Continuing the series on building this model, there is a side story on basic logistics of working on trains in Arizona, at least at my house this time of year.

My shop is essentially split in two locations. The layout is inside (of course) in a carpeted “bonus” room over our garage, and in that room I have several places I can work on projects — but basically “clean” work like decals or gluing things together. The real shop for big work is in the garage. I do have air conditioning next to the workbench, but it only can do so much. I’m guessing I can keep using that shop in the mornings fairly freely until about July 4, but after that I can only hit it for short periods of time until after things cool off. Which creates some pressure to get things done!

Moving up to the front of the line of train projects was the boxcab. I had several things to fabricate and a lot of soldering. It was going to take some time.

A second stack

I could not duplicate an actual prototype of course, due to the nature of the Nason body, but I wanted to have the feel. For sure a 600 HP Diesel of 1930 had two stacks, not one. I do have some tools and busted out the lathe to solve the problem.

Roof details

Beyond the stack, there were decisions to make about the roof. I settled on this design.

There were a lot of steps to get to this point. One primary goal was to use the Nason air tanks, and with that come up with something plausible. The brass parts were all soldered to the body with my resistance soldering unit.

As to the plastic fan housings, those may or may not be temporary to the model. They were made from sections of Athearn HO PA-1 shells. I did not find this exact prototype, of course, but some were modified in service for sure. I may get inspired and rebuild this element later.

And, if you are curious, the bell is from a Tyco GP-20 shell. It’s only a fraction smaller than the actual Nason bell.

Handrails, etc.

You can also see a start on the handrails in the previous photo. I’m not a fan of making handrails! I like though the look of the 20-gauge wire that came with the kit, and used that for all the handrails. They are all soldered on, and I soldered wire in any of the pre-drilled holes that I did not use.

The end handrails took me quite a while but came out well. In this photo you can also see most of the rest of the parts. The truck sideframes are Famoco 4-wheel passenger trucks glued to the central portion of the original Athearn trucks, and the headlights are parts I found in my parts supply. The below being a view of the drive with the Nason tanks on the side.

Getting close!

At this point the model is very close to done.

In terms of operation I’m really happy, it runs great and will pull for sure more cars than the prototype. However, in this photo I noticed that I did not have a strap step for the side doors. I used also on the ends a brass strap step of which I had maybe a dozen in my parts supply. Probably homemade by someone years ago, you’ll see them on the model in the final photo.

Comparison

Finally, my stock Nason boxcab and the one I’ve been building, with some of the inspirations I used in the background. I did notice that I left off an air horn, so I’ll at least add that before painting.

As to what road to letter it for, I’m leaning toward my Orient as of now. I’ll reveal that when the series concludes.

Conclusion of Boxcab Series