Even
though 6' was the most common, cars were plentiful with 7' and 8'
single doors. There were a few rarer cars with single 10' and 12'
doors, but they were uncommon. Double door cars were built
from this same design with openings of 14' and 16'. The deLuxe innovations
model of this historically important car has a number of features
that were previously unavailable in N scale. The factory installed
roof walks are made of etched brass and, like the prototype, consist
of an open lattice. The brake wheel and stirrups are also made of
sturdy brass. One of the many advantages is that when you "whack"
a stirrup, it is easy to bend it back. Most '44 AAR box cars had 10
riveted panels on each side. Notice that on the model's rivet seams,
one edge is angled representing the seam lap. The en ds
of the car are a faithfully rendered 4-3-1 improved deadnaught. This
is also sometimes referred to as the r-3-4 end. The ladders, brake
hardware, and poling pockets are included to represent the complete
package. The top of the car represents the diagonal panelled roof,
carrying an Apex roofwalk, in 2 level etched metal. Look closely,
and you will see the crossties under the walkways. On the landing
platform, the hand grab sticks through the etched metal to properly
indicate the 3D offset of this feature. Why? we spend so much time
looking down at our cars, it was the right thing to do. Due to a unique
patent-pending design, the doors on the deLuxe box car can be opened
or closed while still maint aining
the prototype thickness. Real box car doors of this period were only
about 2" thick. Because producing a sliding door only 2 scale inches
thick would cross the boundary of modern plastics technology, we developed
a different method for having your doors opened.
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