There are some interesting things to note with these stock cars, tank cars, and the flat car by Disney artist James (Jimi) Trout. 

First up are these two stock cars. I take the one in the front to be one of his earliest attempts at scratchbuilding in OO, and the one in the rear a relatively late project. WCS 26003 is built up from wood and completely hand lettered, and note that the really small lettering is representational only, merely small marks. WCS 26907 on the other hand is basically a nicely built Scale-Craft kit but with upgraded ladders, a modern roof walk, and it is nicely weathered as well. But note the lettering is all done with decals.

The bottom view reveals the truck and brake details. The early model has Nason trucks with a Nason brake cylinder – but noting also the trucks have modified Lionel wheelsets with the flanges turned down. The S-C model has some upgrades, but is by no means super detailed. On all of these photos click for a closer look.

Next up we have these tank cars. The car in the front is built from a Scale-Craft kit and the UP car in the rear is Lionel. Both have interesting modifications that are not all visible in the photos. One of the most interesting is he used brass strips on the S-C car and brass wire on the Lionel car to duplicate the tie-downs that would be on the prototype holding the tank to the frame. Both cars are lettered with decals, but his hand lettering makes an appearance, fixing a decal issue on the SDRX car and painting the hazard sign on the UP car.

The bottom view also reveals the added brake details. This is a great addition to these cars as they are so visible. The Kadee couplers being added much more recently to these models likely built in the 1940s or 50s. Another thing to note, these cars are not black. Being an artist, he knew that a very deep gray looks more realistic. The cars are each slightly different in color. Finally, there is more of the small “marks” lettering on the frame of the S-C car, representing very small lettering.

Finally, we have this flat car, WCS 27425. It is longer than the comparable S-C model at 52′, and is a light model, wood with added details. The lettering is a mix of decals and hand lettering, the large lettering being done by his steady hand. The only commercial parts are the Schorr trucks, couplers, and brake wheel.

Based on how the trucks are applied I’m thinking it was built originally with a different brand of truck, maybe Nason. There are no brake details but I love the look of the frame and floor from below.

All I have done to this point on these cars is gentle cleaning with Q-tips and water. I’m going to work on matching the tank car colors, and if I can come up with near perfect matches I hope to fill in the chips on those cars as well, those are nice cars that deserve to see service on the layout.

UPDATE: But it is not easy to match the color and sheen. Who knows what type of paint was used and it was likely custom mixed. So for now the cars are just cleaned up and stored safely.