Have I missed discussion on this, or has anyone seen one yet? Until I
got the April RMC and saw their add, I had no idea. I need a new
crystal ball.

In case there has been no discussion yet, I am talking about a new HO
model of the B&O M53 wagontop boxcar sold by Model RR Warehouse under
the Red Ball name. I think it has no relation to the old Red Ball
wagon top kits in metal and wood.

Russell Hedges

Russell Hedges said:

In case there has been no discussion yet, I am talking about a new HO
model of the B&O M53 wagontop boxcar sold by Model RR Warehouse under
the Red Ball name. I think it has no relation to the old Red Ball
wagon top kits in metal and wood.

I bet it does. They did a plastic one too (not easy to build, BTW).

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

Russell Hedges said:
"In case there has been no discussion yet, I am talking about a new HO
model of the B&O M-53 wagontop boxcar sold by Model RR Warehouse under
the Red Ball name. I think it has no relation to the old Red Ball
wagon top kits in metal and wood."

Not the metal and wood kit, but the later Cannonball Car Shops styrene
model. This kit was discussed on this list back in January.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/STMFC/message/37775


Ben Hom

How wide is the new model? Yes, the former models were plastic and
difficult to build. But the big problem is they are about a foot too
wide when finished and there is no real way to correct this and make the
ends look right.

Hopefully this has been corrected with the new release.

Mont Switzer

Mont,

The width issue has been addressed with this new
release. The ends are now brass along with a number
of the detail parts. I believe the kits should be
shipping shortly. I had a chance to look at the sheet
of etchings last Tuesday night. Looking forward to
building a few of these.

Jason Cook

--- Montford Switzer <ZOE@...> wrote:

How wide is the new model? Yes, the former models
were plastic and
difficult to build. But the big problem is they are
about a foot too
wide when finished and there is no real way to
correct this and make the
ends look right.

Hopefully this has been corrected with the new
release.

Mont Switzer

-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Thompson
[mailto:thompson@...]
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 3:00 AM
To: STMFC@...
Subject: Re: [STMFC] B&O Wagon Top Box - Model RR
Warehouse?


Russell Hedges said:

In case there has been no discussion yet, I am

talking about a new HO

model of the B&O M53 wagontop boxcar sold by Model

RR Warehouse under

the Red Ball name. I think it has no relation to

the old Red Ball

wagon top kits in metal and wood.

I bet it does. They did a plastic one too (not
easy to build,
BTW).

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press,
Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705
www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail,
thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history




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Jason Cook wrote:

Mont,

The width issue has been addressed with this new
release. The ends are now brass along with a number
of the detail parts. I believe the kits should be
shipping shortly. I had a chance to look at the sheet
of etchings last Tuesday night. Looking forward to
building a few of these.

Jason,

Please provide a review to the list when you receive your kits. As a
B&O modeler I would love to have an easy to build kit of the B&O M-53
wagon-top boxcar.

Questions I have are:

Did they really correct the width problem? Can you measure the parts?
What undeframe do they include this time? Is it the same one from
the old Kurtz-Kraft/Red Ball PS-1 boxcar tooling or does it now
represent the Duryea underframe of the prototype? Who did the decals?

Thanks,

Bob Witt

P.S. With much difficulty one can correct the width of the all plastic
kit by narrowing the car body, shorting the length and attaching the
ends to the end of the "corrected" body castings. This method works
because the width of plastic ends is close to the correct "outside"
width of the car body. Of course, you have to scratch build the
underframe to match the new narrow body, but if you wanted to model
the Duryea one you had to do this anyway.

Who did the decals?<

According to the ad it's "undec, L/t&c". The picture shows a decorated
car so not sure what they mean. The ad does say "CSX licensed decals coming
soon". Were these cars ever lettered CSX?
At $29.95 it's priced up there with all the good stuff, so I guess it
better compare.

Jon Miller
AT&SF
For me time has stopped in 1941
Digitrax, Chief/Zephyr systems, JMRI user
NMRA Life member #2623
Member SFRH&MS

B&O is one of the CSX ancestors, so I suppose they must pay tribute to CSX
for the use of the letters B and O.

Therefore I suspect they car is $4.95 and the license to use the name is the
other $25 ;-)

regards,

Andy Miller

On Mar 16, 2005, at 10:05 AM, Jon Miller wrote:

Who did the decals?<

    According to the ad it's "undec, L/t&c".  The picture shows a decorated
car so not sure what they mean.  The ad does say "CSX licensed decals
coming
soon".   Were these cars ever lettered CSX?

No, CSX thinks that they own the rights to "B&O"

    At $29.95 it's priced up there with all the good stuff, so I
guess it
better compare.

Unfortunately, Cannonball's releases are highly variable. Their GE
steeple cab electric was OK, but the last example of tooling I bothered
with from them were the troop cars, and they were pretty substandard.
The sleeper kits had large drift angles and very poor fit of parts.
The rivets on the Troop Sleepers are the size of small hamburgers.
Neither cars had representations of window sashes, and the underbodies
were minimalistic. Walthers cars for roughly the same price blow them
out of the water.

Regards
Bruce

Bruce F. Smith
Auburn, AL
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin
Franklin
__
/ &#92;
__<+--+>________________&#92;__/___ ________________________________
|- ______/ O O &#92;_______ -| | __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ |
| / 4999 PENNSYLVANIA 4999 &#92; | ||__||__||__||__||__||__||__||__||
|/_____________________________&#92;|_|________________________________|
| O--O &#92;0 0 0 0/ O--O | 0-0-0 0-0-0

What I'd be interested in a kit review is how thick the sides
are. It isn't really feasible to bash a West Shore M53 into an M15
(by notching the sill) because the sides are about a half inch
thick! If the styrene sides are, say .050 or so thick, that would
make the whole thing a lot easier.
I'm surprised that CSX doesn't feel that they own the rights to
the wagontop car itself, never mind the graphics. After all, the
wagontop is as much a symbol of the B&O as the dome herald.
Regards,
Phil Buchwald

--- In STMFC@..., Bruce Smith <smithbf@v...> wrote:

On Mar 16, 2005, at 10:05 AM, Jon Miller wrote:

Who did the decals?<

    According to the ad it's "undec, L/t&c".  The picture shows

a

decorated
car so not sure what they mean.  The ad does say "CSX licensed

decals

coming
soon".   Were these cars ever lettered CSX?

No, CSX thinks that they own the rights to "B&O"

    At $29.95 it's priced up there with all the good stuff, so

I

guess it
better compare.

Unfortunately, Cannonball's releases are highly variable. Their

GE

steeple cab electric was OK, but the last example of tooling I

bothered

with from them were the troop cars, and they were pretty

substandard.

The sleeper kits had large drift angles and very poor fit of

parts.

The rivets on the Troop Sleepers are the size of small

hamburgers.

Neither cars had representations of window sashes, and the

underbodies

were minimalistic. Walthers cars for roughly the same price blow

them

out of the water.

Regards
Bruce

Bruce F. Smith
Auburn, AL
http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" -

Benjamin

Franklin
__
/ &#92;
__<+--+>________________&#92;__/___

________________________________

|- ______/ O O &#92;_______ -| | __ __ __ __ __ __ __

__ |

| / 4999 PENNSYLVANIA 4999 &#92; |

||__||__||__||__||__||__||__||__||

|/_____________________________&#92;|_|________________________________|

| O--O &#92;0 0 0 0/ O--O | 0-0-0 0-0-

0

Phil Buchwald wrote:
"What I'd be interested in a kit review is how thick the sides are.
It isn't really feasible to bash a West Shore M53 into an M15 (by
notching the sill) because the sides are about a half inch thick! If
the styrene sides are, say .050 or so thick, that would make the
whole thing a lot easier."

Why do this kibash at all? The M-15K is available as a one piece
kit from Pro Custom Hobbies ("Mt Clare Shops" done by Funaro)
http://www.procustomhobbies.com/newsletter_frames.html
and as a flat kit from Sunshine (kit 42.5, still available). You'd
end up with better results with either resin kit, and the prices for
all three are comparable.


Ben Hom

Thanks!
I've seen the magazine ad for Mount Clare Shops years ago, but
didn't know they were still available.
Question: I've read here that the West Shore M-53 is slightly
smaller than scale. Is this M-15K the same amount smaller,
considering that both are actually made by Funaro?

Phil Buchwald

--- In STMFC@..., "benjaminfrank_hom" <b.hom@w...> wrote:

Why do this kibash at all? The M-15K is available as a one piece
kit from Pro Custom Hobbies ("Mt Clare Shops" done by Funaro)
http://www.procustomhobbies.com/newsletter_frames.html
and as a flat kit from Sunshine (kit 42.5, still available).

You'd

end up with better results with either resin kit, and the prices

for

all three are comparable.


Ben Hom

Andy Miller wrote:

B&O is one of the CSX ancestors, so I suppose they must pay tribute to CSX
for the use of the letters B and O.

Betcha they don't own the B&O trademark for models. UP has struck out on every single filing for fallen-flag marks for models.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2942 Linden Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history