Building a damaged reefer car

A photo in one of my old books has inspired me to build a model of a damaged reefer car.  I believe the photo was actually of a grain boxcar but I chose to do a reefer.  I have a fairly large supply of card stock reefer and box car sides - once upon a time they were popular.  They can actually be made to look fairly good with a little work.

Above is the the photo of the damaged car.  Something, possibly a locomotive,  smashed in the end of this car.  I thought this would be interesting sitting on a siding.

This is the car side I choose to use.  It is a colorful and interesting reefer.  The card stock side has not had many changes yet - just a baseboard under the door (made from paper) and the doors have been cut with a razor blade to give the appearance that they could actually open.  I will be adding a lot more detail and substantial weathering.

Above is a card stock side reefer built many years ago using car sides produced in the NMRA Bulletin.  The Bulletin (now NMRA Magazine) used to publish car sides printed on card stock paper as a center fold.  Some were of prototypes, some were humorous as is this one, and some were for well know model railroader's layouts like for instance John Allen.  I have most of those car sides and have built a few.  They printed them in the most popular scales.  The sides I am using for this project were not from the Bulletin.

Above is an old reefer car end with the end doors open.  This car is loaded with grain.  I guess they used any car they could get hold of.

I am still working on the SS Ltd truck.  It is progressing slowly.  These kits are not my favorite thing to build so I have to motivate myself to work on it.

SS ltd truck kit and Dolarway sign

I decided to build an SS Ltd tractor/trailer kit I have had for many years.  The kit was first produced in 1976 and as far as I know is now out of production.  SS Ltd was a firm created by the late John Coots and they had a wide variety of kits.  The vehicle kits and many others were all very detailed cast metal parts.  The instructions were minimal.  As you can see in the kit instruction photo below they proudly stated that they felt wordy instructions were unnecessary so they provided mostly isometric views of the kit parts in assembly position.  I have built many SS Ltd kits and the more complex ones were a pain to build but produced nice models.

The picture of the truck above from the kit plans shows the intended model.  I am making some changes to suit my self.  The roof of the trailer comes as 6 pieces and is oddly high humped.  I am replacing the roof with a piece of approximately 1/16th inch thick styrene for a flatter roof and rounding the top edges.

Above is the body of the trailer with the new roof sitting on top but not attached.  There are projecting supports along each side and cast metal braces are provided to go from the brace to the car side.  There were tiny indents where the brace was to attach to both and small cast pins at the top of the support with the bottom being it's own pin.  Needless to say holes were needed for the pins so I had to drill them out.  The hole in the side was easy but the hole in the brace was almost as wide as the brace - that was fun.  You can see one support installed on the right end of the trailer body.

The photo above shows a 1928 cartage company with trailers and a truck similar to what I am building.  You can see the roofs of the trailers are almost flat.

I expect this kit will take a while to build.

Dolarway Pavement sign.

I also built a billboard sign for an early 1900s company called Dolarway.  I know they were operational in 1913 but am not sure when they went out of business.  They made concrete pavements and their specialty was that they added coat of bitumen and sand over the top to protect the concrete.

Above is a photo of my Dolarway billboard installed on my layout,  Just something a little bit different.

Above is a photo of the sign.  If anyone is interested in using this sign on their layout, feel free to download it and make copies to suit your scale.

I am also building a freight car using card stock sides.  The intent is that this will be a damaged car. I will see how this goes.

Old parking garage completed

I have completed the old parking garage.  The roof  is 2x12 boards covered with strips of facial tissue.  Gives the model a worn look.  I added a strip of thin cardstock around the exterior of the base so I could add some scenery next to the structure as once it is on the layout it will be behind a row of buildings and somewhat hard to detail.

The scenery on the card strip is grass and dirt.  I added a shovel on the left and a ladder laying down on the right.  There are also some other minor details.  There is a figure with a cane in the front.

I also added some signs on each side.

The drive area in front of each set of doors was painted dark gray then covered with light gray cinders.

From the rear view you can see I added an old tire on the roof.  I guess some vandal threw it up here. The "tire" is a small ring of plastic painted dark gray.

I found out a few days ago that Caboose Hobbies in Colorado will be closing soon.  The number of decent hobby shops is shrinking.  I only went to caboose Hobbies once many years ago though I did order from them by phone a few times.  Since I only scratch build now,  I have little need for hobby shops.  I have an extensive supply of scratch building materials and when I need something I usually order it from Walthers.  I was really disappointed when the Floquil paints were discontinued though most of what I use now is acrylic craft paints - very cheap and easy to blend for various colors.   Other businesses that I used to buy from such as Radio Shack and  Brookstone used to have really useful products but they have changed so much that they now have very little of interest to me.

I am now trying to come up with my next project - it may not be a structure this time.  Still thinking about it.

Old parking garage model progress

The garage is mostly complete - still needs a roof.  It is completely made using strip wood.  The internal framing is 2x6,  the walls are 2x10 and the doors are 2x7.  The corner posts and internal post are 6x6.  The floor was made from card stock.  The roof will be made from 2x12 stock.

I added some signs on the exterior walls.

I made door handles using a small 1/16th inch square heavy paper base and a 1/16th inch piece of small wire glued to the paper - what a pain!  They are not easy to see but if you look close you can see them.

I added some interior detail,  mostly on the open door side.  While these details may be hard to see

after the roof is added, I just like doing interior details.  I put a shelf with stuff on it at the back, several tires, a gas cylinder in the rear corner, and a barrel on the left side.

Above is a few of the right interior.

The front close up may help to see the door details and the inside though that is somewhat dark.

Next I will add the roof and some exterior ground detail around the sides.

Old automobile parking garage

This next project is an old, small automobile parking garage.  I previously showed the interior framing.  I have now completed the sides.  I built it board by board using scale 2x10 lumber for the siding.  All wood has been stained with my india ink & alcohol mixture.  There will be no paint on this structure.

Above is the interior wall framing assembled.

And here on the left is the structure with the board siding applied.  On the right is a small shed having nothing in particular to do with the garage - I just finished working on it along with doing the garage.  The shed is built entirely from card stock other then the wood strips used for internal bracing.  The sides are made from a layer of card stock which was then covered with strips of card stock for boards.  The roof is made from a single piece of card stock covered with facial tissue strips to simulate deteriorated rolled roofing.  The figure is there to give an idea of size.

Above is a partial side view of the structures.

In addition to putting a roof on the garage, I will add some front doors, the right one closed and the left one open.  There will be a floor and some amount of interior detail.  I will probably add an automobile partially in the left garage side.  Not really sure as I just make this stuff up as I go along.

Welding shop on layout

The welding shop is installed on the layout and the welding light is installed.  The welding shop is located behind a row of structures thus a little hard to see.  There is more scenery to be added.

Above is a photo showing the structure with low room light and the welding light turned on.  There is one steady blue LED and two blinking white LEDs.  It does not show well with a still shot.A small switch comes installed on the wires of the light kit.

While finishing the welding shop I was also constructing a 1915 model T Ford kit by Aurora.  That company went out of business about 1975.  This is a cheap but reasonably well detailed plastic kit from a series called  "snap-a-roos".  They were intended to just snap together, and they did.  I actually glued mine together and added details.

Below is a a photo of the car with the instruction sheet.

Next project

My next project is a small auto parking garage.  I have started the walls with interior framing which will be covered by individual boards.  The corner pieces on the ends will be removed before assembly - I just used them for stability during assembly.  There will be two garage doors in the front and a window on each end.

Salisbury Maryland 1922 strawberry crop RR transportation

In the 1920's Salisbury Maryland was a major strawberry shipping point.  The railroad providing service was the Pennsylvania railroad.  Between 800 and 1000 cars were forwarded from the Maryland,  Delaware and Virginia peninsula during a six week period in May and June.  The refrigerator cars used were primarily the R-7 type from the PRR.  The cars were initially iced in Salisbury after the ice bunkers were thoroughly cleaned.  The icing platform in salisbury was up to date in every way.

A conference was held (below) in March 1922 to plan for handling the strawberry traffic.

Above - opening a hatch to determine the amount of ice needed.

Above shows workers carrying extra reefer plugs for cars on which they were missing.

UPDATE:  In answer to the comment/question the photos came from a 1922 copy of the Express Messenger.  If you need more information contact me directly using my gmail.