CN Austin Western 30 yard side dump cars


CN 56611 at Hope, BC, summer 1999
Pre-weathering view of the cars.

Thanks to the generosity of a friend I was able to purchase a trio of OMI 30 yard Austin Western side dump cars that were originally part of the late Stafford Swain's collection.  The models were painted by John Morris but not decaled so needed some extra work.  

Canadian National had a variety of side dump car types, with the 30 yard design from Austin Western being one of them.  CN ordered roughly 200+/- cars between 1951 and 1957 from Eastern Car Company who built them under license from Austin Western.  

The cars are close to the CN 30 yard cars with some differences in the end platforms.  I decided to leave them as they were since I didn't want to mess with John's expert painting.  I didn't notice until I was looking at photos for decal placement so they will pass muster for most people.  Before I started decaling I applied thinned Vallejo gloss varnish to the areas to be lettered.  This gives a smooth surface for decal application.  

Black Cat Decals has the correct decals available for the CN 30 yard cars so I purchased three sets from Central Hobbies.  Black Cat developed the decals in cooperation with Stafford Swain so they have the correct data.  There is some additional trimming required to fit the decals into the recesses of the car side but they go on very well.  

The cars came with Kato and P2K standard bearing trucks that were replacements for the original OMI trucks.  The OMI trucks don't roll particularly well so swapping them out helps the car performance.  I painted the sideframes with Tamiya Red Oxide primer and painted and weathered the wheels to get rid of the shiny metal.  I used some of my rapidly depleting supply of Floquil Fantasy Colours Oily Black to represent the oily buildup on the wheel faces by oil and dirt from the standard journals on the trucks.  I weathered the trucks as part of my overall weathering of the cars which I discuss below.

In my overhead views of then CN side dump fleet there is some remnant paint on the upper portions of the cars, but much of the sides and bottom have been scraped clean of paint by the aggregate loads the cars carry.  With some trepidation about painting these nicely done cars I moved forward.  Vallejo 71.065 steel was my chosen colour with a couple of drops of black paint to darken the steel colour somewhat.

I used a business card trimmed to a rough semi circular shape to get the pattern seen on the interior ends of the cars.  This gives a good starting point for weathering the cars.  I sealed the cars with Tamiya TS-80 matt spray before starting additional weathering.  

Dabbed paint in varying colours on the interior to get the start of the streaking from the loads.
Initial streaking from the loads in the car. More layers still to come.

I used my favourite Vallejo Game Effects Dry Rust on the top of the sides and ends to get the look of the cars seeing rough service lives.  I followed this will oil pin washes of various shades of blacks and  browns to get the steel coloured interiors toned down.  I did several applications to get the streaky dirty look these cars had on their interiors.  Carrying ballast, rock and muck is dirty work.  

A bit of oil wash on the exterior to get a grimy yet well maintained look to the cars

I also used a black oil wash to get a gritty look on the car body, ends and underframe to get some patina on the car.  In the 1980's these cars were still relatively well maintained so only got grimy, not totally destroyed. 

This would be considered a bit excessive on a model railway car but perfectly prototypical.  Blue River BC, spring 2001






Once I was satisfied with the oil weathering I added some remnants of a load.  In the prototype photo above I caught some similar dump cars with a lot of left over material stuck inside the car.  I wanted to capture this so used some Vallejo 27.653 Ultra Matt Varnish with some Vallejo Pigments (73.113 light slate grey and 73.111 Green Earth) mixed in and applied in the corners and as streaks on the sides, ends and floor.  This (to my eye) captures the look of some wet material that stuck to the car when it was dumped.  It is a cool look that I hope I managed to capture.   





I still have one unpainted Austin Western car I picked up a few years back, I need to get it painted and weathered to join it's companions.  That will be project 5468 on the list.










Comments

Post a Comment

What people are looking at on this blog

CN Boxcars a Plenty

Image
Canadian National had a long lasting fleet of 40 foot boxcars, some of which lasted until 1996 in grain service.  Modelling northern Manitoba in the early 1980's requires a significant number of 40 footers in both grain and general service.   Over the past several years I have been building out my fleet of these cars using RTR, kitbashed kits and resin kits.  There have also been numerous CN painted models done over the years, with some being relatively accurate while others are stand in models - some call these foobies. First Thing To  Do If you want to accurately model any CN steel boxcar your first stop should be to find a copy of Railroad Model Craftsman's August 1993 issue with Stafford Swain's seminal article "Canadian National's 1937 AAR design 40-foot steel boxcars".  It covers the entire range of 40 foot steel cars from 1937 to the end of 40' car deliveries in 1957.  This is "must read" material.  CN Lines has a number of articles on the
Read more

Tank car weathering

Image
Rapido Model Trains recently released their model of the Procor GP20 20,000 gallon general purpose tank car.  This has long been on my list of "must have" models for the Hudson Bay Railway.  Any photo with a tank car in it from the late 1970's to the 1990's was likely one of these cars.  They were used to haul gasoline, diesel and other fuel to various parts of the northern railway network.  They were used to stock the fuel tank farm in Churchill that serviced the barges that supplied communities along Hudsons Bay.  This required massive numbers of tank cars to travel north.   The model from Rapido is very nicely done with etched walkways and nicely rendered fine details.  They are pretty much ready to go out of the box, however I want to try adding some weathering to the cars to better represent the prototype.   One challenge is that there are not that many photographs of these cars in service in the early 1980's, as much due to the cost of a roll of film as at t
Read more

Painting wheels for roller bearing and standard bearing trucks

Image
One of my pet peeves is otherwise nicely done models riding on shiny metal wheels - it ruins the effect of all the other work done on the model.  And you should NOT use plastic wheelsets - they seem to attract dirt and grime and gum up your track.  Swap out the plastic wheels for aftermarket metal wheelsets.   Most of my replacement wheelsets are Intermountain, available in boxes of 100 axles.  The wheel profile is not the best but they are readily available and are generally in proper gauge or easily adjusted.  I have tried other brands but they are hit and miss as far as being readily available locally.  I have found that Rapido wheelsets are always too narrow compared to the NMRA, and they are a bugger to regauge.   My process for the wheels is fairly simple and gives good results.  Below are my go to paints: Vallejo Air Black and Vallejo Game Effects Dry Rust If you want to you can first clean the wheels with 99% (or whatever % you have available) alcohol to clean any oil and dirt
Read more