mtrpls
Ignorance is Patriotic
OK, so I confess: As a northeastern modeler, I have always had a thing for the faded jade green Berlin Mills boxcars. Having all been repatched for either SLR, GMRC or EEC, these cars I believe are some of the coolest looking rolling stock on the rails.
When I decided to put a few of these cars into my fleet, I had a problem: no manufacturer made any boxcars decorated for Berlin Mills. Athearn or Bev Bel may have done some a while ago, but they would be hard to find today and besides, the shell they used was the wrong type of car. Unfortunately, no one made the flat-roof PC&F boxcar that is the Berlin Mills prototype, so the closest thing I could find was an Athearn FMC car. The Athearn car was missing an additional side panel on either side of the door as seen on the prototype, and it had a pitched roof, but oh well, it came close. Using decals from Highball, and with my Athearn boxcars soaking in the 91% iso, I set about to model 6 prototypical Berlin Mills cars.
Researching the project, I found images of 6 cars online that I wanted to model. I decided to copy the roadnumber, the actual graffiti, scribblings, and rust spots in HO scale as seen in the prototype photos. Since the Athearn car itself was a foobie, I can't claim these cars are prototypical by any means; they are merely "prototypically-inspired".
The entire project took me four weeks, and am I ever glad to have them completed! This Sunday they officially entered service on the modern-day New York Central System. With these completed, I already have plans in the near future to do another batch of 6 to 10.
Without further ado, I present to you "publicity shots" of my finished cars. I will also provide the prototype photo that inspired each car. The prototype photos were all found online and are copyright their respective photographer. If you happened to take one of the photos and want me to remove it, please let me know and I will kindly oblige.
I give you... my Berlin Mills repatches!
EEC 2792:
GMRC 7147:
SLR 224:
SLR 253:
SLR 269:
SLR 327: (my personal favorite of the litter... don't tell the others)
Some random pictures:
When I decided to put a few of these cars into my fleet, I had a problem: no manufacturer made any boxcars decorated for Berlin Mills. Athearn or Bev Bel may have done some a while ago, but they would be hard to find today and besides, the shell they used was the wrong type of car. Unfortunately, no one made the flat-roof PC&F boxcar that is the Berlin Mills prototype, so the closest thing I could find was an Athearn FMC car. The Athearn car was missing an additional side panel on either side of the door as seen on the prototype, and it had a pitched roof, but oh well, it came close. Using decals from Highball, and with my Athearn boxcars soaking in the 91% iso, I set about to model 6 prototypical Berlin Mills cars.
Researching the project, I found images of 6 cars online that I wanted to model. I decided to copy the roadnumber, the actual graffiti, scribblings, and rust spots in HO scale as seen in the prototype photos. Since the Athearn car itself was a foobie, I can't claim these cars are prototypical by any means; they are merely "prototypically-inspired".
The entire project took me four weeks, and am I ever glad to have them completed! This Sunday they officially entered service on the modern-day New York Central System. With these completed, I already have plans in the near future to do another batch of 6 to 10.
Without further ado, I present to you "publicity shots" of my finished cars. I will also provide the prototype photo that inspired each car. The prototype photos were all found online and are copyright their respective photographer. If you happened to take one of the photos and want me to remove it, please let me know and I will kindly oblige.
I give you... my Berlin Mills repatches!
EEC 2792:
GMRC 7147:
SLR 224:
SLR 253:
SLR 269:
SLR 327: (my personal favorite of the litter... don't tell the others)
Some random pictures: