decals will be sealed with layers of top coat paint, I wanted them to adhere well to the primer coat, so they would not rub off. I suggest handling the finished cars carefully.
Figure 21: Diagram of New York Central Lot 504B boxcars. Diagram for a Reading XMt boxcar would be similar.
It seemed like a good idea to leave wide areas of decal film alongside the rivets to have the greatest surface area for adhesion to resist the handling that train models get on layouts. Unfortunately the edges still showed even under two more coats of paint. So I cut the decal film on my second model as close as possible to the rivets. This made the film nearly invisible. I also was a bit more patient with the second model. There were a few small wrinkles in the film which look a bit like stray rivets. I used more decal setting fluid to solve this issue. Once the decals had thoroughly dried, I painted my cars and lettered them using CDS dry transfers. Most or all of the Reading XMt cars had unique Taylor trucks, but later on, other truck types were common. They are such a hallmark of Reading equipment that I will change them out if I can locate some Taylors somewhere.
Figure 22: Numbering system for early all-steel boxcars on the Reading Company.
Page 37 • Issue 11-08 • Aug 2011
• Adding Realistic Rivets, page 11
The Reading XMu car I built is similar to the ARA 8’ 7” Interior height car, but has 9’ 3” interior height and the 8 panel sides. Some modelers may want to ignore the 8” difference, but it is not difficult to increase the height of the carbody. Plain styrene can be used
or an extra X29 body can be cut to augment the body height. One body can provide enough material for several conversions. For those who look closely at weathering, most of the early all-steel design boxcars eventually had corrosion problems with the lower edges of the side sheets, and segments were often cut out of the car side and replaced with new metal. On some cars the corrosion was sufficiently advanced when they reached a repair shop that a single steel strip was welded between the door and the end on both sides. This is easy to simulate by adding an 8” scale plain styrene strip to the bottom of the car butted against the sanded down sides without smoothing down to eliminate the joint. Some of these cars went through their later years with a scar across the whole car side. The stirrup steps for this project did not arrive and the modern angled type I used temporarily for the photos should actually be outside mount plain step units.
Louvers on a Diesel Early diesel locomotives had vent openings on their car bodies covered with metal mesh. These were gradually replaced by louvers. Baldwin diesel switchers and road switcher units, Alco and EMD yard engines and road switchers often had dozens of these louvers that are difficult to simulate
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