Bruce Smith Wrote:
"In addition, they had a recently released READING 36' XMp with wood or steel doors and with roof hatches/floor hopper for Hershey Cocoa service"


All,
If you are planning on building one or both of the new F&C Reading XMp / XMph kits, here are some helpful building tips.

While building the F&C Reading XMp and XMph kits, I found three important points that I would like to share with you. First, for both kit versions, when drilling the Right side grab irons, the "top two" grabs get drilled "Above the bolts", The "Bottom four" "Below the bolts. This can clearly be seen in the photo of the XMp included in the instruction sheet, but not mentioned in the instructions and the Main Line Modeler Schematic Drawing for the Side Grab Iron placement as shown is Incorrect. If you drill out under all the Right side bolts the grab iron spacing will be off. Notice too that the bottom side grab is a drop grab. The two Left side grabs go under the bolts. As for the Ends, The top end grab goes Over the bolts and the remaining below go under. This is correctly shown in the drawing. The bottom end grab is "offset". There are Four bolts cast on the end center sill start with by drilling the bolt closest to the Polling pocket, go toward the coupler opening and skip one bolt. Then drill the next. (Check with a 18" grab positioned before drilling the second hole). If you look at the Ajax brake housing in the ¾ view photo of the XMph in the instructions, you can see that the Ajax housing sticks out from the top of the roof edge to clear the roof fascia over hang and also to clear horizontal the end ribs.( The Kit instructions state to attach two short bits of .030 x .030 strip Styrene under the Ajax housing). Instead I used Tichy part #14 and sanded the square support part (which has a dip in the middle) flat, living the two ribs on the reverse side. I then glued the Ajax housing to the flat surface and then glued the Ajax Assembly to the car end. This raises it out about 1/16 from the end surface. By doing this the Brake rod/chain parts, which install on a slight angle, Not straight down as with other box cars, has less of an extreme angle when clearing the protruding Horizontal end ribs and the large end sill and the top of the bell does not push forward when hitting the Roof end fascia.

If your modeling the XMp: You may want to drill the second left end side grab iron, ( no bolts casted in ) But the XMph kit has all four bolts casted.

If you want to add the Door Lock detail on the XMp :I added a small piece of thin flat scrap resin in the shape of a square or you can use Evergreen 1/16 x 1/16 , in between the 4th & 5th Youngstown door rib, going from bottom to top, all the way to the left side door edge (see Kit Photo of XMp), I then cut a 1/16th piece from the extra door track and added it left of the door edge on the sheathing, left and in line with the square piece. Then I drilled a #78 hole toward the right side of the part installed on the sheathing and bent a 18" grab iron ( in an "L") and cut it to approx 1/16 on either side of the bend then glued it into the hole, having the straight piece over lap the square on the door. This was a close representation of the omitted door locks seen in the photo. I also replaced the undersize looking Tack Boards on the Youngstown doors with Standard Tack boards left over from other kits.

For Any questions on building these kits, please feel free to email me. erict1361@...


Eric Thur

Eric Thur wrote:
"First, for both kit versions, when drilling the Right side grab irons, the "top
two" grabs get drilled "Above the bolts", The "Bottom four" "Below the bolts.
This can clearly be seen in the photo of the XMp included in the instruction
sheet, but not mentioned in the instructions and the Main Line Modeler Schematic
Drawing for the Side Grab Iron placement as shown is Incorrect."

To quote Captain Renault in "Casablanca", "I'm shocked, shocked to find that
gambling is going on in here!"
Neve use drawings as your sole resource if at all possible - back them up with
photos if you can get them.  Trust but verify - especially some sources in
particular.


Ben Hom