Back a few years ago I did some touch up work on a Rutland boxcar that had been built very nicely by Bill Johann. It is based on an Eastern kit, with “tabs” added at the bottom of the sides and AB brakes. He had “modernized” to not have a roof walk and with roller bearing trucks. I gently backdated it with a plastic roof walk and Schorr trucks, as seen here.

In the back of my mind though I was never happy with the HO train-set looking black roof walk. Meanwhile, in some parts received from I really don’t know where, there was an etched brass roof walk set. It really needed to go on a special car, and this one came to mind.

I don’t know who made or had made this brass roof walk. It is OO sized, like a scaled-up HO version of this. I wish I knew who did it, because this would not be a bad product to get a number more of, for post-war models this would be a must, a huge visual improvement.

Thinking about the Rutland aspect of the model I did some searching and found a useful article here, on upgrading a HO version of this boxcar. In a caption it notes “The authors are members of the famed Yellow Roof Society so the roof walks were painted to match the roof.” I followed their lead and used Floquil paint I’ve been saving.

As to how to mount the roof walk, I again followed their lead. In the article they elaborate that

A Plano Model Products #191 40’ Apex Walkway set was installed as per that company’s instructions, the parts having been painted before installation. To attach dissimilar materials such as metal to plastic, a thin bead of Canopy Glue was applied with a Microbrush. The Canopy Glue works well in this application because it dries clear and is flexible enough to allow for the different expansion/contraction rates of the materials. This helps prevent the walkways from popping off the model.

Backing up a step, I added Scale-Craft roof walk supports (clearly Johann had used these previously), added strips to hold the new roof walk, and touched up the paint further.

I have never (believe it or not) used Canopy Glue, but I had seen it recommended before, so I obtained some. I used a small wood stick to apply it, and held things in place with blue tape. The glue really did work well, I’ll try using it in more applications.

And there it is all finished. This car is really a nice one, especially so now with this special roof walk.