Flea Market Finds - Part 2

A little PanPastel weathering added to the underslung charcoal heater really makes this feature pop out in the photo.  Also, note the stirrup step added beneath the left side of the door.

Commentary by Peter Mumby.............Photos by George Dutka.

Another piece of rolling stock that I picked up at the recent Woodstock Model Railroad Flea Market was a model of CN 40' insulated boxcar #290043.  An unknown modeller obviously put a lot of time and effort into the production of this car.  This type of car featured a pair of charcoal heaters mounted under the doors to protect perishable loads from freezing in the winter months, and these are distinctive features of the model.  These cars were built near the end of 1959, late in the era of the green maple leaf logo.  As a matter of fact, the batch of similar cars built Nov 1960-Feb 1961 became the first new cars to sport the CN noodle logo.

A nice prototype photo of sister car CN 290018, taken by London-area rail historian Don McQueen, appears on p. 18 of the Morning Sun book Canadian National Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment.

This photo taken at the workbench provides a close-up view of how the heaters were modelled.

 The model includes an etched metal roof walk.  Before the photo was taken, I added some PanPastel weathering to the roof to help emphasize this three-dimensional feature.  A perusal of the prototype photos in the Morning Sun book points out the one discrepancy of the model - the roof should actually have an unpainted aluminum appearance.