PRR X29 boxcar

Alan Maples · **Posted:** Fri Aug 30, 2019 2:32 pm

The Everett Railroad has completed restoration of a Pennsy X29 boxcar. Acquired from Norfolk Southern at Hollidaysburg, PA, in 2003, it has been an occasional "spare time" project since then as well as providing valuable storage space for assorted passenger car parts. Brothers Neil and Ed Myers handled most of the heavy patching and welding; Curry Rail Services sandblasted and painted the car. Keith Burkey arranged for stencil diagrams from the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society; Jeff Conner lettered the car, and the whole project was overseen by Jason Lamb, General Manager, and Mike Fink, Shop Supervisor.

- Alan Maples
Everett Railroad

Les Beckman · **Joined:** Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:25 pm **Posts:** 6482

VERY nice!

PMC · **Joined:** Sat Oct 17, 2015 5:55 pm **Posts:** 2876

Well done! I can remember when cars with that appearance were still common on the Santa Fe in Conrail interchange trains in the late 70s.

NYCRRson · **Joined:** Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:25 pm **Posts:** 512

What a beautiful restoration, very well done.

Pat Fahey · **Posted:** Fri Aug 30, 2019 8:06 pm

Agree with posts beautiful job, it looks like it just rolled out of the shop when new.

Scott Kwiatkowski · **Posted:** Fri Aug 30, 2019 9:30 pm

Alan,

Awesome, having been up close and personal to these type of restorations, it is so satisfying when complete.

Nice addition to your fleet, congrats to you, Jason, and Keith, and all who helped.

Scott

PaulWWoodring · **Posted:** Sat Aug 31, 2019 9:37 am

Really nice, Alan. A very eye-catching piece that will make any "historic" freight consist look all the more authentic. Also, it was really great catching up with you a few weeks ago in Ohio.

Dave Lewandoski · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 5:58 pm **Posts:** 1083

Fantastic job! Well done to all involved.

jayrod · **Posted:** Sat Aug 31, 2019 2:54 pm

Well, Alan, now ya did it and I'm a bit jealous. ORHS has an X-29 at the far end of the property sitting on the ground. Now, I'd like to see it back on the rails but I have too many projects as it is. Thanks. Sigh...

I wonder how many of these are still out there?

Attachment:

x29.jpg [ 188.54 KiB | Viewed 14766 times ]

PrrOpCrew · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2019 4:13 pm

Overall, its not bad and I would rate it as a B+ for the effort. I'm a little surprised that the 6-digit number isn't spaced out to match any prototype photos. Considering how dead on the "Pennsylvania" lettering is in location and size, why couldn't the number executed similarly?

Also, I know its all in the nuts and bolts, or as some people call them, rivet-counters, but somehow the data for the extreme height and extreme width got swapped.

That being said, the color is dead-on accurate.

Just my few cents.

jayrod · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2019 5:05 pm

I give them an "A+" for effort. Why? It's restored. It's painted and not rusting away. Is it accurate to the day it rolled out of the paint shop with that scheme? Without a photo, who's to say? There may be a boo-boo in the dimensional data (don't know, can't read it) but it passes the 50' rule for the general public. As for the number, though it was "normal" to contain the number and data within the panel between the rivets and have it line up on both sides, some cars had the number stretched out a little over the rivets for reasons unknown. I'd guess it depends on which shop and who was painting that day and what kind of mood they were in. Who's to say a number didn't get squished together a bit?

The highest praise in our crew is "ATTABOY". Alan's crew get quite a few from me.

nahovey · **Joined:** Wed Jan 04, 2017 12:14 am **Posts:** 17

jayrod wrote:

Is it accurate to the day it rolled out of the paint shop with that scheme? Without a photo, who's to say? There may be a boo-boo in the dimensional data (don't know, can't read it) but it passes the 50' rule for the general public.

By that logic, why do organizations like the PRRT&HS even bother to preserve and make available the information that they do? Why bother at all with historical accuracy if you're only going to carry the ball to the 98 yard line and fumble? May as well just have painted it for the Southern Pacific.

Alan, seriously, congrats on having the nicest-looking X29 in the country. That is going to look amazing behind #11, and on home rails at that. Bravo!

PrrOpCrew · **Posted:** Tue Sep 03, 2019 9:19 pm

jayrod wrote:

I give them an "A+" for effort. Why? It's restored. It's painted and not rusting away. Is it accurate to the day it rolled out of the paint shop with that scheme? Without a photo, who's to say? There may be a boo-boo in the dimensional data (don't know, can't read it) but it passes the 50' rule for the general public. As for the number, though it was "normal" to contain the number and data within the panel between the rivets and have it line up on both sides, some cars had the number stretched out a little over the rivets for reasons unknown. I'd guess it depends on which shop and who was painting that day and what kind of mood they were in. Who's to say a number didn't get squished together a bit?

And this is why when I'm asked to do lettering for full-size railroad car restorations I provide everything for FREE, I'd rather not charge anything and have it be accurate than the other option. So far I've done some lettering work for local communities with a caboose of their own, a former NRHS chapter which reorganized as their own railroad heritage group, and the Age of Steam Roundhouse. I'm currently in the midst of providing lettering for other restoration projects in the greater Altoona area.

Like anything else, what/how we deal with is half the battle.

jayrod · **Posted:** Wed Sep 04, 2019 9:33 am

Yeah, my response probably came off a bit too strong - no offense meant.

My basic point being that the car is preserved, looks good and I'm genuinely happy about that. My second point is that standard specifications for colors and lettering were not adhered to as strictly as we'd like to think once the work got to the shop floor. Get 'em in and out as fast as possible and "artistic license" sometimes occurred in the stencil and paint shops. P&WV, one of my favorites, was extremely guilty of that - 14 variations of the company herald alone and counting....

Not to bang my own drum (well, maybe a little), part of my business is providing historically accurate artwork for both rail preservationists and model manufacturers, either fee paid or donated - depends on the project. So, yup, I definitely understand about being a consummate perfectionist (me, guilty as charged).

Alan Maples · **Posted:** Wed Sep 04, 2019 9:56 am

I appreciate both the compliments and the constructive criticism. Since we're not a museum, I'm happy to take a B+, but since it's only paint we can see if some of the details can be addressed. We have learned over the years that the Standard Railroad of the World was none too standard about many things and compromise is inevitable with projects like this.

Alan Maples
Everett Railroad