Removing Trainman boxcar roof walk?

[wazzou]

For putty, I actually swear by Bondo. 

Any big box retailer with a good Automotive section, like Walmart for instance will have one part Bondo in a pretty good sized tube.
The tube is generally orange as well as the putty inside.  It sets up quick, hardens and best of all, unlike Squadron, it does not shrink.
It is easily workable with files and/or sandpaper and covers smoothly for painting.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Dave, this just came up.

Not the same car, but a good view of a repaint roof:
http://thecrhs.org/Images/CR-210494-Class-X51C

[wcfn100]

The PRR car has 4-3-1 ends and the Atlas car has 4-4 ends. 

I believe the Atlas car has 5/4 ends, it's just that the lowest rib is cut out for clearance of the truck mounted coupler.


Jason

[Mark5]

For putty, I actually swear by Bondo. 

Any big box retailer with a good Automotive section, like Walmart for instance will have one part Bondo in a pretty good sized tube.
The tube is generally orange as well as the putty inside.  It sets up quick, hardens and best of all, unlike Squadron, it does not shrink.
It is easily workable with files and/or sandpaper and covers smoothly for painting.

I might just go with this - I use it all the time for my endless auto projects.

[Dave V]

The paint job on that car is dead on accurate for what was coming out of the Hollidaysburg, PA (P62 weigh mark) in the summer of 76.  Conrail used this paint scheme for about three or four months between late June 76 to September 76.  It is unique due to the large long "wheels-on-rail" logo and the side-by-side reporting marks.  The car itself is an ex PRR X45, not X46 is is classed as such (take another look at the class on the car).  The ends and sides match the prototype pretty closely.  The ends are close, but not perfect.  The PRR car has 4-3-1 ends and the Atlas car has 4-4 ends.  The other draw back is the car has a 9 foot door and the prototype had an 8 foot door.  I can live with this.  We could sit here all day and debate Conrail oxide red, so I say the color is fine.  I agree with everyone else about removing the running board.  Don't forget the casting plug in the center of the roof.  As far as the roof being painted by Conrail, I cannot say.  I am going to be doing the same thing to both road numbers and painting the roofs silver.  The only paint job issues with the second road number (CR 261132) is that the AAR code should be XL and not XM and it too should have an ACI tag.  Thanks.

Jeff  

Jeff,

Tons of great info, wow!  I was waaaay off on my assumptions.  First of all, I should have researched the paint stencil and seen it was Holidaysburg.  Second, the car is labeled X45...  though I swear the proto photo looks like a 6 to me, but whatever.  PRR X45 makes much more sense, and I'll facepalm because I have this car as a PRR X45 also.  The body color may just be wonky in the proto photo because of bright sunlight, the rendering on the film, conversion to digital, or even the fact that in early '76 they were still kinda winging it.  However, that's a nice match to EL red I'd say.

Chalk it up to a long week of mornings starting before 0530.

Ed, great picture.  So here's my plan:

After the roof is done, paint it silver (or hell, color it with a silver Sharpie, lol!) and then mask off all of the car sides.  Then I'll come in with a close match to the body color and glance it with an airbrush.  Hopefully it will end up with a look similar to the Atlas Precision Design boxcar roof with the overspray.

[unittrain]

I just received mine and it is a really decent car I just ordered the Reading one which is in a cool paint scheme. I tried finding pictures of it but could not locate any.

[ai5629]

I just reread my post from the morning (which I rushed to type since I was leaving for work).  Jason is correct, the end is 5-4.  I meant to say the sides and ROOF are a match for a PRR X45.  The ends are not correct.  There is a picture on the Conrail Historical Society web site (www.thecrhs.org) of another Conrail X45.  Look for 50' boxcar CR263012.  Didn't Atlas claim when they first tooled this car that they were going to put a 4-3-1 dreadnaught end?  Maybe it was just a dreadnaught end.  That was a couple of years ago, so I don't recall exactly.  Thank you.

Jeff

[Dave V]

One thing that bugs me though is that the X45 survivor pic on CRHS is in a completely different number series than the car I bought.  Road number 155403 appears between two series of ex-NYC 50' cars on Penn Central.  Did the X45 series get a renumber sometime after July 1976?  Odd that a sister car would be in the 263xxx series.

[ai5629]

The second road number that Atlas did (CR261132) is close to the car on the Conrail Historical Society web site.  These two cars must have had some sort of permanent loading devices which was why they landed in the 2XXXXX series (all cars in Conrail's 2XXXXX series were specially equipped cars).  I suspect they were equipped with racks for hauling auto parts at some point, but that is purely a guess.  Conrail had a tendency to do strange things with road numbers like sticking a car from a different class right in the middle of a like- equipped but different origin car.  Things like this is why modeling Conrail is so fun.  I gave up trying to make sense of it long ago.  Thanks. 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yeah, the road number thing is really odd. I remember discussing that very issue with the folks who did the car. It was frustrating for them too, because they knew they SHOULD do the car, but the split number series was making their life difficult.

Yes, just stop trying to make sense of it and ask Chris Carangi (or Sean, or Jeff it seems). Thanks for the info guys!

[Sokramiketes]

I believe the Atlas car has 5/4 ends, it's just that the lowest rib is cut out for clearance of the truck mounted coupler.


Jason

4/5... I think the count goes from top to bottom.

[wcfn100]

4/5... I think the count goes from top to bottom.

Ya know, I usually do that, but I get messed up in the head sometimes because cars with the single separate rib at the top usually have it listed last like 4/3/1.  The Kalmbach book on freight cars list from botom to top.


Jason

[up1950s]

I've filled in roof holes a few times. I stuck the roof walk into the holes from the inside of the shell (trim the ends to fit). Once the glue cured I just filed down the nubs sticking out. I hate that green putty, it never really hardens.

Have you tried at add some ACC to it after it sets up , it soaks right in and makes it a lot harder , I have been doing that for decades , so has Randy , you must not the results even then . What do you prefer for putty ?

[bbussey]

I like the white Squadron putty better than the green version.  I get better results with the white.

[wazzou]

Bondo...