Some may be aware of the resin models produced by Chad Boas, who makes some interesting 50s-60s era models and details to allow modifying plastic models. He did a couple of MoPac flatcars a few years ago, for instance. These kits are only the resin castings, and sometimes a laser-cut wood floor if appropriate. You furnish grab irons, brake equipment, etc., as well as trucks and couplers. If you do a fair bit of car construction, you probably have a lot of those types of parts on hand anyway. He had worked with Jerry Glow to produce decals for these cars, where not commercially available, and now most of not all of these decals are available from Tichy.

I was browsing the available kits list a couple of weeks ago and spotted a new listing for the MoPac 70-foot express baggage. The kit came the other day, and I have to say it looks pretty decent. You get just what it says, sides, ends, roof and floor. The doors are molded in place. The 19-panel roof has rivet detail along the carlines and the edges. The resin material is dead white, reminding me somewhat of F&C car kits. The floor shows wood detail on the underside, and rivets on the crossmembers. There are some indications that might be the location of brake gear components, although the diagram does not show brake gear location, and I’ve never been under one of these cars, at least not with a camera.

The dimensions scaled out in comparison to the diagram of these cars, interior height, door width and height, all appear spot-on. The car length and distance between truck centers is somewhere around 8 to 10 inches too short, but I’m not about to do the kind of surgery that would correct that. If you’ve built more than a few resin cars, you can build this one. You’ll need to add a few small details like the electric light connections on the sides.

The Chad Boas kit list is available at least on resincarworks.com, and on sunshinekits.com, possibly other places. The diagram is available on a CD from MPHS.

Ron Merrick