Designed by Chris Schmuck, (well-known as Chris333 on
the forums), RLW offers these laser-cut thin-birch plywood
20-ton Coal/Ore car kits in packs of two or six, minus trucks
and couplers. For Nn3 running, RLW recommends MTL 961
Nn3 Diamond Archbar trucks and MTL 905 body-mount
Nn3/Z couplers. To adapt for N, I used the MTL 1015 arch-
bar trucks (more on installation later), and kept the MTL
905 couplers for more prototypical appearance, though true
rivet counters should fabricate link-and-pin hardware.
The kit comes with very useful instructions, and it behooves
one to take their suggestions seriously, especially in regard
to allowing the thin side braces to dry overnight, as they will
pop off if one becomes too hasty and attempts trimming off
the sprue too quickly.
While all the pieces are still attached to the wood sheets, I paint
the body pieces Polly Scale Boxcar Red and the undercarriage
Polly Scale Grimy Black, both slightly thinned with water to allow
the wood grain to show through. Given the thinness of the birch
plywood sheets, I sandwich them between wax paper & weights
to prevent curling or warping while drying.
I find that assembling two cars takes about an hour to get to
the point where the side braces are attached and you must wait
a day for the white glue to dry. Mounting trucks and couplers,
adding details, weight and loads, and weathering takes about
another hour. While waiting for the braces to dry, I prep the
details by removing flash, painting, and then trimming them
from their sprues. The kit comes with the brass wire and brake
wheels (installed on one end of each car), and, while the cars
look great as is, I decided to add Grandt Line HO 1” NBW details,
eight on each side, and one Grandt Line O 1” square NBW on
each side center to simulate the drop rod at the bottom of the
