40' M53 Boxcars in the 70s

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ed,

For a hoot, contact Tony Koester and ask him what the AM would have done with its wagon top boxcar fleet in the 1970s.  I double dog dare you.

DFF

Already done, my friend.

He basically said the cars are a foob... that the AM wouldn't have really had them unless they were wreck rebuilds that the AM paid for. But that he said FVM could do em anyway.

Reading between the lines, the answer was "the AM didn't really care". That cemented my car's fate: I'm not cutting down the ladders, but I DID replace the wooden running boards with a metal one from a donor car.

Here she is at the end of the weekend with the new running board, a COTS stencil and an ACI label.

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[davefoxx]

Already done, my friend.

He basically said the cars are a foob... that the AM wouldn't have really had them unless they were wreck rebuilds that the AM paid for. But that he said FVM could do em anyway.

Reading between the lines, the answer was "the AM didn't really care". That cemented my car's fate: I'm not cutting down the ladders, but I DID replace the wooden running boards with a metal one from a donor car.

Here she is at the end of the weekend with the new running board, a COTS stencil and an ACI label.

I love it!  It looks great!  This makes me want to find a piece of Appalachian Lines rolling stock for my 1983-86 layout.  Heck, in their world, I'm sure the Seaboard System interchanged with the V&O, AM, and/or VM.  Good stuff!

DFF

[Philip H]

Weather it or you didn't drink Vodka!

[randgust]

That looks to me like one of those 70's cars that would have been weathered to death, except for a fresh 'patch' over the dimensional data and rubbed-clean reporting marks.    The ACI label would be fresher, as well as the lube plate stencil.

I've successfully 'taped over' factory lettering with adhesive tape (or good paint masking tape) and weathered a car, then pulled the tape off for those fresh patches where they belong.

In the 70's you did see a lot of new dimensional data painted on cars, and as the ACI label readability was indeterminate, great attention to keep the reporting marks readable even if the rest of the car was a mess.