Nickel Plate Road Rider Car 1329 by Nick Dombi

About Nickel Plate Road Rider Car 1329 by Nick Dombi

Typically when you think of the car that brings up the end of a train in the steam era, your mind goes to a red caboose. During the cash-strapped days of the Great Depression, the Nickel Plate Road faced an economical problem: more traffic would soon be on the horizon, and more trains would need more cabooses. The immediate solution would be to prioritize cabooses on road freights, leaving no space for the head-end brakeman to sit on local freights or "turn jobs." As luck would have it, the railroad was started to phase out its wooden 36ft boxcars in favor of all new steel-constructed boxcars. 23 of the 85000-series boxcars from Haskell and Barker in 1917 were chosen to be rebuilt into rider cars in 1936 by the Conneaut Ohio shops.

Externally the cars gained more grabirons in safety yellow, footboards above a smaller door, bay-windows and a chimney stack for the stove inside. Inside they sported a couple of chairs and a stove for the most minimal of crew comforts. Crucially, they could handle Less-than-Carload traffic, making them ideal for the locals. Their exemplary service during the 2nd World War did not carry very far into the postwar-era of the Nickel Plate. Their ancient frames were strained on the head ends of freight trains that were only growing in tonnage. The deathblow was the advent of the diesel, with more than adequate spaces for the brakeman to ride in the cab. The Nickel Plate Road phased them out starting in the late 40s and through the 1950s. No examples were preserved.

This model represents 1329, a rider car that was commonly photographed on the Clover Leaf Division's 1st and 2nd Subs between Toledo Ohio and Frankfort Indiana. This car was created from historical diagrams of the original boxcar and its rebuilt form, cross referenced with photos. It features an accurate underframe with Triple K Brake Rigging. The only custom elements are the standard Brickarms Monopods, U Clips, Lifelites grab irons, Brick Model Railroader Kadee couplers and roller bearing wheels, all-standard for my models. Considering that it has the same bones as my pair of 85000-series boxcars, this car is suited to run on R104 and likely nothing tighter. The wood effects on the side use a lot of bricks, and at 1,130 pieces, it creates a very nice effect in real life when used reddish-brown parts create a natural weathered effect. The digital model is a part of my mission to represent the Nickel Plate Road's Clover Leaf Division in L-Gauge.