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  2. McKean-Accurail box car (was UP 40' Double door automobile car)

Re: McKean-Accurail box car (was UP 40' Double door automobile car)

Tim O'Connor
 

Rich

Oh, WOW, I never noticed that !! Yes, the panel sizes are incorrect on the Red Caboose 8 foot door cars
because the original Front Range tooling had the wrong panel sizes ! When Bill McClung redid the kit he may
not have known about this mistake. Other confirmation is that the underframe crossbars are spaced for a
6 foot door, not an 8 foot door -- So Front Range (Fred Becker's) legacy of errors and shortcuts continues
to screw us! :-D

Branchline is the best choice, then. I'd check the Branchline underframe crossbearers to see if BLT made a
correct underframe for the 8 foot doors, or if they also just re-used the underframe from a 6 foot door model.

OR we could use the Red Caboose -welded- side 8 foot door cars, and add Archer rivets at the appropriate
locations. 8-)

Tim O'Connor

On 7/17/2022 3:34 PM, Richard Remiarz wrote:

I just looked again, and did find a Red Caboose 8700 series kit unbuilt.  Maybe this says something about having too many unbuilt kits. 

 

Attached are photos of the Branchline doors with the Red Caboose car.  I don’t like this option.  This option results in very narrow side panels on each side of the door.  It looks like Red Caboose took the tooling for a side with a 6’ door and simply widened the door opening.  The panels on each side of the door are much narrower than the remaining panels on the sides.  The kit does include a nice diagonal panel roof a much nicer parts.  However, this particular version looks like the ends are the same as the Front Range ends.  I think I will use the roof and detail parts from this kit with the Front Range body to make one of the cars and the Branchline kit to make another car.

 

Sincerely,

Rich Remiarz



--
Tim O'Connor
Sterling, Massachusetts
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