Today we have another boxcar by OO pioneer Howard Winther, in this case an outside braced car. This car was built in 1946 as in the side view it pretty clearly states “BLT H.W. 3-46.”

As with the car in the previous post, this scratchbuilt car only shows visible evidence of two commercial parts; Nason Andrews trucks and an Eastern brake cylinder casting. Eastern introduced their line of OO scale freight cars in 1946 and that casting is unique to the line. Winther lived right in the area where Eastern was based so it is possible that he got the casting right as it was available or potentially he added it to the car later.

Back to the car at hand, check out that hand lettering. It is a detail that will always make early scale models such as this stand out from the crowd. On a similar car by Winther seen in a spread in Model Railroader in 1938 the boxcar there is lettered with decals, but he had the ability to do the hand lettering and chose to on this car.

I did a quick look online and could not turn up a photo of any similar NYSW boxcar. This car certainly looks right though and I see plenty of photos of similar cars from Eastern roads.

Be looking for one more boxcar later this week.

Continue to Part III