It's all rather crazy really (box car part one)

You'll have to believe me on this one. Some of this stuff is really difficult to photograph, so if I say I've done this take my word for it for the moment, OK?

What would you think would be the easiest thing to build in 1:1,000 scale?

A boxcar perhaps?

Thats pretty much what I thought too. So it seemed a pretty good idea to have a go at building a few. Because if I'm going to build a nano freight train, I'm going to need a few. A little bit of research on the internet garnered me a set of drawings and dimensions for a Gunderson excess height car. Excess height cars. I like them. So a great project for a first boxcar model.

A boxcar then. Sections of 3.2 x 4mm styrene strip cut to length.

BUT. (there always has to be a "but" doesn't there) take a look at these railbox pictures notice how distinctive the end is this is typical of all modern boxcar ends. Strips of evergreen are plain ended, so how to re-create it? I remembered something I'd done in T scale with the worlds first T scale freight car the ribbing on the sides was created by finding a sheet of styrene of whatever pattern cut to gondola height size and length and topped off with a thin strip of styrene. It might not be "to scale" but it looks the part. So a similar idea was in order for the ends of the boxcar. I found the narrowest V groove sheeting I had and then widened out the grooves to give the right sort of effect. (You will now understand why photography of this is difficult...)

Surprisingly this was not a difficult task and enough sheet for several boxcars was created in a matter of minutes. As I write this the ends are glued to sides ready to be trimmed when the glue has set firmly. I'm quietly confident that my 1:1,000 scale boxcars will look quite good when finished.