Alan Wood Super Slotted roofwalks

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hello everyone,

I am in the process of scratchbuilding a Reading/Jersey Central covered hopper like the ones the Reading built in their shops in 1940. These hoppers had Alan Wood Super Slotted roofwalks. The only models that ever had this type of roofwalk were Eastern Car Works north east standard caboose and Sunshine Models PRR X-37B boxcar. Neither of these manufacturers is still in business. Do any of you have the Alan Wood roofwalks from these kits that you would be willing to sell to me? The Eastern Car Works caboose kit could be built as a Reading, Western Maryland, Lehigh Valley, and other roads caboose, most of which did not use Alan Wood roofwalks. Perhaps if you’ve built one or more of these kits, you have the Alan Wood roofwalk parts in your scrap box. In the case of the ECW parts, I’d need two sets of roofwalks.

Kindest regards,

Alan Mende

[Edit: Personal email address removed from post by moderator. Please PM poster for contact information - Thanks.]

2

A quick search yielded little, but some more digging came up with a description of that particular roofwalk. Further digging yielded a contact link for ordering Sunshine kits, and while the link goes to something with a 2009 date, the site with the link has a notation that it was updated in May, 2016. Apparently, those roofwalks were also available separately, so you may want to explore this LINK.

Wayne

3

Hi Wayne,

I was at the Sunshine website, and on their home page they indicate that everything there is only for reference and that they don’t have anything to sell anymore. At the top of the page there is this note:

THIS IS A REFERENCE SITE ONLY.
SUNSHINE NO LONGER SELLS ANYTHING.
ALL KITS ARE UNAVAILABLE FROM SUNSHINE

C’est la vie.

Alan

4

Hi, Alan

Like Wayne, I had to do a little research on the subject.

I presume this is the roofwalk uyou seek?

I know I have seen it somewhere and I dusted off my memory stores enough to recall seeing it on the Bowser PRR N5c cabin cars.

Pardon the dust and cob webs! Perhaps you could contact Lee English at Bowser and see if you can buy just the roofwalks from these kits and splice enough together for your hopper? Maybe, just maybe, Bowser used the Alan Wood type on other cars but I don’t recall any.

http://www.bowser-trains.com/contactus.html

[edit] This MIGHT be the part but I would contact Bowser to be sure.

http://www.bowserorders.com/.sc/ms/dd/ee/12292161/Bowser%20ROOF%20WALK%20SPRUE%20N-5

Best of Luck, Ed

5

I’m not sure, Ed, but I think that roofwalk is the very nicely-done one for their ACF covered hoppers.
Bowser does sell at least some kit parts separately: I’ve picked-up boxcar doors, the roofwalks mentioned above, and also the detail sprues for their ACF covered hoppers. The latter two allowed me to convert a bunch of older MDC PS-2 covered hoppers into something a little different:

Wayne

6

Hi, Wayne

I took a look at my instruction sheet for the ACF 2 bay and the part shown is #74273 for the bar type roofwalk. My reference link above is probably for the N5 caboose which has wood plank roof walks and not the N5c . The part number, presumably the one Alan may want, is #74009. Again, all the more reason to contact Mr. English.

I don’t see any problem splicing sections together since it looks like there are three sections joined to make up the 42’-4" or 42’-7 ¾" lengths shown in my first post.

Maybe Alan has found another source already…

Regards, Ed

7

Thank you, Ed. I’ll certainly contact Bowser. Alan

8

No, I haven’t found another source, but I will now contact Bowser. I’m pretty sure they’ll sell me enough sprues of roofwalk parts to complete my project.

Alan

9

Alan,

I have one set of roofwalks left over from a kitbash from an N5c I can send you if you need it. Send me a PM and I can mail them to you.

Best Of Luck, Ed

10

Thank you, Ed, but I just placed an order with Bowser.

Thank you, everyone, who took the time to respond. I’ll try to post a photo of my covered hopper when it is done.

Alan

11

This is tangential to the thread but there is an interesting if brief discussion, with drawings and some photos, of the Alan Wood Steel Company’s line of running boards in the Railway Prototype Cyclopedia #16. The article is by Ed Hawkins: “Freight Car Running Boards and Brake Steps.”

Originally they produced a “Diamondette” running board for tank cars (later called “Super Diamond”) - much like the familiar diamond shaped pattern you see on fire truck steps. Those were the only steel running boards to be seen in the 1937 Car Builder’s Cyclopedia. The design was not popular for roofed freight cars because the running board was solid and there were no gaps for water to drain to, so ice formation was common.

The rows of parallel alternating slots were intended to address that flaw so it was called the “Alan Wood Slotted Super-Diamond Floor Plate Running Board.” That shows up in the 1940 Car Builder’s Cyc. Even with improvements, use of the product by the rail industry was spotty. Some Milwaukee Road rib sided boxcars used them. But the unslotted Super Diamond plate was used for brake steps even as wood running boards continued to be used.

The article has a circa 1940 drawing showing application of the slotted Super Diamond on an A.R.A. roof and a A.A.R. Murphy raised panel roof. That is the same drawing that Ed copies, above.

Dave Nelson