This is part of the continuing build-up to going photo-real modeling with enhanced blow-ups of the Red Ball card side catalog pages. Catalog #9, date unknown. is ideal for this sort of thing. There are even a couple of 50' double door late era wooden sided cars there. [CNW and ATSF]

I have a few full HO car sides as well.

While its vintage modeling stock, I did get about 80 sets of decorated and embossed Tenshodo tin sides for HO steel cars a year or so ago. I hesitate to actually build with them. I do wish to try going photo-real with them and leaving the originals intact. I have some ways of doing the embossed rivet detail in the photo-real versions as well.

The goal is to scratch-build as many boxcars as possible using only a few critical purchased details like braking equipment. I'm by-passing the current model railroading unit costs of many model boxcars being around $40, as best as possible .

I do understand that additional tooling costs are involved here. But I like the idea of spending less on tooling than I would for the same number of boxcars and other car types.

I have a wallpaper screen of a four truck, drop bottom, heavy duty PHMX flatcar on this computer screen. As often as I see those monster cars on the property, I look at them with the eye of seeing how I could assemble model versions of those if I only had all of the segments and gussets of the cars cut out and ready to plastic-weld together. They are just a lot of combined steel plate with an interesting routing of the brake system.

More in line with this era modeling was the smaller drop bottom flat that used to be on the property that was littered with the angle-iron stubs and remaining plates of many years of tying down mining shovel sub-assemblies. I'm glad I got a slew of detail shots of that. It was either a cast car or a riveted constructed car, either would be an interesting model. Thankfully, I have the shots.