On Fri, May 22, 2020 at 09:16 AM, Donald B. Valentine wrote:

I gather that rebuilt USRA double 

sheathed cars are those with eight panels per side while those with ten panels 

per side are rebuilt from double sheathed cars of a different design, and 

therefore different framing, than the USRA cars. Does anyone know if this is 

correct?

Don, You do realize that the USRA double sheathed car has a wood frame, so there was no framing to be saved. YSDCo. just viewed the underframe (which did have steel side sills) as a raft upon which to build a new box. And since the new boxes were built to the same width as the new 1932 ARA car, none of the framing from the various steel framed single sheathed cars was salvageable, either. The increased width is the reason the side posts look like they are mounted on brackets - they are. There is also either a step in the side at the corner post, to match the old narrower end (common on rebuilds of DS cars) or wide formed angles riveted over the corners of the even narrower ends used on SS cars. I'm no expert on YSDCo. production, but any changes in sheathing patterns and post count were made for reasons other than differences in the donor cars being rebuilt.

I agree that the Atlas model misses the mark in a number of areas; first off, I recall the underframe is too wide, and so misses the correct body too wide for the frame look. I also recall they screwed up the Murphy panel roof, bringing the raised portion of the panel all the way to the edge of the sheet.

Stick with the Sunshine kits.

Dennis Storzek