Model Railroading > Railgon in modern day scrap service

A few days ago at my local hobby shop Railmaster Hobbies, I found an HO scale Athearn RTR (upgraded ex MDC) 52' gon lettered for Railgon. Along with the gon I picked up a MoTrak scrap load sized specifically for the Athearn gon. I was inspired a bit by a post on the Western discussion a couple months back showing that these cars are still out and about today...

The modern day prototype pic of a freshly repainted car... http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3953197

• The gondola, trucks, and wheels were dabbed, highlighted, and generally weathered up with several different colors of Testors weathering paint pens, along with a couple thin washes of brownish acrylic paints.
• The grabs (black on the stock model) were painted TTX yellow to match the contemporary prototypes pics I've seen.
• Then the paltry MDC era brake wheel and housing was scraped off and replaced with a more robust set from Details West, complete with brake wheel chain hanging down as well.
• Microscale yellow FRA-224 stripes were finally applied along with a couple rattle-can passes of Dullcote to seal the deal.
• The MoTrak load was then attended to with little splashes of extra color here and there. I think I went through 11 different colors of acrylic paint to spice up the original rusty red load.
• The load was then boosted up, sitting now on top of two .080x.250 strips of styrene to raise it up 1/4" closer to the lip of the gon.
• Kadee #119s with upper shelf trimmed off completed the model for the picture you see below.

Pic also added here...
http://www.pbase.com/mrmrl/ho_freight_cars

~ Mr. MRL

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Great work, there. Your coloring of the load has certainly increased the '3D' effect. chris uk

Nice job on the Railgon and the load looks spot on!

Cheers, Jim

Nice work Robby!
TC

Nice job! Very inspiring.

                           Regards, Dave Dane

really nice piece of modeling and well photographed.  That looks like a fun project.

Gary B.
Waverly, NE

I made some of the same upgrades last year. That handbrake needs to be changed out for sure. Don't forget to beat up the grab irons and brake wheel. :^D
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,3846922,3846922#msg-3846922

Posted from Android

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

That is very nice work! In your spare time can you provide the Motrac stock number?

CSX_ENG Wrote:
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> That is very nice work! In your spare time can you
> provide the Motrac stock number?

MTK-81212 (Rusted Scrap Load for Athearn / MDC 52' Gondola)
https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/509-81212

~ Mr. MRL

Yes, to load really "pops" with the extra colors and higher level!

Absolutely a great job on the scrap load.....will have to try it......nice job :)

Bob

Yup, still out and about! Last one I seen was filled 1/3 of the way with 3" -ish steel ball bearings. Heavy bugger.

Good job on the gon and attention to detail.

Posted from Android

Thanks for the kind words, folks. My next canvas (a big 'ol GTW 86' boxcar) will be arriving in the mail next week...

Mr. MRL

MrMRL Wrote:
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> Thanks for the kind words, folks. My next canvas
> (a big 'ol GTW 86' boxcar) will be arriving in the
> mail next week...
>
> Mr. MRL

I trust you have plenty of grafitti decals??