Lazy sunday afternoon

Spring has finally arrived. This is great news, so I can finally let my steamers smoke with the window open. We played a bit with the trains, recharged the MTH engine batteries by giving some AC current while standing idle. So, we could listen to the various announcements coming from the SW1500 Switcher: "check for foamers on the up yard". Strange language, must be American.
The body work for the All Nation line box trailer is almost finished, just add some more steps and a brake wheel and we can start plastering, sanding and painting. I will need a new brake wheel. I tried to solder a little brass rod to the wheel and I noticed that the wheel was made from cast tin and it melted away faster than I could remove my soldering gun. Pretty daft. Time for a drink!
I am planning to use the decapped MTH PCC streetcar as basis for scratch building a #648 C&LE freight engine. The librian of the trolley museum in Maine was so kind to supply me with the technical drawings, so here comes another project. I am planning to work with tin plate and wood to make the body. Most importantly, I will have to start by making a new, larger base plate, for this engine will be longer than the PCC streetcar. Plenty of things to do, I would think.

The box trailer starts to get shape

After a few more evenings the All Nation Line kit of the box trailer car is starting to get shape. The facia boards were glued on and the door posts were glued in.

This box trailer will get operating doors and hence I fiddled to get two brass U-profiles glued in the right position to make the doors slide. Some wood had to be removed in order to lower the U-profiles in position.

Finally, the roof was shaped and it got a more rounded of appearance with the help of a file, a bit of sanding paper and some persistence.