The Carolina Sandhills Lines in HO Scale

[wazzou]

Well, Dave, I'd say you hit a homer there.

So, just to be clear, is this supposed to be a former NW boxcar acquired by the SC?  If so, painting over the old lettering and creating a slightly different "patch" is half the fun.  You certainly don't need to do it, but it also means you wouldn't have to worry so much about the tedious removal process.

If it's meant to be a car built and painted specifically for the SC, it also looks awesome as that (after the matte coat of course!).

Regardless of the car's history, it looks very good and very plausible.

Like he said, weather the car first to show the longevity of the previous road's ownership and then the freshness of the SC takeover.

[DKS]

P.S. Thanks, @DKS, for the help with the artwork that the custom decal maker requested.

More than happy. Looks like they came out really well. How did you do the blue dot bird?

[Point353]

After:

Did the Seaboard Central possibly have a fleet of "per diem" boxcars?

[davefoxx]

Well, Dave, I'd say you hit a homer there.

So, just to be clear, is this supposed to be a former NW boxcar acquired by the SC?  If so, painting over the old lettering and creating a slightly different "patch" is half the fun.  You certainly don't need to do it, but it also means you wouldn't have to worry so much about the tedious removal process.

If it's meant to be a car built and painted specifically for the SC, it also looks awesome as that (after the matte coat of course!).

Regardless of the car's history, it looks very good and very plausible.

I would have patched it, but I was really just using this el cheapo car to test the decals, which are really difficult to discern on white decal paper.  So, I didn't bother to patch out the old lettering.  Even if I had done a proper patch, though, I still would have removed the original lettering, because it would have telegraphed through the patch and been waaaaay too obvious.

I could remove the decals and do a proper patch, but I don't know that this car is worth all of that effort.  We'll see.  This was just an easy way to get dimensional data without having to do a lot of homework and invest in a bunch of decals.

Thanks,
DFF

[davefoxx]

More than happy. Looks like they came out really well. How did you do the blue dot bird?

In two steps.  The custom decals maker supplied me with blue dots and than I applied the white gull on top of that.  I went back to articles about the Seaboard Central to make sure that I had clocked the gull properly within the circle.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Like he said, weather the car first to show the longevity of the previous road's ownership and then the freshness of the SC takeover.

As I wrote in the previous post to Dave V., I don't know that I want to put that much effort into this particular car.  I agree with you all that, if it was a patched car, it should be weathered first.  In fact, that is exactly what I'll do with the BN GP9.  This car was more an exercise in removing lettering and applying decals- something that I haven't done a lot of in many, many years.

DFF

[davefoxx]

Did the Seaboard Central possibly have a fleet of "per diem" boxcars?

A lot of small roads did, so it's very plausible.  I find it humorous that, at the end of that story when the per diem craze ended, all of the cars came home.  I recall reading that there were small roads that didn't have enough room to store all of the per diem cars they owned!

DFF

[wm3798]

That was the case with the Ma & Pa.  By the time the rules changed, they had abandoned most of the old main line, and they hadn't picked up the WM ROW yet.  All they had active were the industrial tracks in and around York.  Fortunately, they hadn't pulled the rail south of town yet.  I remember going up 83 and seeing boxcars in long strings under the highway bridge as if a merchandiser was holding for a signal en route to Dallastown or Whiteford...
Lee

[Carolina Northern]

Pickens must have run into that problem. I remember running the mainline of the A&R and coming across a group of sidings full of Pickens cars. I later found that A&R rented storage space.

Somewhere, I have some slides from that trip. I kind of hazily remember counting 23 Pickens cars there, but it's been a lot of years.

Don

[Missaberoad]

Very Nice! I see some Red SD boxcars in your future... and some Trailers? 

[davefoxx]

Okay, y’all talked me into it.  I stripped the new decals off and removed the lettering from the other side of the car.  This evening, I weathered the car, to represent years of service on the N&W before being purchased by the Seaboard Central.  Yes, the trucks, wheelsets, and couplers are not yet weathered, but that can be done separate from the car body.

You may recall what I started with:



The result of tonight’s efforts:



This was all done with Monroe Models washes.  I also took some alcohol and a Q-tip to the white lettering to wear it off somewhat.  The next step will be to apply a clear gloss to accept the decals.  I also painted some blank decal paper red, which I will cut up for the patches prior to applying the Seaboard Central decals.

Stay tuned,
DFF

[LIRR]

nicely done.

[davefoxx]

nicely done.

Thanks!  I did get the car's weathering buried in a gloss coat before I went to bed last night.  I am happy to report that the clear coat did not erase any of the weathering.

DFF

[DKS]

Good job. One tiny suggestion: the SC in the car's reporting marks, as you did it originally, looks a tad odd (even as a patch). Do you have any plain block lettering similar to the car number to use instead?

[Missaberoad]

Looking good!
The Evans car was a good choice too. A number of them were leased by USRE, and they changed hands alot.
Perfect for a short line patch job.