Reading Boxcar - X-29

Peter's car is on the left, a little lighter on the weathering than mine.

As I work on my F&C Reading double door boxcar I realized there was two decal sheets included with enough data to letter 4 cars. So Peter and I decided to build a Reading X-29 boxcar using a Walthers kit I had and a Red Caboose kit Peter found in his stock. The Walthers car took some extra work to get it up to what I wanted it to look like. Peter's Red Ball kit is very nice right out of the box.

Both X-29's are seen ready for pickup on the WRD.

My Walthers X-29 is getting near the point of painting. One can see the door ribs and tracks added, plus roof walk and new grab irons.

My car's roofwalk was replaced with thin styrene. The corner platforms are sanded down a bit to match the new roofwalk. The grabs are shaved off and Detail Associates #2202 grabs added. I used Kadee #5 couplers. The brake wheel and housing is Details Associates #6402. The stock wheels are used but we both used Tichy Andrew trucks as was used on many Reading cars. I used Grandt Line stirrups and bent wire cut levers. Peter used Detail Associate #6215 cut levers on his model. My boxcar doors have the oversize hardware removed. The top and bottom door tracks are cut off and new thin styrene ones are applied. The door is trimmed to fit. The prototype car doors have 6 ribs. The model has two ribs. We decided to put one rib between the doors ribs for a total of 5. We did not want to build new doors and can live with one missing rib. These ribs are added out of our scrap pieces.

Both cars are painted Floquil boxcar red followed by a gloss coat. F&C decals are applied. We used a photo found in Reading Colour Guide, Morning Sun books for number and letter placements. A coat of dulcote is applied followed by Pan Pastel weathering. Peter went light on his model weathering and I really added a lot to one side only...George Dutka

Peter Mumby's Red Cabooe kit seen on the WRD. The ribs added to the doors gives a similar appearance of the car found in Peter's Morning Sun book.

My Reading car is being handled in a local freight over the White River bridge. On my car the weathering is heavy on one side and lighter on the other. This views the light side.