Here is a box car I've been building. It has reached the stage that I think is the pinnacle of beauty - detailed but not yet primed, painted, lettered and weathered. No doubt it will be a beautiful car at that completed stage also, but at this point all the hard work that has gone into building it is still visible. In a kit like this, that means all the details are evident due to the variety of materials.
I consider older kits like this to be craftsman kits. A box of wood structural shapes, white metal castings, stamped brass and styrene parts becomes a box car. I have taken this car a little further than the manufacturer intended by adding a few details beyond what is included with the kit. I substituted fishing line and Tichy turnbuckles for the wire truss rods and brass crimp-on turnbuckles included. I also added Tichy truss-rod n-b-w 'ends' to each end of the car. The wire truss rods, incidentally, were pulled in a vise to straighten them, then bent and cut and bent again into the new grab irons for the car sides and ends.
I also added Cal Scale plastic brake levers, styrene supports for the brake rigging, and I used the staple stirrup steps as brake lever supports. Inside the car I used adhesive caulk to affix a found-item weight. When I came across that hunk of metal on the side of the road I just knew it would fit inside a car someday...that day has come. As I took the photos for this posting I realized I still need to add a grab iron on each roof walk end, new stirrup steps on the corners, and possibly a door stop on each side.
This car will become the first Ocali Creek Railway box car, and as such, will be most often seen at the freight houses and team tracks along the line delivering LCL freight. Not sure I'll get it painted before Xmas. I may just run it like this for a while and enjoy all the bits and pieces.
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