now in good shape residing in the 43000-series!  However, one now has a new problem.  Next time I'll be having a closer look at the 43900-series cars which need end-doors.

Redecalled GN 43952 with tare date added.

This car is now renumbered to the correct 43000-series from the 41000-series, however now the 43900-series should have end-doors.  Not a problem as these cars came with the option for end-doors.  So I'll be digging out the old spare parts from 20 years ago to rebuild the A-end of the car, seen at left in the above photo.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

Modeling Auto-Boxcars (Part 1) - Walthers 50ft Double-Door Single-Sheath Auto-Boxcars - An Overview

Weathering NP 11661 - A Rapido Double-sheath Boxcar - Some basics of weathering with Acrylics on double-sheath boxcar.

ATSF 129872 WWII War Emergency Boxcar Weathering with Pencils and Acrylics - Continuing the weathering on a single-sheath boxcar with Acrylics.

Chalk Marks - A New Method

I really want to draw attention to the human details that we so often forget on our models.  No, I don't mean modeling a brakemen riding a car exactly, or a clerk walking the paths in a yard, 'mud hopping' the string.  No, I mean the notes that the crews left for themselves and others to understand various needs of the car's status, routing, servicing, or maybe even to set the car out in the middle of a blizzard at night when the trainman doesn't feel like trying to read a car number.

Gel-Pen with 0.5mm tip and strong white covering gel-ink which makes great chalk-marks!

So I wasn't planning to circle back to the NC&StL 15337 so fast, but I went by Michael's craft store today and found a great little white gel-pen from GELLYROLL 0.5mm tipped pen.  It doesn't work so well on glossy surfaces, but works great on dullcoated surfaces.  I found that I needed to clean the tip on some paper or ideally wood (tie material works great) to get fresh gel on the ball to present it onto the model surface.

Let's look at a few examples of chalk marks by Gel Pen...

NC&StL 15337

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

Cross check the work against the prototype photo.  Not bad!  Looks like there's a #9 on the left end of the car.  Could be a track number or maybe a train symbol.  Hard to tell.  Several old chalk marks at the left stirrup which have been wiped out with someone's rag or a sleeve.  There's an old mark below the light weight.  I'm guessing there's a AB bleed-valve arrow and the letters "Rod" under door.  The door has some rough math of some sort being worked out, along with to the right of the door.  A random "P" appears to be next to the Internal Dimension data block, and some other marks under the lower ladder rungs.

A little work with the new gel-pen toy on the left side of NC&StL 15337 to match prototype photograph.

I like this white gel, as it dries flat and looks good as chalk marks.  I'm also planning to get some gray and other colors, like yellow, red, green, etc which carmen and clerks used if it was at hand.  The colors I'm looking for aren't going to be neon or super bright, but more realistically colored chalks that would have been available in the 1940s-1950s.

Right side of NC&StL 15337 with an assortment of chalk markings with the gel-pen.

The other side of the car is pretty basic, with OK marks, some other cryptic scribbles, some door math again to round it out the model.  I have some other plans in the work to do the final detailing on this model, which will make up last of the series on the NC&StL 15337 (Part 4).

SP 15203

SP 15203 with "Shorts" chalk mark.

The left side of Rapido B-50-15 includes the arrow for trainmen to quickly find the bleed valve lever in the dark of night when walking the string of cars.  As my Jawbone Branch is connected directly to traffic flow between Bakersfield and Los Angeles, usually using the freight symbol "Mojave Shorts", or often just called the "Shorts" for the division, direction implied by which end of the division the car is starting on.  Shorts West from Los Angeles  and Shorts East from Bakersfield.  The combination of the station number "1511" indicates the car's heading for Mojave.

The other side of SP 15203 just has the crypic instruction "Hold".

One of the common chalk marks was "Hold", this can be used in dozens of places and is a great mark to put on cars.  Is the car empty and the agent wants to keep it in the yard?  Well, 'Hold' it here.  Which cars are we pulling from this industry?  Oh, someone marked this as a hold, to remind us the loading crews aren't done with their work.  Maybe the car's on three-day demurrage agreement unload still, and there's a weekend, so the car's not having to be unloaded until Tuesday, so we're holding the car until it's released by the customer.

SP 15564

Looks like the last trip of SP 15564 wasn't kind, time for a "Clean out"!

The left side of SP 15564 I went with the basic bleed arrow and a carmen's instruction to get the car cleaned out, which usually involved a set-over to a track on the edge of the yard for a day and a visit from a worker with a broom.

The other side has an "OK" and the bleed arrow for this side.

For now the other side is very basic generic marks.  When I get a couple of other colors I may add some more.

NP 11661

NP 11661 with a few basic marks.

I haven't put much on this Rapido Double-sheath NP boxcar with simple marks for "4th St" and "S/O 2".  Sounds like the car recently was routed to something on 4th Street of somewhere and setout 2, which is another cryptic message for some Conductor to himself.

SP 37821 "Overnight" B-50-16

SP 37821 chalk mark "Freight House" and station code "3429".

I decided not to obviously assign the routing for this B-50-16 Overnight car to Los Angeles Freight House, but instead have hidden that exact message on the car by using the SP's Los Angeles station number, 3429.  The PMT 'Overnight' loading at the SP freight house was the usual loading/unloading point.  As I may be using the car in general freight service, which may focus on Freight Forwarders, which for the Jawbone Branch, often would mean coming from the LA Freight House also!  So win-win situation.

SP 37821 with "Team 3" chalk mark.

The other side of the Overnight car I went with a more generic chalk mark of "Team 3" which would probably be a spot or door number at the local Team track.

UTLX 72176

UTLX 72176 with "Clean out" note.

The tank cars get in on the fun too.  This Tangent GA Type 17 8k car has been marked with a carmen's order to "Clean out" the car, which was then struck out with a line and 'OK' marked, to show the car's clean and ready to go for the next trip.

I'll do more with the Tangent and Rapido tankcar models at some point, covering weathering and other little bits to improve the models.

In Closing

A parting view of NC&StL 15337... for now.

One other point to mention on the NC&StL 15337 which many cars will also show, I noticed that the prototype photo shows scuff marks and mud from the trainmen's boots as they climbed up to handle the brake and retaining valve.  Also one of the chalk marks on the prototype went behind the 2nd from the bottom ladder grab.  Lots of little details of marks to include on this car and others in my fleet.

Jason Hill

Related Articles:

NC&StL 15337 (Part 1) - Accurail Kitbash

NC&StL 15337 (Part 2) - Details & Decalling

NC&StL 15337 (Part 3) - Wrapping Up & Weathering

SP 15469 (Part 1) - Lettering Changes & Backdating Rapido B-50-15

Weathering NP 11661 - A Rapido Double-Sheath Boxcar

UTLX Tank Cars (Part 2) - Tangent GA Type-17 8k Tankcar Review

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