In recent years there have been several excellent articles on the
SAL's car fleet. For an overview of SAL steel boxcars, see Paul
Bizier's article in Lines South, 2nd quarter 2005, pp 4-13.

To model the AF-3 cars, try the Red Caboose AAR 40' double-door
boxcar. See Hendrickson, RMJ 1/98, pp 28-31. For more prototype
pictures, see Culotta, PRM vol 2, pp 71-96; the inside back cover
says a modeling article is planned.

I don't know of an exact commercial model of the AF-2 turtle-back
cars, though a couple may be usable depending on your standards. In
plastic, Bowser cars can be used as stand-ins, with some compromise
in accuracy; see Six, MRG 8/95 pp 38-41. In resin, Sunshine kits 55.6
and 55.7 model the very similar AF-1 class. The roofs are slightly
different: the AF-2 has shallow corrugations in between the riveted
lines, like the B-7 single-door boxcars (see Wider, RP CYC 13, pp 76-
88). The B-7 is modelled by Sunshine kits 55.8 and 55.9, whose roofs
have the corrugations, so it's tempting to put a B-7 roof on an AF-1
kit. But then I'd have to find a prototype for the leftover parts ...
the Bowser roof (which belongs to a PRR Xsomething) doesn't have the
extra corrugations.

The Sunshine kits come with decals; Speedwitch decal set D103 covers
SAL 40' box and auto cars in detail.

Al Brown, Melbourne, Fla.



--- In STMFC@..., "Fred Mullins" <fmullins@...> wrote:

Folks,
I would like to add some SAL 40ft double door box cars to my fleet
of frt cars. What models in HO scale would best be used to model the
AF2 & AF3 cars? Also are there any decals suited for these cars

available?

Thanks for any help!
Fred Mullins