Sulphur gondolas (that spelling during use of cars, not more modern "sulfur"). Rivet detail filed off of flat car base to resemble proto car built with one-piece cast underbody to avoid rivet holes & seams which could catch sulfur dust and corrode-- very early for this type construction. Superstructure scratchbuilt to resemble proto wood composite structure at a time when most new freight cars being built all-steel- but again to avoid corrision from sulfur dust. Only Santa Fe and Southern Pacific had these.
...........not really a railcar.................Brion Boyles gave this to me. He called it an "inspection engine". It looks like he took a chassis from an old out of scale MDT (something that several manufacturers have issued, over the years), cut up some cabooses and built it. It never was powered, but, the headlight is live. I decided that it was better suited as a plant switcher for the Trona-Rodd Small Engine Plant. I added an air tank, an exhaust stack and a back coupler. Other than that, it is just as it was when Brion gave it to me, including the paint, lettering and weathering. It fits its role as a beat-up, crummy plant switcher. I have it coupled to a cheater box car and it shuffles the cars at the plant. If you figure a two-hundred, two-hundred fifty horsepower diesel with one axle geared, a second one connected by a chain drive and either the third one an idler or even connected by a chain, it is good for pushing two or three cars at a time around the plant. It looks like a boxcab diesel that could have been built in the 1930s or early 1940s
Scratch built 6-6-4 Pullman using a Con Cor passenger car as a core. A year or so after I finished building this, Kato came out with the same type car in their first UP streamliner set. Then later Kato released their car in the same shadow line paint scheme. But I take pride in the fact that I was the first kid on the block to have a car like it.
Is that CMStP&P boxcar with stakes a lumber car? It and that MoPac cupola/bay window caboose are unique prototypes. Here is a caboose that I picked up at a Greenberg in Jersey. It is obviously a cut-down MT SSW wood caboose with a built-up cupola and grabs added to the cupola. I am not sure what road had a caboose like that, as it was not lettered when I bought it. I have never seen another one like it. This is a cut-down RR Pullman that I found in another junk pile at the same show. It was painted NJT. The paint job was not the best, but the body cut down was rather well done. Whoever had it before me did something funny with the trucks and bolsters with the result that it looked like it was on stilts. It had some funny trucks, as well. I swapped in MT four wheel passenger trucks, added steps, body mounts, a little bit of Squadron GreenĀ®, repainted (after stripping, of course) and lettered for my non-historic. It makes a unique shorty coach. One thing that I miss now that there are no shows is that there are no junk piles. At times, you can get someone else's goofs for next to nothing and with a little bit of work, you can clean up the things and come up with something that is not bad. I do that with buildings as well as rolling stock. You would be amazed at how many people do not understand that you must take it easy with the aeroplane glue. If you find the right table, you can buy those trashy buildings for two or three dollars apiece. A little sandpaper, a little filing, some putty and paint plus a few things swapped in and out, and the result is a pretty good building. Unfortunately, some people have an inflated image of what their stuff is worth. I am not paying fifteen dollars for a building that has aeroplane glue and fingermarks everywhere, was obviously put together in haste thus the parts are ill-fitting and it has a sloppy paint job on top of all that.
Some of the hobby shops I used to visit would have a box of stuff for $1.00. I would by Quality Craft and Gloorcraft logging car kits whenever I found them. They came in 3pks. So 33.3c a car. I have over thirty of them. I've built most but not all of them.
This is a C-C RDC-3 cut down to fit a Kato RDC-4 chassis. The backstory is "rebuilt after wreck". The first RDC wreck about which I remember reading happened in 1956 or 1957 on the Boston and Maine just north of Swampscott where an RS-3 that was pulling a branch line passenger train collided with a two car RDC-1 train on the Secondary North-South Main (that went through Salem instead of Haverhill). Allright, so we are stretching it, here. A full sized RDC-3 does not look that good an the thirteen and three quarter curves of the SC&N, so, I cut down a C-C The short chassis probably would not be able to accommodate and air conditioning unit, so it goes onto the roof. The black lines are made of varnished black thread that are supposed to be downspouts so that the condensation does not drip onto the roof and rust it prematurely. I added the vents on the baggage/RPO section, as the C-C lacks this detail. Kato gives you more than you need for the RDC-2/3/4. I suppose that this is in case you launch a few. I did decide that I can do better, so I did cut down another one. It does look better. I have painted it and added the horns, but, I must find the air conditioning unit that I bought for it. In addition, I must add the vents over the baggage/mail section and finally letter it.
Budd cars are fun to operate. sadly the pair I operated was on 10 mph track.... I get anxiety on 10 mph track...