Greetings All,

I recently built a F&C 1938 PS-0 Boxcar and intend to paint and letter it for the Nickel Plate. But I cannot find any reference photos online to use as a guide. I would like to paint the car as it would have appeared in the late 1950's, but would like to know if these cars remained boxcar red throughout their careers? Or at some point...Did they receive black ends? Does anyone have a recomendation for a specific boxcar red to use for the Nickel Plate?

Thanks,

Darrall Swift

On Jun 8, 2009, at 5:01 PM, Darrall Swift wrote:

Greetings All,

I recently built a F&C 1938 PS-0 Boxcar and intend to paint and
letter it for the Nickel Plate. But I cannot find any reference
photos online to use as a guide. I would like to paint the car as
it would have appeared in the late 1950's, but would like to know
if these cars remained boxcar red throughout their careers? Or at
some point...Did they receive black ends? Does anyone have a
recomendation for a specific boxcar red to use for the Nickel Plate?

I have a photo of one taken in October, 1956 and will send you a scan
off-list. At that time the ends (and presumably the roof as well)
were black. I'll let someone who models the NKP suggest a suitable
mineral red color for the sides.

Richard Hendrickson

--- In STMFC@..., "Darrall Swift" <doswift@...> wrote:

Greetings All,

I recently built a F&C 1938 PS-0 Boxcar and intend to paint and letter it for the Nickel Plate. But I cannot find any reference photos online to use as a guide. I would like to paint the car as it would have appeared in the late 1950's, but would like to know if these cars remained boxcar red throughout their careers? Or at some point...Did they receive black ends? Does anyone have a recomendation for a specific boxcar red to use for the Nickel Plate?

Thanks,

Darrall Swift

Darrall: Here's a colour shot, maybe late in life.
http://railroad.union.rpi.edu/displayimage.php?i=21254

Stephan Parachuk
Toronto

Be careful with these cars "late in life" since starting in 1959 the NKP
used these cars as the donors for TOFC Flats. I haven't had to paint one so
I can't help with color. If you are modeling post 1958, I may be able to
help pick a good number to use.

Brian J. Carlson, P.E.
Cheektowaga NY

Scalecoat II boxcar red seems to be a pretty good match for the NKP freightr car color of the era.  Mont Switzer

Greetings all,

Thanks to everyone that responded to my initial inquiry regarding the F&C kit. Based on the photo's that were sent to me, I have 2 additional questions...

1. Did the Nickel Plate replace the original wood running boards with steel running boards at some point?

2. What trucks were delivered with this series? The photo that Richard Hendrickson sent me has National Type B-1 trucks. I can't make out the truck in the photo that Andy Carlson sent, but it's the same image that Stephan Parachuk posted and it's not the National Type B-1.

Thanks again,

Darrall Swift

Greetings all,

Thanks to everyone that responded to my initial inquiry regarding the F&C kit. Based on the photo's that were sent to me, I have 2 additional questions...

1. Did the Nickel Plate replace the original wood running boards with steel running boards at some point?

2. What trucks were delivered with this series? The photo that Richard Hendrickson sent me has National Type B-1 trucks. I can't make out the truck in the photo that Andy Carlson sent, but it's the same image that Stephan Parachuk posted and it's not the National Type B-1.

Thanks again,

Darrall Swift

On Jun 9, 2009, at 7:18 PM, Darrall Swift wrote:

Greetings all,

Thanks to everyone that responded to my initial inquiry regarding
the F&C kit. Based on the photo's that were sent to me, I have 2
additional questions...

1. Did the Nickel Plate replace the original wood running boards
with steel running boards at some point?

2. What trucks were delivered with this series? The photo that
Richard Hendrickson sent me has National Type B-1 trucks. I can't
make out the truck in the photo that Andy Carlson sent, but it's
the same image that Stephan Parachuk posted and it's not the
National Type B-1.

Your second question got me started doing some sleuthing in the
Official Railway Equipment Registers, and what I found was that the
NKP purchased only one series of what we have come to call PS-Ø box
cars, 20000-20199 built ca. 1/40. NKP 20200-20499, built ca. 7/41,
were also listed as light weight steel box cars, but they were built
to a competing, though similar, design by American Car & Foundry; I
have builder's photos of NKP 20241. A photo of 20177 when nearly new
(which I didn't scan for you because you wanted information about the
cars in the 1950s) shows it with AAR double truss self-aligning
spring-plankless trucks.

So what about the 20500-20699 series? They didn't begin to turn up
on the NKP roster until 1950, when the NKP began to renumber the cars
it acquired from the Wheeling and Lake Erie. Those cars were built
by Pullman for the W&LE ca. 7-40, numbered 26000-26199, and had
National B-1 trucks, as illustrated by NKP 20616. So the short
answer is you can go either way on trucks, depending on car number.

Richard Hendrickson



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Richard of course is correct. The NKP diagram sheets for these cars call out
Cast steel double truss integral box type trucks for 20000-20199, and
National Type B-1's for the 20500-20699 series.

The NKP diagrams do not indicate that these cars were retrofitted with metal
running boards. Oddly the 20200-20499 series were re-equipped with Apex
tri-lok Steel Running Boards and Brake step.

Brian J. Carlson, P.E.
Cheektowaga NY

On Jun 9, 2009, at 9:08 PM, Brian Carlson wrote:

The NKP diagrams do not indicate that these cars were retrofitted
with metal
running boards. Oddly the 20200-20499 series were re-equipped with
Apex
tri-lok Steel Running Boards and Brake step.

Actually, Brian, the builder's photos show that they were delivered
when new with Apex running boards.

Richard Hendrickson

Thanks, diagram has been annotated for future reference.

Brian J. Carlson, P.E.
Cheektowaga NY