Making a living with words
Getting paid for your work is not always in cash…
Long before I ventured out into the cold world of self employment, I worked for a model railroad magazine. One of our mainstays were reviews of new products when they became available. It was a lot of fun, and since we got to keep the products we reviewed, I ended up with quite a collection of model train related stuff (toys).
The magazine has changed hands since I was on board. On a whim I contacted the current editor about the possibility of writing for the magazine again. A year went by before I heard anything, then out of the dark void of forgotten emails I was contacted.
The editor wrote that he was cleaning out his in-box, and apologized for not getting back with me sooner. He also wrote that he would be happy to accept my offer, and a review sample was soon at my doorstep. Putting on that old hat once again was nostalgic, and a bit sad (read, “Back in the News”).
For those that read my previous Medium post and wondered what the experience developed into, here is the review in it’s entirety as it appeared in Model Railroad News…
Accurail HO-scale 50-foot riveted AAR boxcar
Review and Kit Photos by Michael Pratt
Adding to their list of available HO scale freight car kits, Accurail is offering the AAR 50’ Riveted Side Boxcar with 8’ Superior Door for Illinois Central Gulf (5505). The ICG freight car comes lettered and numbered, and pre-painted in ICG orange.
Other offerings of this body style include: 5500 Undecorated, 5501 Santa Fe, 5502 Chicago & North Western, 5503 Baltimore & Ohio, 5504 Western Pacific, 5506 Southern Railway, 5507 Chicago Burlington & Quincy, 5508 Grand Trunk Western, 5509 Seaboard, 5510 Missouri Pacific, 5511 Gulf Mobile & Ohio, 5512 Rock Island, 5513 Pennsylvania, 5548 data only mineral red, and 5549 data only oxide.
The Illinois Central can trace its history all the way back to Abraham Lincoln, even before he became our 16th President. The Illinois Central was chartered by the Illinois General Assembly in 1851, and Lincoln was a lawyer for the railroad.
Upon its completion in 1856, the IC was the longest railroad in the world. In the 1870s and 80s, the IC acquired and expanded railroads in the southern United States. IC lines ran through Mississippi, and went as far as New Orleans, Louisiana to the south, and Louisville, Kentucky in the east. In the 1880s, northern lines were built to Dodgeville, WI, Sioux Falls, SD, and Omaha, NE. Further expansion continued into the early twentieth century. After a merger in 1972 with the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, the newly renamed Illinois Central Gulf Railroad provided service from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico, and linked 13 states.
The railroad returned to the name Illinois Central in 1988, and continued as IC until its 1999 merger with Canadian National. The IC logo was eventually phased out and replaced with CN branding, although it remained on much of the former railroad’s rolling stock for a number of years.
Accurail’s HO scale kit features a one piece car body with separate doors, single piece underframe/floor, trucks with plastic wheel sets, knuckle couplers, and underframe brake details. The underframe/floor and detail parts are all molded in black plastic.
The car body details (ladders, stirrups, hand grabs, tack boards, etc.) are molded in place. The exceptions are the end brake wheel and roof walk. These two details come preinstalled. The single instruction sheet is simple and features an exploded diagram with minimal written directions.
Starting with the underframe, I trimmed the small pins left over from the molding process using a flush cutting nipper. This is the only clean up necessary with this kit. Next came the installation of the underframe details. I carefully cut the three small details from their sprue and glued them in place with a tiny drop super glue. Each piece features a half-round pin and corresponding hole for proper orientation. The instructional diagram makes it clear as to where each piece should be located.
Couplers go on the model next. Accurail provides its two-piece brown plastic AccuMate knuckle couplers. The coupler pocket covers, as well as the couplers themselves, are held in place with a tiny screw. You will need a small, Phillips head screw driver for these.
Two more screws are provided to secure the trucks to the boxcar’s underframe. I first installed the wheel sets into the truck frames, then screwed the assembled trucks in place. Both trucks had plenty of free play which should provide smooth operation.
Turning my attention to the car body, it was now time to install the doors. Accurail has provided what they refer to as “door straps” with this model. These are specially formed plastic pieces very close in size to the doors themselves. These are glued to the inside of the car body to aid in the attachment of the boxcar’s exterior doors.
If you are like me, with your vision dimming and your hand-eye coordination closely resembling that of a two year old, you have cussed more than once when glue seeps from behind the edge of a boxcar door onto a beautifully pre-painted model. And if you are like me, you’d rather choose where to apply your weathering rather than use it to cover up mistakes.
Using quick drying liquid plastic cement, I glued the door straps behind each car door opening. You need to make sure to note the position of these door straps and leave room for the underframe assembly inside the car body.
Gluing the actual doors in place came next. Using the same plastic cement for its bonding properties and positioning time, I glued each exterior door in place, holding each one to its respective door strap until the glue set. Flawless. The doors fit flush — and no glue marks!
The included metal strap weight can be secured to the inside floor using either super glue, five minute epoxy, or any other multi-purpose adhesive. The plastic floor will assume the shape of the metal strap once they are glued together, so make sure the metal strap is perfectly flat so the floor is not warped when you try to install it into the car body.
The assembled underframe slid into the car body without the need of any persuasion. It fit surely enough that no glue was needed to hold the two assemblies together.
And with that, my Accurail 50’ Riveted AAR Boxcar was done. It honestly took longer to write this review and take photos than to assemble the kit. Once the model was finished, it was time to step back and make a few observations.
The overall paint on this model is excellent. A flat, ICG orange covers the entire car evenly. The printing is crisp and legible, even to the tiniest example.
I was disappointed with the large logo. The white rail “I” appears to be overprinted on top of the black circle background of the logo. This produces an uneven gray colored “I”, and not one that is bright white. Not a problem for a heavily weathered car, almost welcome in fact. But I’d rather have a prototypical starting point with a “car shop fresh” logo.
Though the centering action was a tad sluggish initially, the couplers function well and are the proper height. Loosening the retaining screws helped the centering issue, so be sure to not over tighten them when you are assembling the couplers into their pockets.
The truck side frames are well done and have crisp molded detail. The plastic wheels fit securely and roll smoothly in their frames. Unless you are extremely concerned about rolling resistance, replacement metal wheel sets should not be required.
This is a beautiful car once assembled, and doing so is a breeze! Accurail offers renumbering decal sets for ICG (item #5505D — $4.00) as well as their other offerings — many of which have yet to be released. So, if you are looking to fill your tracks with great looking rolling stock, and do it quickly, then Accurail has your ticket.