Some projects move VERY slowly through the shops, and some move quicker. The models below have all been completed in recent months. A common thread on most of them though is they were basket case cars of the type that you might not bother to rebuild.

The boxcars were completed a few months ago. These were started as a pandemic project, the car bodies of both were in terrible condition, they were reefers with printed sides, with no false sides underneath. The wood parts were of uncertain manufacture and probably were scratchbuilt. I stripped them both down to parts and got an idea to rebuild them as WWII era war emergency boxcars. I used vintage scribed wood siding and castings mostly that I had made, Famoco ends, copies of Eastern doors and Selley ends(one car is slightly taller than the other), etc. For lettering I used a military font for the MQS and they turned out so nice they are on Schorr trucks.

This next photo gives a closer view of a boxcar and also shows a new flat car. This is Scale-Craft riding on Tyco conversion HO trucks, with a new floor. This was the quickest project of the group, and the most recent.

The last two cars were not quick projects. First up is this stock car. If you look closely at the car, you can tell the body had some serious issues, the metal was rotting away. For example the upper board on the sides. Still, I decided that it was worth trying to clean it up and see what I got. This car and the hopper I disassembled and cleaned out the “wounds” of metal deterioration (after stripping the paint) as much as I could. It was a long process. Not as obvious, the body actually shrank a bit to the extent that a standard Scale-craft roof would not fit it. I used a slightly undersized roof I had made for another car, that I’m now making a better roof for. As to the lettering, it had originally been built with the SC decals for the CMStP&P, and I worked out a way to do MQS decals. If I get more of the CMStP&P models as basket cases I’ll make more matching models.

The final model of the set is this Lionel hoper. It also has some severe body issues but with the work I did, and with the car being black, the issues are not too noticeable. I’m thinking the MQS picked it up for MOW work, and at some point I may weather it significantly. In any case, it is good to see this string of cars finally finished.