While the warm fall weather has been holding the IRM freight dpt. has been busy finishing up our B&O Wagon top box car project. This has been a very long stop and go restoration, interrupted over the years by more pressing projects.
Victor Humphries seen here doing decal prep work has been the force behind finally finishing the car. Sandblasted, primed and almost repainted for a failed movie project in 1991 we had the proper repairs completed and repainting going again now that inside storage is secured.
Many thanks to the donors who have generously given to the project, as well as The B&O Historical Society for the help and graphics downloads available.
Interesting history for this car reads like George Washington’s hatchet. The original wood car, built in 1912, had it’s top rebuilt in 1937 into a steel wagontop car. Rebuilt again in 1955 the frame was replaced, so nothing of the original remains.
Of 1,240 built only three others that we know of remain, ours the only M-15 as well as the only wagontop boxcar known to operate.

Very fine. Very, very fine.

Not to detract from the greatness of the achievement. This represents a very good potential example for the thread on 'historical fabric' that Robby Peartree started -- most of the 'value' of this car is with the '30s wagontop AND the rebuilt frame that it currently has. It can be argued that "restoring" the car either with a 'prototypically-correct' early frame or by removing the '30s improvements would destroy far more significant historic fabric than would be served by having original fabric -- historically accurate or not. All that before there is a question of preserving the 'intangibles' represented in the actual shopwork to accomplish the conversions, or to maintain the car in service up to its retirement...

Wilmington and Western in Delaware has a B&O wagon top that sees occasional use. It is currently undergoing a restoration as well.

Looks great so far. Curious question - will/did you spray or brush the white? While brushing would likely be more authentic, given the not-so-pristine surface of an old car, I'd think spraying would give a better result with less bleed under the stencil.

Going for the 1955 rebuild look I assumed a stencil of some kind was used. We used low stick vinyl masking cut to our graphics. Then used a small foam roller to put on primer and two coats of white gloss enamel.
As the car is pitted from rust we had some trouble getting the vinyl or painters tape to stick when it turned colder (below 60F).

One trick, if you can stand the wait for another drying cycle, is to paint a coat of the background color, in this case the car color, as the first coat in the stencil. The result is that coat seals the stencil, and any bleed under matches the background, yielding a sharp image.

I love it. Using a model railroad technique on a real car!

Next thing ya know, someone will be out there with an airbrush full of rust colored paint to add some weathering... lol.

A couple of the lines here in the UK have actually done that with some of their locomotives at Gala weekends where they are recreating the end of steam "run-down and uncared for" look!!

That technique works well with some paints and I'd recommend a test first as it can be tricky. With a full cure after sealing the edges, you might have a heck of a time removing the stencil (been there). If your paint develops a dry film before it's cured and you're able to put another coat over top without bleed-through, the stencil should come off much easier but be careful not to lift the edge of the semi-cured base coat with it (been there, too). This is much easier with automotive paints that aren't a high build but still not as easy as with model paints. Your mileage may vary.

My preference would be to spray and touch-up by hand if necessary.

It's been done several times before. I seem to recall the technique being used, with water-based spray paint, to dull down the otherwise shiny look of Steamtown's locomotives (particularly white driver tires) for its last couple Railfan Weekends in Vermont under the direction of also-a-model-railroader Don Ball Jr. in the early 1980s......

Pulled the stencils from one side and took another poor picture with my phone. We are happy with the results. Only the most pitted areas had some paint creep under the vinyl.
Have to wait for the car to be moved to it's indoor parking space to get a good outdoor photo.

I'd say that came out pretty darn good. I don't think you could have asked for better.

Last I heard there were 3 at the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad museum and 2 at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum. Also there are reports of one being used for storage at Heavener, OK and of another used as storage at an unknown location. unless some have been scrapped or are duplicates, that makes up to 7 other wagontop boxcars. Still, an endangered species though.

Certainly nice to see yours returned to its former glory.

Folks,
This car is a good example of how the railroads would re-built an existing car to meet the changing needs of its owner.

Almost any car sees changes as it moves down the years; some are government requirements and some are changing economics.

Ted Miles, IRM Member

Nicely done! nice to see an example of this unique car properly restored.

-otto-