Hello Group,

While paging through Bossler’s “Guide” the other night, I took a more careful look at the XAg boxcar pictured at the bottom of page 66. This car looks very close to the Proto 2000 50’ automobile boxcar (with end doors) that been available in kit form for years. Proto also makes a 50’ car with solid ends that could probably pass as an XAf. Has anyone tried to model an XAg or XAf class car using a Proto kit? It looks like it should be a straight forward build however I’m not sure where to source the three panel doors that were original equipment on these cars. (The car show in Bossler’s book has had the left door replaced with a Superior door.) Decals are another problem as Bill’s set and Herald King’s no. B-501 have the correct “speed” lettering, but are yellow in color for later boxcars painted dark green. Does anyone know of a decal set with white “speed” lettering and the black background Reading diamond for cars painted boxcar red? If we can solve the decal problem, this might be an easy modeling project to complete. Below are a couple photos of a Proto kit I built (note the LV cars had notched bottom sills, but Reading car sills are straight). Does anyone have photos they can post of either an XAg or XAf car so I can make further comparisons? Thanks All! Mark

Hello Mark, glad you brought this idea up. I had toyed with the idea of doing the XMxa pictured on P.70 of the Bossler book with the Proto single door 50' kit. For starters, the decal issue you encountered could easily be solved with the Microscale 87-1393 Reading boxcars. This set has the white speed lettering, and black diamond herald. The capacity data will have to be pieced, from what I have yet to figure out. I am not aware of anyone who makes a suitable 7 panel Superior 8' wide door, as I was going to splice two Red Caboose 6' doors together as the detail was the nicest. The other door battle is the 3 panel Creco door for the XAg. There are no aftermarket 6' Creco doors for the 1937 AAR or later car body available to my knowledge, (we may be lucky come the the modelers meet in October!). Also note the fixed ends are incorrect for the Reading on either the single or double doors. The XAg has a 4/5 Dreadnaught, which Detail Associates makes, the XMxa has the rolling pin end, and Branchline bridged the gap here. The other big issue, for the XMxa is the sides had seven panels, seemingly almost every other road had six, as the Proto car is based. I had intentions of sanding the sides, re-scribing, then finishing it off with rivet decals. I guess the last redeeming features the Proto kit has are correct raised panel roof, and reliefs to cut the skirting out on the floor of the car. It seems as I may have to get back working on this project! I hope this info was of value, Bill.

All - The Reading Modeler is working on "speed lettering" decal sets for Boxcar Red boxcars - stay tuned.

Also, both Branchline and Detail Associates make a 7-panel 8' Superior door that may work.

Did the Reading cars even have those neat pressed dreadnaught end doors? That's my biggest question. There's one of these sitting up in Cressona, used for storage, but the end doors were removed. The alphabet route roster drawings do not show any corregation on the end doors. the bottom sill and creco doors are pretty easy to scratch out of available shapes. here's a 40 footer i added the double creco's to:

Tom, that’s welcomed news about the decals.

Bill, I see what you mean about the 7 panel verse 6 on the XMxa class. Still, like you said, we could just scribe new panel lines. However, I don’t think you would want to go the route of adding rivet decal strips. That would be a tedious affair to say the least! Also, it might just be easier to scratch build the required Creco doors with styrene sheet and strips. I’ll have to find some Red Caboose doors and examine them before committing to any scratch building efforts.

Below is an image of a 40’ Branchline kit that has the correct 4/5 ends. Come to think of it, I wonder if a Branchline 50’ kit would be a better starting point (at lease for the XMxa) than the P2K kit. More investigation and research is required!

Yes, the Reading did use those neat pressed Dreadnaught end doors.