Ideas for kitbashing Howe truss or radial roof boxcars

[squirrelhunter]

So I model Missouri Pacific in the transition era and I'm working on kitbashing some of their more common but unusual rolling stock.

I've shortened an Atlas USRA double sheathed boxcar into a reasonable approximation of one of their 36' boxcars and added a IM diagonal panel roof to an Atlas USRA rebuilt to approximate one of the steel side rebuilds of their single sheathed boxcars from the early 50's


The two big holes in my roster are their single sheathed 6 panel Howe truss cars with radial roofs and their large fleet of 8'6" 4 panel Howe truss cars...
Example of the 6 panel Howe Truss cars in HO here:
  https://railroadprototypemodeler.com/2019/02/03/salt-weathering-post-117-02-19/

Example of the 4 panel Howe truss cars in HO here:
https://blog.resincarworks.com/missouri-pacificinternational-great-northern-howe-truss-boxcar/

The 6 panel Howe truss cars had an inside height of 9'3", and were originally auto boxes with double doors or 1 and 1/3 doors but by the 30's they had mostly been rebuilt to single door cars.

Here's my first question- does anyone know of a 3D printed or cast resin or any other kind of Murphy radial roof made in N scale? I think the easiest way to get the 3+ cars of this type I need would be to to take an Atlas USRA single sheathed boxcar, removed the roof and replace it with a radial roof. I've had no luck finding a radial roof as a seperate part anywhere.

Now to my 2nd, more difficult question- anyone have an idea about how to go about kitbashing the 4 panel Howe truss cars?
I have several of the Mehano and Roco Howe truss cars:
https://www.spookshow.net/freight/ll40woodbox.html 
https://www.spookshow.net/freight/rocossbox.html

The sides on the Mehano ones are ok and about the right height but the rest of the car is wrong/terrible.

The Roco cars are better, but they are a lot closer to the NP war emergency boxcar on height (amd with a new roof they would probably be a close enough stand in for that car) and I think they are too tall. Ends and roof are wrong for the MP cars as well.

I'm a bit stumped on the Howe truss cars- I could see taking the Mehano sides, replacing the door, but then I'm a bit at a loos for.roof and sides. If I recall, a lot but not all of these cars used a radial roof as well.

Has anyone else had luck kibashing 3+ Howe cars into something better?

For reading so far, here's a semi unrelated pic of my model of an MP/GCL auxiliary water tender from a Bachmann ACF tank car:


Edit- thomasjmdavis reminded me I got my truss types mixed up!

[bbussey]

I think you best option for the radial roof is to 3D print it.

[thomasjmdavis]

ATSFNSCALEMODELS (atsfnscalemodels.com) has a radial roof stockcar (Sk-3) with Murphy ends.  You might contact him on whether the roofs and car ends are available separately.  Or just buy stockcar kits, and use the floors, ends and roofs (the Sk-3 was a late 40s rebuild of a Bx-3 boxcar- so has brakes, etc. circa 1947)
https://atsfnscalemodels.com/projects/stockcars%2520.html

A little confused by what you identify as a "Pratt truss"- the link goes to a Howe truss car (that is, it is an 9 panel car, with 6 diagonal braces in a Howe pattern, and a second car that is a 7 panel car with 4 diagonal braces in a Howe pattern ).  if D is the Door, then a Howe truss is ///D\\\  or //D\\  while a Pratt truss would be \\\D/// or \\D//.  (I sure hope I got that right, or the bridge engineers will never let me live it down).
https://buffalorivertruss.com/blog/seven-truss-types/

If the Pratt you are looking for is \\D// - there is (was?) a 3D print available (or he will sell you a file to print your own) https://outoftheboxmodels.com/products/southern-pacific-b-50-15-wood-framed-40-boxcar?variant=46444111724796   Now, a caveat- I bought one of these from him years ago when he was first getting started, and waited, and waited, and waited... but he finally delivered- and not bad for early resin printing- as good as shapeways at the time.  But... I don't see any way to contact him on that site, which always makes me wonder if a a company is still up and running.  Now that I have a 3D printer, I may risk $10 to buy a file from him and see what I get- if and when I get the printer set up and running..

[jjb62556]

They are still around. I have 2 C363's in N scale coming this week that I ordered in late December.

[squirrelhunter]

I think you best option for the radial roof is to 3D print it.

That is kind of what I figured- I've reached out to a guy who has done some 3D work for me in the past to see if he'd be interested in the job (I don't have a printer or know how to do the necessary drawings) but I'll check in with ATSF N scale models per thomasjddavis suggestion to see if they could print the roofs for me.

The 4 panel Howe cars were common in the southwest, both MP and SLSF had large fleets of them.

[squirrelhunter]

If the Pratt you are looking for is \\D// - there is (was?) a 3D print available (or he will sell you a file to print your own) https://outoftheboxmodels.com/products/southern-pacific-b-50-15-wood-framed-40-boxcar?variant=46444111724796   Now, a caveat- I bought one of these from him years ago when he was first getting started, and waited, and waited, and waited... but he finally delivered- and not bad for early resin printing- as good as shapeways at the time.  But... I don't see any way to contact him on that site, which always makes me wonder if a a company is still up and running.  Now that I have a 3D printer, I may risk $10 to buy a file from him and see what I get- if and when I get the printer set up and running..

Thank for the correction on the trusses, I edited my OP. I'd seen that car come up in my searching for some SP -50-15 cars, which were also common in my modeling era/area as well. Do you have any photos of the physical cars? The way the side braces look on the renderings online gave me pause about buying prints or the files...

[thomasjmdavis]

Thank for the correction on the trusses, I edited my OP. I'd seen that car come up in my searching for some SP -50-15 cars, which were also common in my modeling era/area as well. Do you have any photos of the physical cars? The way the side braces look on the renderings online gave me pause about buying prints or the files...

My turn to edit my own post above.  I pulled out the 2 carbodies I have for the SP cars, and I'll revise my comment about the relative quality.  While I have seen shapeways output that was worse, these 2 do have a major flaw.  The bracing on the left side of each carside lacks detail- essentially looking like a flat piece of steel, rather than a 'top hat' structural shape.  The bracing on the right looks pretty good. Here's a photo from a previous Railwire thread:
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=48885.msg649847#msg649847

Now, that said, the examples I have were from what I think were the first products he ever turned out, and current production could be much improved. I would recommend asking him for a photo of the product he is currently producing.  If you can figure out how to contact him. Facebook, maybe?  Or perhaps he's reading this now.
Here's a photo of the more recent E1 shells- https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=49146.msg662253#msg662253