Many years ago I did shorten the Walthers 50 foot car to 40 feet as part of pair of Wabash 40 footers.  In the attached photo, the Walthers end doors went on to one of the old F&C kits on the left in the photo.  The Walthers car was shortened by removing a panel section on either side.  I am happy with the overall result, but there is a bit of funkiness to the roof rib spacing.  (I wasn’t into replacing roofs in those days.)

 

Steve Hile

 

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io [mailto:main@RealSTMFC.groups.io] On Behalf Of Tim O'Connor
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2020 9:46 AM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Search STMFC question

 

I friend - Leo Landry - figured out to make a number of cuts into the cars to shorten
them to 40 feet. His looked fine to me but I don't know if there was an exact prototype
to match. But it may be worth looking into.


On 11/24/2020 11:08 PM, Andy Carlson wrote:

Hi-

 

I am reminded often that we can search for previous STMFC,io posts on subjects of our interest. Tonight I tried to find a search engine on the STMFC.io home page. I could not find one.

 

I admit to be at near the bottom of the curve when it comes to computer savvy skills. My search was inspired this week with a short thread about scale board groove gaps for model train single sheathed freight cars. I seem to recall that both the MDC and Walthers products of 50' single sheathed auto box cars came out originally close to the same time. I also seem to remember that Richard Hendrickson mentioned the prototype for the Walthers car was thought to be non existent.

 

Is the Walthers car close to any North American prototype? I admire the boards on the Walthers cars and feel them to be nicely done with the groove exagerations held in check. In particular, is there any chance for an easy kit bash into something real?

 

Any help here is appreciated, Stay safe, friends!

-Andy Carlson

Ojai CA

 

--
Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts