34' Wagner Door Boxcar

Sealed with a ....... thump.

      Every railroad and car builder in late 19th-century America was desperately looking for a boxcar door which could actually do what it was supposed to - seal the car when closed. The Wagner Car Door Company offered to solve this problem with an elaborate mechanism which pushed the car door into the door opening until it was flush with the car side, much like a modern plug door.
     The Santa Fe and its subsidiaries began buying 34' Wagner Door boxcars in 1886, and the Colorado Midland predictably followed suit. The siding on the very first few CK&W and CM Wagner Door cars was a mix of wide and narrow boards, but by the end of 1886 all parties had settled on ordinary 5¼" beaded boards for the sides, doors, and ends of their cars. Our Wagner Door Boxcar has these 5¼" boards and enables you to model the cars of six different companies: 1) AT&SF, 2) Chicago, Santa Fe & California [the AT&SF extension to Chicago], 3) Central Mexicano [another AT&SF subsidiary], 4) Peavey Grain Line, 5) Colorado Midland [numbers 5001-5150 from Barney & Smith and 5177-5325 from St. Charles], and 6) Midland Terminal. Click here to see photos of the Santa Fe, Central Mexicano, and Peavey cars in the 1895 St. Charles Car Co. catalog.
   The side doors on this kit feature some of the most virtuosic detail work ever done on a 19th-century car in HO scale, and with a little extra work, they can be left open by those modelers with no high-graders on their layouts. End lumber doors - fully detailed with mini-Wagner hardware, of course - are also included, and we've even made the car roof out of double-grooved boards for the sake of any flatlanders out there who might have some of their trackage below eye level. Barry McClelland of Railway Recollections has captured all of this magnificent detail for us on one-piece bodies cast in Alumilite® resin.

Click on these photos for full-size images:

small CSF&C Wagner door box 3/4 view high

Outside Dimensions of Car	Length 34'3", Width 8'9" over sheathing, Body Height 8'9" from bottom of sheathing to top of roofwalk
Siding / Roof	5¼" beaded siding / 6½" double-grooved roof boards
Lettering	Austin Modeling Associates has decals (set #41) for the Peavey Grain Line car at $4. Art Griffin has decal sets 'Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe 19215' (p.5), 'SANTA FE 18588' (p.24), 'ST.C.CSF&CALIF' (p.99), 'Mexican Central' (p.95), 'Peavy Grain Box 572' (p.39), 'MTTC399' (p.21), and ST.C.CM5032 (p.99), plus correct-sized CM 'Pikes Peak Route' heralds - 'CM PIKES PEAK' (p.98), all at $6 per set. Clover House has dry transfers that can be used for AT&SF (7056-05) and Colorado Midland cars (7252-03), although the Clover House CM heralds are not the right size.
Recommended Trucks	Thielsen swing motion trucks for all cars except MT, $8 per pair including Kadee wheelsets from Trout Creek Engineering (part # TC-1). In order to get close to the 'American' trucks on the MT cars, you will need to modify the Rio Grande Models 4'4" wheelbase narrow gauge arch bar trucks (Cat.#3220) and add scratchbuilt standard gauge truck bolsters.
Estimated Construction Time	Basic kit: 2-3 hours including grab-irons and brake wheel Options requiring more time: end lumber doors (included with kit as separate castings), double-board fascia, and underbody brake rigging
Kits Available From	Silver Crash Car Works ($27)

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