Composite


	Jean and I visited the train museum in Strasburg last year when we attended the East Coast Large Scale Train Show. Inside was a steel framed boxcar with wood sides and steel ends. I was immediately intrigued. This could make a neat model, and I wouldn’t have to model trussrods (which I don’t particularly care for.) I knew I could make most of this from styrene, but the steel ends would be a problem. Luckily, Bob McCown from LargeScaleCentral was also interested, and cast a pair of ends from resin.



I cleaned up the flash from the castings and also removed the cast on coupler pockets. I’ll be using Accucraft couplers, so these pockets would just get in the way.



		Next, I epoxied some angle pieces to the back of each casting to provide some support when I glue the sides on. I cut a piece of plastic to use as the base and framed it with some 0.25 x 0.375” strips.


	I added some bolsters and put the trucks in place. The trucks are Aristo-Delton arch bar with Sierra Valley 24" wheels. Then I epoxied the ends onto the frame.

I used Evergreen scribed siding, cut and glued in place. The grab irons are .040” brass rod bent to shape and glued into holes drilled in the sides and ends.

Ladders are made by drilling holes in .100” x .125” strips, then inserting the grab irons. I use small escutcheon pins to hold the ladders in place.

Carlines are .060 x .250 plastic glued to the roof.

The roof walk supports are made up of at least 3 pieces. Take some .100 x .125 plastic and cut them into one inch long pieces. Next I use some .060 x .125 and cut them into .125 lengths (basically a square). These are your “legs” and I just glue them onto each end of that one inch piece. Finally, I take cut the .060 x .125 strip and cut them into one inch strips and glue them to half +1 of all your strips. These will be the tall supports that are placed between the carlines. It's a bit tedious, but doesn't take all that long - and once glued in place it's really hard to see that they're not full supports. I usually take a file along each edge of the support before I put them into place, so you don't see any of the seams.



			Coupler lift bars are made from the same .040” brass rod and held in place with brass eye pins from MicroMark. I had problems with the epoxy not holding, so I used some miniature lag bolts to hold the ends to the frame. I used the same lag bolts to attach the coupler to the end. For the brake staff support, I bent some brass strip, soldered a back to it, and used my small escutcheon pins to hold it in place.



	The door is made from plain styrene with .040 x .125 strips glued to it. I used some angle pieces for the door slides and a bit of brass rod for the handle.

I used Rustoleum primer to paint the boxcar.

Once dry, I added wood strips for the roof walk. These were weathered using A-West Weathering, to give a nice silver gray appearance.

Decals are made by Stan Cedarleaf. After they dry, the car was sprayed with a clear matte finish.