Modelling Maine Railroads

Monon #15012 is an Accurail kit for a fifty foot outside braced boxcar that I built on friday. I purcahsed the car at M. B. Klein, a train store located north of Baltimore, on Monday. The car was an easy build and I think the the car turned out quite well. In my opinion, this type of car really helps set my layout in the 1970s as it is clearly a modern (at least, modern relative to my usual modeled era of the 1950s) boxcar. Considering that my layout is set on a rural branchline in Northern Maine, it seems reasonable to wonder why I would have a Monon boxcar on my layout. Mostly, this boxcar just caught my eye when I was at the train store and as it fits my era, I bought it. It also seems that it would be fairly possible to see a Monon boxcar occasionally in Northern Maine, as I think that the Monon served a fair amount of industry in its territory. I dont know that for a fact of course, as I do not know very much about the Monon. I do know, however, that Maine Central and CP Rail ...

After finishing construction of the Candian Pacific boxcar that I wrote about yesterday, I realized that I had built twenty Accurail freight car kits. I put them all out on my layout and photographed them. I rhought that I would share the pictures with you here. An overview of the train. Another overview of the train. A low level shot that I took. Despite the obvious lack of ballast, I think that this photo looks quite realistic.

This afternoon, I assembled an accurail kit for a 40 foot steel boxcar that os decorated for Canadian Pacific. I assembled following the directions and did not make any modifications to it. It will look good on CP freights through Mattawamkeag and in interchange service. Candian Pacific #254306

This morning, I decided to improve an old Athearn boxcar that I had acquired a few years ago. The car was an old blue box kit, and had okay basic details. It was painted and lettered for Canadian Pacific, so I had extra incentive to improve it. Also helping the car's case was the fact that it had the right number for the series of CP boxcar that it most closely represented. As my next layout will depict the section of the  Canadian Pacific transcontinental mainline which ran on the joint track with the Maine Cantral for 56 miles between Mattawamkeag and Vanceboro, I need all the CP cars I can find. I decided that in the case of this car, which isn't badly detailed but is not as well detailed as my other cars, I could use the car on CP mainline through freights only, so ttje lack of some details wouldn't be a problem. The main problem with this car was the bad weathering job that I had done on it. This car was the first car I that I ever weathered, and it was very obviou...

Though the title specifies that the following applies only to accurail refrigerator cars, it also applies to accurail outside braced wood boxcars. In fact, I have used the following methods with success on Accurail outside braced wood boxcars. My Accurail Bangor & Aroostook refrigerator car had a very distinct tilt to one side when placed on the track. This tilt was very unsightly, and also made the car liable to tip over during operation. So this evening, I decided to do something about it. I placed the car on my workbench and looked at the underframe to try to determine what exactly the problem was. I first checked to see if it was a case of the entire underframe assembly not being properly attached to the rest of the car. I have had this problem with a few other Accurail cars, and the solution to this is to simply push the underframe into the car until there is a click. Sadly, this was not the case with this car. At first, I thought that the problem with this car was w...

This afternoon, I assembled Maine Central #3852, an accurail two bay hopper kit that I purchased at Mainline Hobby Supply in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvannia. This is a very nice kit and built into a very nice car. It was a nice, quick, afternoon project after a long, slow, day at school. For the most part, I followed the instructions to the kit and did not make any modifications to the car. However, in the course of assembling the kit, I made several changes to the order in which I assembled the kit. I will note those modifications here, mostly for my own regrence if I ever build another model from this specific kit. First, when adding the coupler and coupler pockets to the car, add them before  adding the air resevoir. It makes screwing the couplers into place much easier. Second, glue the support post to the main body before adding the end assemblies with the couplers and such. Finally, screw the screws for the trucks all the way down the holes in the bolsters before att...

I thought it might be interesting to post a picture of my workbench to show what projects I am currently working on. So here it is. As you can see, I have a large group of freight cars, all of which are Accurail kits. Two of the gondolas have been recently built, and a thord dondola is on mu workbench for purposes of photography. One boxcar is on the workbench for measuring purposes, while the composite boxcar is on the workbench for repairs. I don't quite know why the hopper is on the workbench. The two woood walls in front are my current project, a model of the Maine Central Railroad freight house at Mattawamkeag, Maine. I will post more about that project soon.

I took this picture of the two Maine Central gondolas that I recently built, along with a third Maine Central gondola that I had built much earlier. The third gondola was kitbashed following a prototype photo of a Maine Central gondola modified for limestone shipment to paper mills.

This evening a built another Accurail Maine Central gondola kit. This kit went together well and produced a nice looking model. Fortunately, this car came numbered differently from the gondola that I just built. I believe that they were two parts of a three car set. I purchased this kit at Maine Modelworks in Falmouth, Maine, just like the other one. This car still needs to be weathered at some point. A side view of the completed car. Roughly an end view of the car, showing the hand brake end. A three-quarters view of the car.

I took out my Maine Central Snowplow this morning and photographed it on the layout. The snowplow is a Walthers Proto model that I got at Maine Modelworks in Falmouth, Maine, last year. The snowplow is an excellently detailed model and it also operates very well. The snowplow sitting on the layout. I edited the first photo to try to make the image more realistic.

This is an Accurail kit that I had on my workbench for a few months. I finally built it today since I was looking for a small project. The car still has to be weathered at some point.

This evening a worked on two freight cars at my newly set up workbench. These were two accurail kits lettered for the Boston & Maine. 40 Foot Hopper (Click on the images to make them bigger) This is an accurail kit that I purchased and built a few months ago. However, it was damaged by my cat while the car was sitting on my workbench a few weeks ago. After its trip to the hardwood floor, it essentialy reverted back to kit form. While the major parts fortunately did not break, its couplers did, so I replaced those with kadees. I will weather the car at some point. On the layout, it will be put into service hauling coal from the Canadian Pacific Railroad interchange in Calais. 40 Foot Boxcar This is an accurail 40 foot boxcar kit lettered for the Boston and Maine that I recently purchased and assembled tonight. It has, fortunately, no iteresting backstory and hopefully never will. I assembled it as per instructions, and have not yet weathered it. When I do so, it will be w...