Greetings,

Yesterday I finished GN 2527, a baggage express boxcar.  It is built from an Intermountain kit.  The car was upgraded with a detailed underframe (including scratch built Universal rotary slack adjuster).  A number of Yarmouth parts were used to detail the car.  Cal Scale steam, signal, and air hoses were added along with Timken roller bearing trucks.  Marker light brackets and a sill step under the door were added to represent the 25 cars 10’ 12-panel boxcars that the GN built for passenger service.

Sincerely,

Rich Remiarz

Vadnais Heights, MN

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I am sending new photos.  Joe Binish pointed out that I sent the old photo I had shown him yesterday.  That photo showed the car with one Timken and one Andrews truck.  I had bought several packages of EB Products Timken trucks.  One of the packages was miss-labelled and contained Andrews trucks.  I didn’t notice this as I weathered the trucks.  Joe pointed it out and I replaced the Andrews truck later in the day.  I neglected to delete my old photo.

Here are the new photos with two Timken trucks.  I deleted the old photos.

Rich Remiarz

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Very nicely done.

I am also very impressed with the “seamless” transition from actual scenery to the background!

Steve Hile

Richard,

That is a great looking model. I’m forwarding the pictures to my neighbor who is heavy into the GN.

One question, are my 78 year old eyes failing or does that car have one Roller bearing truck and one solid bearing truck?

If so, why would they do that?

Best regards,

Dave Lawler

Avon Lake, Ohio

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Here you go George.  I used the brake cylinder, AB valve, and reservoir from the kit but replaced all of the piping and rods

Rich Remiarz

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The car was built as part of my Master Builder Cars AP award.  I am having the remaining cars for the award judged tomorrow, so I have several cars on the work bench in progress (to be completed today).  The trucks have real springs, which have a habit of jumping out if the truck twists, which it did several times while building the car.  A couple of springs went flying on my workbench, and haven’t been found yet.  I had to open a second package of the trucks, and decided it was easier to swap trucks than take replacement springs out of the second package of trucks.  I then weathered the car (and the trucks) and took some photos I shared with some friends.  Joe Binish pointed out that the car had two different trucks.  I hadn’t noticed that the second package of Timken trucks actually had Andrews trucks in the package.  I guess I am the one that needs an eye doctor appointment.  I am glad that Joe noticed before the judging tomorrow.  To top it off, I took new photos with the proper trucks, but neglected to delete the old photos, which I posted to this list. 

Joe also suggested I add Kadee brake pads to the trucks to prevent the trucks from swiveling along the bolster and losing springs.  I did and haven’t lost a spring since. 

Rich Remiarz

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Ben,

I agree with you and only used the trucks as a last result.  I couldn’t find anything else that matched the 50 ton early roller bearing trucks that were on the prototype cars.  I will get some more springs and double them up to at least have the coils look fuller.

Unfortunately we don’t have a good reference like Richard Hendrickson’s for roller bearing trucks.

Sincerely,

Rich Remiarz

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No they won’t work without a lot of rework.  The early roller bearing trucks used on these cars didn’t have rotating caps.  There were covers over the roller bearings instead.  I attached a photo of one of these trucks.  The sprung trucks are the only trucks I am aware of with covers over the roller bearings. 

Rich Remiarz

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