Great Northern 1942 Double Sheathed Boxcar

[raymbo]

This car started out as a Mountain Car Company reefer that was partially built by a former owner. I had planned to finish it as a reefer but I learned that parts such as door hardware and other components were not available from MCC, so I started looking at photos to see if it could be built into something else. I found that the Great Northern had thousands of these double sheathed boxcars and I decided to build a facsimile model of the 45673.

I managed to make the Precision Steel Car Company 6’ Camel doors work by using some aluminum angle from Lowe’s for the lower track and the upper track from PSC. They are non-operating as the side of the MCC car could not easily be made to work with this particular installation. The brake wheel and housing are PSC as well.

The roof walk was changed to 5/32” thick wood cut from 3/4” oak board bought from Lowe’s. The MCC roof can be easily adapted to make these wood planks work by sanding the tops of the ribs flat and using Gorilla Glue along with 1” brad nails shot in with our pneumatic nail gun. The tack boards are made by cutting one side out of a 7/32 square brass tube and making it a channel, then gluing the wood in and securing them to the door or end with 6-32 button head screws.

The graphics are vinyl stencils made for me by New Horizon graphics in Somerset. They have done a number of cars for Mike and me and their work is excellent. I prefer to use stencils and paint the lettering on rather than putting on the vinyl lettering. In this case, the grooves in the aluminum sides representing the T&G wood on the prototype are much deeper but that is not a problem as far as I am concerned. It was the facsimile I was after, not a precise model of one of these 1942 cars built at the St. Cloud MN shops where I worked for several years in the late 1960s.

The trucks are Wayne Godshall’s Andrews trucks, I may use these on another car and replace them later with a pair of Bettendorf trucks that the prototype came equipped with. Right now it is fine as it is.

The couplers are Tom Bee.



Builders photo of the end of the car


Wood running boards detail


Builders photo of the side of the car.




All in all, I am quite pleased with the end result. Obviously if someone wanted to spend a whole lot more time on something like this they might build the sides out of tongue and groove wood but honestly, just how much time does one want to spend on building these?

[raymbo]

I meant to put a photo of the 1942 prototype car in the first post and forgot.



My father in law worked at the St. Cloud shops during the time these cars were being built. He cannot remember them specifically but he does remember a portion of the time they were rebuilt in the 50s.

[silversanjuan]

That's a beautiful boxcar. Nice work!

Todd

[raymbo]

I finished the GN double sheathed boxcar.


A clear gloss coat was sprayed overall. I may weather this car a little later. I had planned to sell it but after finishing it I sort of started to like watching it behind our locomotive.

Ah the swirling vortex of the black hole of desiring more toys..........

[silversanjuan]

That's a great looking boxcar.

I'm all to familiar with that black hole. LOL