NMRA RH October 2018

Car Number 4097 a 50 ft. single
door was my second car which was
an “impulse buy” and was bought
as it represented a “no work” model.
It is a ready-to-run model by Intermountain
and represents a car in
the RF&P’s 4000 number series.
The only work I did to this car was to
lightly weather it using watercolours
and airbrush.
Car Number 2546 a double plug
door is another Accurail car. It is the
least accurate of the three. The big
error is that the double plug doors
are offset towards the left hand end
when they should be centred. I didn’t
notice this when I bought the car but
decided to live with it.
The modifications to the car are the
same as for no. 2438, including the
Kadee roof walk. The plug doors on
this car are separate items. I found
that they were slightly too large and
stood proud of the sides rather than
being flush with them. By very careful
filing of the door openings I was
able to fit the doors in their proper
positions.
I decided to weather this car more
Car Number 4097 (50 ft. single door)
Car Number 2546 (50 ft. double plug
extensively and added rust to the
top of the doors to match a photo I
had. I also added rust to the edges
of the roof. I used burnt sienna and
burnt umber watercolours
to simulate the rust.
There’s a sting in the
tail about this car. I had
come to terms with the
doors being in the wrong
position until I looked at
the photos of the other
double plug car models
on Accurail’s website.
The cars for every other
road name in that series
of Accurail models have their doors
centred. Only the RF&P one has
offset doors. The RF&P did have
some cars with offset doors but
these had sliding doors, rather than
plug ones. I wondered if these had
misled Accurail, who went out of
their way to get it right, but actually
went out of their way and got
it wrong! Whatever the reason, it
is more than a little irritating! On
the other hand, who in the UK will
know, except me? Well, apart from
the several hundred people who will
read this article of course!
Tom Winlow
Freshly painted RF&P 50 ft. boxcars No’s. 2442 and 2923 at Acca Yard in Richmond, VA in June 1969.
RF&P Railroad photograph by W. W. Young, Sr. from the collection of the RF&P Railroad Historical Society, Inc.
October 2018 - ROUNDHOUSE 13