Lanes Trains S Scale PRR 50' Round Roof Boxcars

PRR 50' Round Roof Boxcars

River Raisin Models imported 3 versions of the PRR Round Roof boxcar in May 1996. I assisted in getting some PRR drawings for River Raisin. I originally bought 3) X31a 40’ cars and 2) X33a 50’ cars when they were first released. This was the very start of my brass bashing by adding draft gear, cut levers and air hoses to the ends of cars.

This round roof boxcar design was very popular with many classes and subsequent subclasses.

PRR X32a 59634

Completed July 1997

This is one of my first brass bashing projects in July 1997. There was only 300 X33a cars made by the PRR but it was chosen by River Raisin for its uniqueness and play value. I have mostly modeled the common not the rare and 1 of a kind. I took the opening end doors off of a class X33a as shown below and replaced it with a plain end making the car into a much more common class X32a Round Roof boxcar. This car is shown after the modifications of adding the new plain end. I remember throwing caution to the wind using the Hotip to start the conversion. After the first end door hit my train desk I thought” You really did it. No turning back now”. I had never really chopped at a brass car before so it was initially rather frightening. But it was the start of many projects and many years of modifying my brass rolling stock. The roof walk had to be shortened. I had to notch the sides so the wrap around of new end would fit. Since the new end stamping was a “B” end many small holes for the ladders and brake platform etc had to be filled in with solder and wet sanded smooth. I also scratchbuilt the 2 draft gear one at a time before I started to make my own brass draft gear master patterns. As with all of my brass boxcars I soldered the door shut, which is why the floor was cut open to gain access to the doors.

PRR X32b 48581

Completed November 2014

This car is essentially the same A end conversion as above 59634 except I used brass draft gear castings that were made for my X29 project, and painted in the Shadow Keystone scheme. I called it an X32b just to be different. Externally it is visually the same as the X32a. The decals were made for me by Jerry Glow. I might have enough parts (purchased new with the production run of the cars in 1996!) to make one more end conversion, but I do not have a car to convert and no plans now to get one.

PRR X33a 59693

I made very minor modifications to this car, adding cut lever and draft gear, leaving the opening end doors in place. Note the photo below unloading long pipes which is what the car was made to do.

DT&I 13007

Purchased July 2018

Jim Kindraka painted this car and offered it for sale at the 2018 NASG Convention. It is unmodified like the X33a. I bought it just because I really liked the paint job, also as something different. When these cars were made new Jim was a part of the River Raisin team, so it was great to get this car from him. But the DT&I had a tie in to another interest of mine. It was owned by Ford. I am a lifelong Ford fan.

Updated 8-5-18