12 Days of Christmas 2023

[hobo1960]

Happy Christmas to all.

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Another challenging year is coming to an end but, as I did last year, I'd like to share some of my repaint projects from the past year which never got posted or shared here - along with a few new surprise (I hope).

So, I'm once again offering my "Twelve Days of Christmas" and I hope some find pleasure in them.

As before, I plan to release one repaint at a time over the next twelve days, beginning with today!

First up... DRGW Cookie Boxcar.

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The Cookie Box cars were used for service from the Bowman Biscuit company bakery (later Keebler) in Denver throughout the west, usually as single car shipments.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/dj8014q7oa4rlfc/ACF40ft_Cookie.zip/file

Nollaig Shona Duit!

Kevin B

[Chacal]

Looking good!

[GogebicChief]

Merry Christmas & Thanks Harry. I was going to get around to doing that one, but You save me the trouble.
Take Care, Stefan

[hobo1960]

Happy Holidays.

Day two, and I offer another MaineLines 40ft boxcar repaint.

Today we have the MP (MoPac) HERBIE boxcar.

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The MoPac's HERBIE (reporting marks 'Herb -1') car was a converted 40ft boxcar with the slogan "Herbie Rides the Help Every Railroader Be Injury Exempt Division" and used for promoting rail safety as part of the railroad's instruction car fleet.

A more detailed discussion about the HERBIE can be found here: http://www.trainweb.org/screamingeagle/herbie.html


https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/ialfzzcunbk0grj/ACF40ft_Herbie.zip/file

Feliz Navidad!

KevinB

[Chacal]

Thanks and don't hesitate to upload your pack here when it's ready.

[hobo1960]

Happy Holidays.

Day three, and today we have the EYEIN12 Ortner 100ton Aggregate Hopper in JTSX [Joseph Transportation Incorporated] scheme.

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Ortner designed these unique cars with as much of the bottom of the hopper opening as possible to facilitate 'rapid discharge' of the loads. This lead to the entire load being placed over the doors. This placement of the load left space on the end which was made into caboose like porches. These distinctive high-sided cars have been in service since the 1970s. Prototypes used for hauling heavy aggregates including limestone, iron ore and taconite pellets, gravel, sand and more. To allow for some variety (and as the autonumbering doesn't work in the repaints), I have painted three different numbered cars. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks to the EYEIN12 for the model [which is payware so you'll need the GeoPcDx - instructions in file]

KevinB

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/l7vi7u15fnfr09p/Ortner_JTSX.zip/file

Fröhliche Weihnacht

KevinB

[hobo1960]

Happy Holidays

Day four, and today we have two Kuju tankcars painted to represent Midwest Ethanol cars.

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In the last decade, growing public and government support for Ethanol as an alternative fuel source has created the need for an expanded fleet of modern tank cars to haul millions of gallons of Ethanol from the corn-belt Midwest to high-consumption areas across the country. Modern ethanol tank cars have a 30,000-gallon capacity. Most tank cars are owned by railcar leasing companies. Many are leased to the ethanol producing companies and carry their company logos. Fuel dealers, small refineries and other industries receive single cars and small blocks of cars that are mixed into freight trains. Large gasoline refineries may receive 100-car unit trains several times per week.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/os8xo0sb06yrq2m/TankCars_MWTX.zip/file

God Jul

KevinB

[hobo1960]

Happy Holidays

Day five, and today we have a recycling trash train car. This is a repaint of the EYEIN12 Trash Car.

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Trash hauling in unit trains is undertaken by many railroads, including CSX, NS, UP and BNSF. Hauling containerized trash out of large cities to huge landfills in other areas of the country is a big business. Most people don't seem to have a clue how much trash the typical large city generates every day, but if you figure the equivalent of several 30 gallon trash bags per week for every person in a city of several million people, you can see it would be a pretty big pile. It has to go somewhere, and most people don't want it in their back yard. So this has proven a growing business for railroads. In some areas in the country, recycling is also shipped to large recycling processing plants as well.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/ox4otsd19zds72k/USWX_Gray_Recycling.zip/file

メリークリスマス
Merīkurisumasu

KevinB

[hobo1960]

Happy Holidays

Day six, and today I am excited to offer six repaints of the RSC GG1!

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AMTK Black
AMTK Black U.S. Savings Bond Campaign
CR Black
CR Blue
PC Black 1
PC Black 2

I've always loved the GG1 and I love that it survied as long as it did in service.

These repaints really don't require any explanation, as do most of my projects, with the possible exception of the Savings Bond unit. In support of an effort by the federal government to once again encourage the buying og U.S. Savings Bonds, Amtrak added a large "United States Savings Bond" logo to its GG1 number 921.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/m1w4dxf21jgrjnb/GG1_set_1.zip/file

Buon Natale

KevinB

[Mikeov1985]

Excellent work!

[hobo1960]

Happy Holidays

Day seven, and today we have another set of interesting items -- three repaints of the G-TraX Outside-Braced Boxcar from BLE pack.

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Hills Bros 161
Hills Bros 162

Hills Bros Coffee Company, located on the Embarcadero in San Francisco owned two wood colorfully decorated boxcars they received in March of 1930. They were assigned road numbers 161 and 162, and restricted their use to the shipment of bags of coffee beans only.

CMStP Lindsay Bros

The Lindsay Brothers started selling Plymouth binder twines in 1883, with the first purchase of 3,000 pounds. In only 20 years, sales of this product by Lindsay Brothers amounted to 50 million pounds per year. Lindsay Brothers had exclusive sale rights of Plymouth twines and cordage in 10 states as well as the entire Canadian grain belt. This repaint shows one of their shipping boxcars which carries CM&StP [Milwaukee Road] reporting marks.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/gu6z17rp0oxkg1y/Outside_Braced_Boxcars.zip/file

щасливого pіздва
Shchaslyvoho Rizdva

KevinB

[hobo1960]

Happy Holidays

Day eight, and today we have a set of Two-Tone C&O 40ft Steel PS1 Boxcars from G-TraX.

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The prototype for these cars was actually a set of six 50ft PS1 boxcars [If I can find a 50ft model that I can repaint, I'll work to get those done eventually.] painted by the Chesapeake and Ohio shops for display at their stockholders meeting of April 25, 1957 in Newport News, Virginia. These cars were meant to promote the Chessie's less than carload (LCL) service -- a service which didn't last very long as developments in railroading soon made LCL service no lomger profitable. The cars could be seen as late as the mid-1970s.

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I'm not sure that the diagonal scheme may be fictional but I found it rather pleasing and it looks nice in my consists.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/3ib9z4ie71skbgc/PS140ft_Boxcars_CO_twotone.zip/file

Vrolijk Kerstfeest

KevinB

[hobo1960]

Happy Holidays

Day nine, and today we have Three Impact Demonstration Cars. These are repaints of the G-TraX 40ft Steel Boxcars.

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I've always been fascinated by these 'transparent' boxcars ever since I received one as a Christmas present as a child in the 1960's.

As best as I can determine, a number of railroads built a few of these cars to to study the effects of impact forces on cargo and to demonstrate to switching crews, as well as shippers and customers, how damaging coupling impacts at higher speeds can be when operating trains.

Over the years, I've found a number of images in books, and later on internet, that show a variety of railroads employed these cars for research and promotions:


The ATSF car featured the unusual "New 3-D" logo. An article from Railroad magazine offered the following information:

"Through the Plexiglass sidings, employees can view the consequences of Improper car handling or failure to properly stow and secure freight. Officials said that the 3-D's to be avoided in freight car handling are: "Damage by impact, damage by shift and damage by breakage." In demonstration, the transparent car permits a clear view of the results of improper handling. These demonstrations, in charge of a group of officials, will be held at the terminals and major yards of the Gulf lines. The new 3-D transparent car was built by the Santa Fe as another advance in the systemwide efforts to prevent damage. The car is a modification of a standard 40-foot box car with the steel sheathing and wood lining replaced by Plexi-glass sheathing and metal screen which permits observation of what happens inside a car subjected to overspeed impacts. A large-sized speedometer dial has been installed in a side of the car and with a speed recorder operated off the car axle, indicates the speed at time of coupling. To provide demonstrations for night crews the car has interior flood lights powered by batteries installed in a possum-belly of the car. Protection for the transparent sheathing while the car is moving from one terminal to another is provided by detachable panels. It was also fitted with lading anchors at the Santa Fe Topeka shops."

The Union Pacific originally converted a mid-1940s 40ft car into an impact instruction car at the Omaha shops in 1952. Serving to illustrate the importance of safe car handling, this car had a transparent sidewall to show cargo movement, along with force and speed gauges displayed on the side.

Canadian National, likewise, rebuilt one of their cars with a plexiglass side and equipped the car with a big needle meter to show speed at impact. One could also observe shifting of the load inside.

Southern Pacific also made use of a transparent car out of a 50ft B-50-30 class car. The research using this car led to the development of the Hydra-Cushion underframe used under many SP freight cars.

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Anyway, I just love these cars and now have three to play with in the game and thought others might also enjoy them.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/fdarl7w8nctp5l2/Impact_Boxcars.zip/file

Joyeux Noël

KevinB

[hobo1960]

Happy Holidays.

Day ten, and today we have a set of three Linde Box Tankcars.

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This is a repaint for the G-TraX Steel 40ft Boxcar.

These unusal cars may look like ordinary 40ft boxcars but appearances may be deceiving, as the interiors are taken up by a huge crygenic tank that fills the entire interior spaces. Just as there are cars which externally look like boxcars but have been classified as covered hoppers, so these cars were classified as tank cars. The AAR classification was XT. These cars were modified to carry compressed gas as a liquid.From the 1940's thru to 1960's, these cars could be seen on a number of railroads in the northeast. The Class XT boxcar fell out of favor with the complexity of loading/unloading and the small tank capacity and has been replaced with the cryogenic tank car.

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These cars were built by American Car & Foundry between April 1945 and July 1960, and leased to Linde Air Products Company. Each car was fitted with one 9,700 gallon cryogenic tank. GATC also built and leased a number of box tankcars under the reporting marks LAPX, and Linde’s Canadian subsidiary CGBX.

The origins of these cars can be attributed to a German engineer, Carl von Linde of Munich, Germany, who in 1931 developed a cryogenic air separation process that significantly increased the mass production of oxygen, used in metal cutting and welding, munitions and medical needs. In 1907, gaining an American patent, Linde established the first liquid oxygen factory in Buffalo, N.Y. under the name Linde Air Products Company, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. The Linde group later joined with Union Carbide in the 1990s.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/dj5cq1ipu629dx6/Linde_Boxcars.zip/file

Wesołych Świąt

KevinB

[hobo1960]

I decided to add an additional car to today's release -- an Air Reduction company boxcar.

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The Air Reduction Company, which began in 1918,was a company based in Allentown, Pa.

Air Products and Chemicals manufactured cryogenic equipment, industrial gases and other chemicals. This company operated more than fifty plants across the country. They developed a process to take the oxygen out of the air and patented a process for obtaining nitrogen from the atmosphere. The greatest use of their products was made by the Bethlehem Steel company. They were also known for manufacturing oxygen welding tanks.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/ ... n.zip/file

Enjoy

KevinB