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 Posted - July 20 2013 : 12:46:18 PM
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I have several E&C Shops kits from the mid-1990s (that company is no longer in business) which I had stashed away in my "future projects" cache. The original car was a BN 52 Ft one from the early 1970s prototype production. Here on the Minnesota, Sioux Lake & Western, being a sub-road of the Great Northern Railway, we don't accept that mergers took place- especially when they concern the ugly green and white Burlington Northern scheme, so...
This was the original car:
I wanted to make a unique car that would compliment the agricultural locale and industires of my layout, so I came up with the idea of a mobil agricultural extension service soil laboratory operated by the University of Minnesota (one of my alma maters). The idea is that the boxcar contains soil testing and storage facilities, which can be sent out to various regions of the state to sample pesticide use, soil conditions, etc. The car could be moved on a regular circuit to various counties, where farmers would obtain standardized sample containers from the extension field personnel (agro college graduate students), fill and return them to the unit for rapid analysis of various conditions. Then the samples would be returned to the main university agricultural laboratories in St. Paul, where further examination would be performed. This would enable the accumulation of a great deal of site-specific data that would benefit farmers and other growers, as well as enable the state to more accurately monitor soil conditions statewide. So much for the rationale....
I had a heck of a time identifying the proper maroon and gold (actually a yellow tone) colors for this project. This MS Paint image shows the colors I found based on the exact RGB values obtained from the U of M graphic arts department website (yes, universities carefully control their color scheme uses and trademarked mascot logos!):
When I then looked at actual apparel and color scheme tones online in Google Images, I found that what I saw on the computer screen differed from what was shown in actual photos- particularly the colors used for athletics uniforms. I ended up using a Rustoleum yellow and a Tamiya maroon, instead of the Polly Scale Milwaukee maroon and a generic boxcar yellow, as the former two colors actually looked like the colors the football player's jerseys had.
The kit had a cheesy plastic car end-wide grab rail that was very delicate, so I replaced it with .25 steel wire for a more durable grab. Rather than fight a losing battle with surface decals, I opted for sign board type one. The concept is that the car is donated to the University of Minnesota as a public service gesture, but that the University can easily update
placard sign boards, rather than have repainting of decals done in a more expensive manner.
Metal IM wheels and Kadee #5's completed the job.
Here is the final result:
Next Up- a kitbashed Boxcar shell on a flat car MOW!
Siouxlake Ron
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Posted - July 20 2013 : 2:42:17 PM
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Dang 6-2, you really deliver the goods!!
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Posts: 664 ~
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Last Visit: March 16 2023
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Posted - July 26 2013 : 12:09:13 AM
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Nice work as usual and very imaginative. You should forward this link to the U of M... who knows? 
The Tyco Depot
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Last Visit: November 19 2015
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