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Craig Wilson

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Craig Wilson started with an Accurail 50-foot AAR Boxcar kit to make this great model of a 1970s-era Green Bay & Western boxcar.


Craig started with a custom painted car that is offered by the Soo Line Historical and Technical Society.  An undecorated kit could also have been used with a Microscale's 87�336 decal set, which is made for this specific car type.

Here's a summary of the modifications Craig made to the kit to model this car:

Remove the roofwalk, plug the holes and add corner grab iron to the B end where the ladders are still full height (an often overlooked detail when modeling cars that have had their roofwalks removed).

Reshape the side sill according to prototype photos, mostly by following the notches cast on the inside of the Accurail sill.  No material was added for the sills, only removed.

Replace the cast-on stirrup steps with A-line metal steps.

Remove the rivet detail removed from two seams on either side of the door. (These seams were welded on the prototypes, when the cars were stretched from 40' riveted cars.)

Lower the side and end ladders on the A-end (opposite the brake wheel) of the car.  This was a time-intensive part of the project with lots of carving, filing and sanding here.

Carve off the high mounted tack boards on both ends (still more carving, filing and sanding) and replace them with tack boards from the scrap box in the lower position.

Add some grab irons to the boxcar ends (Craig's were were spares from an InterMountain Railway Company 60-foot PS-1 boxcar kit) and add Detail Associates uncoupling levers.

Touch-up the paint with Floquil reefer yellow paint and then a coat of Floquil Hi-Gloss.  Finally, he added extra decals (ACI plate and COTS stencil), then weathered the car.

These photos were shot on Jack Ozanich's Atlantic Great Eastern layout. Jack graciously allowed Craig Wilson to use his  digital camera to shoot these photos.

What a great looking car!

 
Photo by Craig Wilson
This photo may not be reproduced without permission.

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Updated July 11, 2015