CN 5304 cu ft combination door boxcars


CN purchased roughly 740 52'8" combination door boxcars from NSC in 1972/73 to supply cars for lumber service.  These cars supplanted and later replaced the sizable fleet of 40' double door boxcars used in this service.  As the shippers switched to centerbeam flatcars carrying wrapped lumber these cars were put into general service.  As delivered they had a green sliding door to denote lumber service.  Later on as they were repainted the green doors got painted in the standard CN red #12.  Some of the green door cars survived in original paint well into the 2000's.  Most of these cars were retired by 2018 although a few likely survive in OCS service.  

For many years the only available car was a flat resin kit from Kaslo Shops Distributing.  It was a nice kit however availability was often limited.  Rapido Trains has announced a RTR version of these cars, and recently Kaslo has re-released their original kit (HK-03) as a 3D printed car.  

As well Kaslo has another new 3D printed release that represents cars that received rebuilt ends and/or new sliding doors.  Multiple combinations are possible using this kit.  I built a total of 4 versions: one rebuilt end, 2 rebuilt ends, original ends with replacement Superior door and original ends with a repaired door, still with green door and as delivered paint.  These cars were based on photos of prototype cars.  There were likely other combinations as well but I stuck with these.   

Building the kits was straightforward using the supplied etched phosphor bronze parts.  I did some cleanup of the car body before adding the etched parts.  I glued the appropriate ends to each of the cars, carefully marking the prototype car number on the back of the doors and inside the car body to keep everything straight. For 3 of the four cars I also glued the sliding doors in place.  The rebuilt green door was painted separately from the carbody for simplicity.  The underbody got brake rigging and piping installed as well as these are visible under the carbody.  

I tried out Mr. Color Surface Primer 1000 on the cars and like it, although a good spray booth is recommended as it is solvent based.  I painted the roofs of the cars silver and masked them before applying TLT CN red #12.  I did leave some of the edges of the masking tape loose to get a bit of overspray on the rooftops like the prototype.  Once the paint was dry I sprayed a gloss coat for decals.  




Black Cat Decals has an appropriate set of decals for CN 50' and 52'8" cars.  I used these decals along with a few small decals from the Sean Steele/Circus City CN freight car decal set as well as a few Microscale COTS and ACI labels.  Another coat of gloss was sprayed to seal the decals followed by Tamiya TS-80 matt spray.  



Overall these are nice kits and give some variation to your car fleet.  I've also got some Rapido 5304 cars on order so I'll have enough cars to ship all my lumber needs on the layout.  



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