I recently finished assembling a 40' and a 50' single sheathed automobile
boxcar by Rocket Express (kits RI-1 and RI-3, respectively). These cars are
1930 era 12' door auto boxes with end doors and radial roofs. Kits RI-2 and
RI-4 are the
same but without end doors. The instructions include short sections on
roster information and include useful info on longevity (they were long
lived), which series had
end doors or not and which cars entered into special assignments. Prototype
photos are minimal and there are photos of finished models. Photo
reproduction is on the dark side making it difficult to see some details.
There is a photo of a 40' solid end and 50' solid end car on pages 30 and 31
of Morning Sun's RI color roster book. The instructions are generally clear
and also include
helpful sketches to aid assembly. The decal work is by Rail Graphics and is
excellent.

Both kits are of typical flat construction. The 40' is made of a yellowish
translucent resin that I found to be tough and resistent to cutting except
in the thinnest of sections. The 50' car is of a light brown resin that is
more workable and styrene-like similar to that of Sunshine or Westerfield.
The casting are very sharp and the detail work is very good although the 40'
car flash is thicker than I care for. The roof is a
one piece casting. The sides and ends were uniform and the bodies assembled
easily. The doors are cast separately but, like most single sheathed kits,
there is no door opening. The lower door tracks are cast separate and
considerable thinning is required to get them to fit under the door rollers.
This process is greatly aided by undercutting the door rollers with a razor
blade.

The underframes are one piece castings that include bolsters and
crossbearers. The modeler has to add bolster rivet plates, crossbearer
rivet plates and fishbelly centersill that is slotted for brake levers. The
centersills required considerable thinning, especially on the 40' car, to
fit down between the crossbearers. On the 50' the lever slots nearest the
cylinder required lengthening as the cylinder could not reach the slots. In
addition, the nearest crossbearer had to be carved into to clear the
cylinder.

Parts include wire grabs, A-Line steps, DA eyebolts, Cal-Scale KC brake and
Ajax brake housing/wheel (40' car), Tichy KC sprue (50' car), resin AB brake
parts, styrene ladders, wire cut levers, and IM trucks but with plastic
wheels. The cast end doors
had ladders cast in place which makes me wonder if the the ends are borrowed
from another kit as it would seem unlikely that, today, a master would be
created in such a way. The included ladders are by DA but their rung
spacing
does not match that of the end door ladder nor do they appear to match that
of the prototype so I
subsituted DW ladders with 18" rung spacing and everything looked fine. The
photos do not give a clear
indication of retainer valve piping on the B end so some guesswork was
involved. Mounting couplers on the 40' car door end required considerable
filing of the end sill opening under the door and required that the B end
coupler be shimmed by
.045 to match the A end height from the floor. The 50' car did not require
this amount of effort to mount the couplers because, apparently, the floor
of the 50' car did not fit as far into the body. The crossbearers of the
40' car are noticably deeper and this is probably the reason. Both cars
used the same door end casting.

Both of these cars assembled into very pleasing models.

Regards,
Bill

Again, thanks for the notes on the RI auto cars and the Sunshine meat
reefers. Your experience will be very useful when I get around to building
these cars. I'm impressed by how rapidly you're cranking out these models.
By now, of course, you've got lots of experience with resin kits, but
still.... Part of my problem is all the summer distractions that keep me
away from the workbench: trips to visit family and friends, a parade of
out-of-town visitors to Ashland, vintage aircraft fly-ins to attend,
maintenance to be done on both cars and the airplane (my Rx-7 is 16 years
old, Sandra's MG is 32 years old, and the Citabria was built in 1968, so
there are always little chores to be done even when all the major stuff is
working right). Then there's the Santa Fe Historical Society convention,
in addition to Airport Commission meetings and Woodlands and Trails
Association meetings, not to mention hiking and white water
rafting....well, I'm not complaining, but 25 hours a day just isn't enough.

You've mentioned more than once that the prototype photos included in some
kits are less than adequate in content or readability. In such cases, I
may have photos that would be helpful and I'll be happy to send you scans.
With regard to the Rock Island auto cars, for example, I have a number of
photos that weren't included in the kit instructions and that would, among
other things, have resolved the question of how the retainer valve pipe was
routed (vertically straight up the end, which is probably how you did it,
but data is always better than guesswork). Ask and ye shall receive.

Looking forward to seeing you at Naperville in October.

Richard H. Hendrickson
Ashland, Oregon 97520

Bill, thanks for the reviews, now how do I get my mitts on these kits? Joe
Binish

You can find Rocket Express at
rocketexpress1@...

Bill

In case anyone is interested, I do have a photo of a model of one of the 40
footers that, in my ignorant youth, I built and incorrectly painted and lettered
(for my late 1947 era). It is slated for a good sand blasting and repainting. It
builds up into a nice model overall, though.

http://www.steamfreightcars.com/modeling/models/culotta/ri159357main.html

Regards,
Ted