The Lite and Narrow Column - 9
15
15: The 36’ car attached to the underframe. Note the end
sills are not yet filed even with the car sides. They also
need a metal corner plate attached to them.
ladders were replaced using information from the bill of mate-
rials in the ET books on the freight cars, using scale 2 x 3s and
adding rungs made from .010” styrene rod. This gives a more
realistic and delicate appearance to the ladders.
ET&WNC 428
Boxcar 428 was built in June 1924 as part of a group of five cars.
The car body had an inside length of 32’ and was of all-wood
construction. It had fabricated steel body bolsters and Simplex
trucks. The car was retired in December, 1945.
My kit was from Train and Trooper, best known for their Maine
two-foot equipment. This kit was just rereleased by Mt. Blue
with the problems I encountered corrected and upgraded. The
kit is a laser-cut kit with full interior so the doors can be left
open. All ET cars had tin or galvanized roofs and the new kit has
been modified to represent this. For the car that I built, I took
a Floquil rust marker and
painted the roof, moving the
marker from the roof walk to
the edge of the roof. I used a
paper towel and wiped off the
rust, leaving visible traces on
the roof. Next, Bragdon dark
rust weathering chalks were
applied to the roof to get the
finished blend of colors for a
rusted roof.
On the Mt. Blue re-release
car, you have choice of fas-
cia strips for the car ends. To
be sure which to use – and
this applies to all freight
cars – check a photo of the
car you are modeling. In the
original kit, a Tichy standard
K brake system was sup-
plied. This was too large for
narrow gauge equipment.
With the new kit, this has
been changed to the smaller
Grandt Line narrow gauge
K brake system. The new kit
also includes three differ-
ent types of bolsters that
Tweetsie used, allowing for
the car to be at a proper
height, unlike the previous
kit. With car 428 having the
MRH-Feb 2014
