Page 42 - 38. MRH13-04-Apr2013
Basic HTML Version
Getting Real Column - 10
appeared in
Railway Prototype Cyclopedia
(Vol. 23, 2011, pages
1–41). Additional information about the postwar 12-panel cars
can be found in Pat Wider’s earlier article in
Railway Prototype
Cyclopedia
(Vol. 8, 2003, pages 75–105). Finally, there is good
color coverage of both car groups in Scott Thompson’s book,
Great Northern Color Equipment Pictorial,
Book One, Box Cars
and Stock Cars (Four Ways West, 1995).
My prewar wood-sheathed car is built from a Sunshine resin
kit (kit no. 18.4), and is numbered within the first 1000 cars
built in 1937, cars 50000–50999. By 1942, they had been fol-
lowed by 7000 more cars of equivalent design, thus comprising
a major part of the GN fleet. I lettered this car with the older
style “front-facing goat” emblem, which these first cars of the
series did receive when built (12).
My postwar 12-panel car represents part of the 3500 cars of
this design acquired by GN during 1948–1951, specifically
series 18000–18499, built in company shops in 1949. Great
Northern was a major exponent of the 12-panel design in the
years after World War II. My model is an InterMountain sty-
rene kit, to which I added the correct Universal handbrake (not
included in the kit) and a Plano etched-metal Morton running
board. My kit came with a representation of a Gypsum running
board, but this group of cars had either Morton or Apex run-
ning boards. Note that this car has the more familiar “side-fac-
ing goat” emblem, introduced about 1940 and thus correct for
the time of construction of the car (13).
“My prewar wood-sheathed car is built from a
Sunshine resin kit ...”
An example of a modeling detail on this car: the reweigh place
and date shown are “P50,” a Pennsylvania Railroad symbol
designating Enola Yard, one of the largest freight yards in the
world, and the date, “6-51.” This car was built in early 1949 and
like all new cars at that time, would have had to be reweighed
in 30 months, thus this choice of reweigh date. Other than
new cars, most cars only had to be reweighed every 48 months
after January 1, 1949. A written description of reweigh rules is
available on Google Drive, through this link:
I usu-
ally use Sunshine Models decal sets for reweigh and repacking
lettering, from the regional “Repack and Reweigh” sets. The
same kind of detail can be seen on all but the newest other
cars shown throughout this column.
14: Boston & Maine 72597 represents a 40-ton box
car, an ARA XM-1 design with plate ends. There were
2000 of these boxcars for this relatively small railroad
and they are a good example of a signature freight car.
The model was built from a Sunshine resin kit.
14
MRH-Apr 2013
