Show us your 'structurefied' freight cars

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi all,

I’m about to convert a ‘cheapo’ caboose I purchased off eBay into an office for a scrap metal dealer, and I was wondering if anyone would like to share examples of when they’ve done something similar? Bridges, sheds, anything really.

Cheers,

tbdanny

2

haven’t done any on my layout yet but i remember back in the 60’s the PRR at E St Louis had an old box car body next to the diesel pit tracks at Rose Lake yard for locomotive supplies. one end was converted into a small office/lunch room for the hostler and laborers. as best i can remember, it was painted grey. they also used an old baggage car set up on blocks for the same purpose next to the caboose, oops, sorry, cabin track. the Wabash used two old passenger cars as part of their bunk room / beanery complex at Brooklyn Illinois. i worked at the Big Four yard next door and had many a meal in that place. i can still hear old Miss Hattie say, “will a hamburger be alright?, i done run out of cheese.”

during the Penn Central lunacy, we used an old caboose for a car department shanty at Mitchell Illinois. it was still a runner so we took the knuckles out of the couplers so nobody could run off with it.

grizlump

3

I used the tank from a tank-on-a-flatcar tank car to represent a locomotive fueling facility. I added wooden bents to elevate the tank and added tank-walk, plumbing and spout:

Mark

4

Y’mean like this?

5

That’s what I’m talkin’ about! [:D]

6

tbdanny:

Actually, about 20 or 30 years ago, a company named Revell made a Yard Office kit that contained an older wood caboose converted. It’s still on my layout. I think it can be still got through Walthers.

Anyway, here’s the old Revell:

Tom [:)]

7

I had a couple of boxcars that were damaged while stripping their paint. One ended up as a temporary storage warehouse at a local team track…

…while the other is used for parts storage at the loco servicing area:

Wayne

8

At the Creotex wood preserving plant on my former layout, just past the retorts is a storage building from an old box car. Actually this is an N scale “craftsman box of sticks kit” from about 1972, one of the first kits available for N scale.

I couldn’t figure out a prototype for the boxcar and didn’t have any decals and it wasn’t quite balanced. And IU wasn’t sure how tro affix trucks. So it sort of structurified itself. The scrap burner is one of those party champagne-cork poppers.

9

Here’s mine. it was actually the Woodland Scenics Possum Hollow kit and never a real caboose;