Minneapolis & St. Louis Ry.

Series 55000-55018 Auto Box Cars and

Series 2600-2618 DF Box Cars The Minneapolis & St Louis Railway’s first all steel freight cars came in a deal the Co-Receivers made with Hyman-Michaels in 1937. The deal was for Hyman-Michaels to take 18 dead lined steam locomotives and 178 dilapidated freight cars from the M&StL in return, buy 10 40ft Auto box cars. Hyman-Michaels would own the cars, but they would be lettered for the M&StL. Some arrangement for eventual M&StL ownership had to have been made because over time the M&StL modified and then rebuilt these cars. The cars were built by GATC in 2-37 and numbered 55000-55018 even numbers only. These cars were built with wood running boards, Viking roofs, and two 6ft Creco three panel doors per side (12 foot door opening). They rode on Barber S-1 trucks had NY, AB-1012 air brakes and Equipco 3160 hand brakes. The ends were Dreadnaught 4/5 square corner. The cars had an inside length of 40’6” an inside width of 9’2”, inside height was 10’, 9’5” with the Evans auto loaders in the stored position. The autoloaders were defined as type 37+ which means they could load any automobiles built though the model year 1937 and possible beyond.

M&StL 55018 builders photo. Don Vaughn collection In January, February and March of 1941 these relatively new cars were cycled through the M&StL Marshalltown, Iowa shops to have their roofs raised six inches to an inside

height of 10’6” and gain 3” of height to 9’8” when the Auto Loaders were stored against the roof. This change was made to accommodate the increased size of newer model automobiles. I have no photos I can print of these cars.

In May of 1952 the Auto loaders were removed and the cars class was reclassified from XMR to standard XM general purpose box cars. I have no photos I can print of these cars. Further modifications were done to these cars in 1959. The door opening was narrowed from 12’ to 8’ and centered on the car side. In November of 59 the cars were sent to Evans for the installation of DF loaders with 19 belts and 10 crossmembers. The rebuilt cars were renumbered 2600-2618 even numbers only and painted bright red with white lettering which included a Damage Free banner. The cars were assigned to the Whirlpool Distribution Center in East St. Paul, Minnesota on the C&NW. The cars were retired by the C&NW in 1977 after exactly 40 years of service.

Modeling the 55000-55018 series Auto Box cars

Parts: Red Caboose-RC-8501 40’ staggered double door box car with square corners. Des Plaines Hobbies- Viking roof and 8 rung ladders. Kadee- 2021 Equipco hand brake wheel. Keith Retterer- 6’ three panel Creco doors. Westerfield- #1198, 18” straight grab irons. Evergreen Strip Styrene- #221 3/64 rod, Chain tubes

#X-3 2”x4” HO scale, Door tracks #8206 2”x6” HO scale, Roof extension and Under doorway reinforcement # 106 .010x.125, Side sill

Floquil 110074 Box Car Red, 110186 Oxide Red, 110010 Engine Black. Champ Decals- HN-73 M&StL Road Name Set, HD-2 Box Car Data

These cars had straight side sills with re-enforcing under the door opening. I modeled this by removing any detail from the model’s side tabs and gluing a .10x.125 strip styrene over the side tabs the length of the car side. To represent the doorway reinforcing I added a piece of 2x6 strip styrene behind the .10x.125 strip styrene under the door opening. I used 3/64 styrene rod the simulate the tubes that store the auto loader chains. These were cut to a length of 24”. Only the 6 near the center of the car were modeled as the other would interfere with truck movement. Also the two underframe cross bearers and the two cross ties next to them need to exchange locations. Follow the kits instruction’s for the rest of the cars assembly exchanging the doors, ladders, brake wheel, and roof with those from the parts list. The doors are a story in themselves. Don Vaughn first showed me the photo of this car in Feb 94. I thought I would have to scratch build the doors. Then I saw an article in Oct 95 Model Railroading on C&O box cars by Larry Smith. One of the models had the same doors as the M&StL car! The article gave credit to Keith Retterer for making the doors. I wrote to the magazine to get Keith’s address and then contacted him. Keith sent me the doors and I built this model. About this time Keith bought a collection of freight car builder’s photos and is now a photograph seller instead of a resin part maker. So, the doors are no longer available

Figure 1 Early 50s Buicks being loaded in a 50’ DD Auto box car. Note the holes in the floor for storing the chains in the under floor tubes. Chet French collection

Figure 2 Gene Green supplied me with a drawing showing the locations of the chain tubes. They are made from 3/16” styrene rod cut into scale 24” lengths.

Figure 3 Completed as built model

Styrene strips for lower door trackStraight sillDoor reinforcement

Kadee Equipco brake Wheel attached to kit’sbrake housing

Des Plaines Hobbies8 rung ladders

A line corner steps

Branchline Barber S-2 trucks(Not S-1 trucks available in HO)

Des Plaines Hobbies Viking roof Kit running board

Keith Retterer door castings

ChampDecals

Floguil Paint

Red Caboose single door square corner AAR 1937 box car kit

Styrene strips for lower door trackStraight sillDoor reinforcement

Kadee Equipco brake Wheel attached to kit’sbrake housing

Des Plaines Hobbies8 rung ladders

A line corner steps

Branchline Barber S-2 trucks(Not S-1 trucks available in HO)

Des Plaines Hobbies Viking roof Kit running board

Keith Retterer door castings

ChampDecals

Floguil Paint

Red Caboose single door square corner AAR 1937 box car kit

To model the car with the roof extended 6” add 2x6 styrene strip around the perimeter of the Viking roof and glue to the body. This car was built several years after the first model because I had a terrible time figuring out how to make the triangular roof extension gussets. To fabricate the extension gussets cut short lengths 2x4 styrene strip and glued them to the 2x6 roof extensions at every roof seam cap. Then cut them at an angle by laying a flush cut nipper against the edge of the roof and the top of the car side. These cars had an extra straight garb iron added to the roof extension above the ladders. Follow the paragraph above to assemble the rest of the model.

Figure 4 To represent the reinforcing gussets. Short lengths of scale 2x4” styrene were glued to the rood extension at every seam cap.

Figure 5 Flush cut nippers were laid against the edge of the roof and the top of the car side. With a squeeze we have our triangular shaped gussets!

Figure 6 Modifies car ready for the paint shop.

Figure 7Completed modified model. In this configuration it the model represents a car in general service after the auto racks were removed in 1952 The paint specs for these cars call for Pennsylvania RR freight car color to be applied to the sides and roof. The ends, doors, underframe, and trucks were black. I used a 50/50 mixture of Floquil Oxide Red and Box Car Red, and Floquil Engine Black. I painted my model of the extended height car with freight car red ends and left the AUTOMOBILE stencil off from over the road name on the right side of the doors. I used Champ Decals

Modeling the 2600-2618 DF cars

Parts: Red Caboose- RC-8001 single door square corner box car. 8’ improved Youngstown door Floquil- 110011 Reefer White, 110065 Signal Red Wabash Decals (Mark Vaughn) T-1.2 This model is the same as the 1941 modified roof cars except for the door area. The prototype received an 8’ improved Youngstown door. While cars had its inside height increased to 10’6”, they retained its original 10’ IH car side height. This caused the door to have (counting for the top down) 4-6-5 corrugations per panel. I didn’t have any improved Youngstown 8’ doors on hand, so I cut up a couple of Life-Like doors and added styrene strips to make them appear as improved Youngstown doors. To close the door opening from 12’ to 8’ triangular shaped steel pieces were added to each side of the door opening. These are easily simulated be scribing a line on the car’s side with a #11 Exacto blade. These cars were painted in the Bright Red “Mikan” scheme. I first primed the model with Floquil Reefer White then airbrushed the entire car Floquil Signal Red. I used Mark Vaughn’s decals.

Figure 8 These cars were assigned to the Whirlpool Distribution Center in East St Paul. The stenciling between the bracket grabs reads: WHEN EMTRY RETURN TO CNW RY ST PAUL MN Soph Marty photo Mason City Iowa

Figure 9 This photo shows off the Viking roof, notice the Equipco brake wheel has been replaced Lloyd Keyser collection

Custom Built Improved Youngstown 8’ doorsCustom Built Improved Youngstown 8’ doors

Figure 10 The 8’ wide for a 10’IH car door kit

Figure 11 Door test fit before painting

Figure 12 Completed DF car Clark Propst Credit for prototype information needs to be given to Gene Green and Guy Wilbur.

PDF file conversion by Tom Wencl