Sliding Door Boxcar
Built late 1880s to early 1900s
| 35' Inbetweener Sliding Door Boxcar Built late 1880s to early 1900s | |
| If you looked at the truss-rod era cars that have been
commercially available until now, you would be forgiven for
thinking that American rolling stock manufacturers only ever thought in
even numbers. Cars went from 28 feet long to 34 feet, then to 36, and
finally to 40 where they stayed for a generation, right? Well as it turns out, dozens of railroads never received that circular about the ban on odd-numbered car lengths, and here at Silver Crash Car Works we haven't gotten it either. Our precedent-smashing 'Inbetweener' boxcar will enable you to model, in HO scale, the thousands of 35' boxcars which rode North American rails from the late 1880s to the 1920s. The Michigan Central, for example, bought 2600 of these 35' boxcars between 1886 and 1902, all with sliding doors opening to the right. Other major roads that ran boxcars with an outside length of 35' (plus or minus a few inches) - and with the same right-opening sliding doors and 5-rung side ladders as our kit - included the Missouri Kansas & Texas, the Mobile & Ohio, the St. Louis Southwestern, the Denver & Rio Grande, and the Fort Worth & Denver City. Both an extensive database and a photo gallery of 35' boxcars, based on information from Cyril Durrenberger, are currently posted on the ERKits Yahoo group page. Note that our 'Inbetweener' kit - like all of our boxcars and refrigerator cars - features a one-piece cast resin body, as well as our stunningly prototypical beaded siding and grooved roofboards. |
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| Outside Dimensions of Car | Length 35'4", Width 9'5" over sheathing, Body Height 9'5" from bottom of sheathing to top of roofwalk |
| Siding / Roof | 5¼" beaded siding / 6½" double-groove roof boards |
| Lettering | "MK&TRY7405" (cat. p.16), "MICHIGANCENTRAL44800" (p.6), and "FTW&DC 870" (p.103) from Art Griffin at $6 per set. Or use dry transfer set 7408-01 from Clover House for FW&DC cars. Other lettering sets suitable for 35' cars are available from both of these sources. |
| Recommended Trucks (not included) | For D&RG and MKT cars: Thielsen swing motion trucks for $8 a pair including Kadee wheelsets from Trout Creek Engineering
(part # TC-1). For MC cars: Rio Grande Models #3206 heavy duty 5' wheelbase arch bar trucks with standard gauge bolsters ($6/pair), or the Bitter Creek Models #T-20 5' wheelbase diamond arch bar trucks ($7.95/pair). For FW&DC cars: In order to get close to the 'American' trucks on these cars, you will need to modify the Rio Grande Models Pacific Coast 4'4" wheelbase narrow gauge arch bar trucks (Cat.#3220, $6/pair) and add scratchbuilt standard gauge truck bolsters. |
| Estimated Construction Time | Basic kit: 2-3 hours including grab-irons and brake wheel Options requiring extra time: underbody brake rigging |
| Kits Available From | Silver Crash Car Works ($27) |