While I was in Collinsville, there was a thread about the Q troop kitchen conversions. I indicated that I would post photos of the cars I recently finished when I got back home. These are two of
eight cars. Four cars were built without modification from the Walthers CB&Q Troop Kitchen cars. These cars have plated windows, and the coal platform and stove stacks were already removed. Four cars were the original Walthers K-100 Troop Kitchen cars that
I converted into the early CB&Q BE-1 cars by replacing the ends with castings made from masters taken from the Walthers CB&Q cars, and adding diaphragms, steam, signal, and air hoses, removing the stove stack, and installing window bars. Photos of the latter
cars are attached. Note the right side of the car has a 3/5 window arrangement, plus the side door window, while the left side of the car has a 3/3 window arrangement plus the side door window. The end windows are plated, as is prototypical for the BE-1 conversion.
By 1953, most of the early open window cars were shopped to plate the windows, and remove any remaining stove stacks and coal hatch platforms. The early and late cars were painted Pullman green with black roof and underframes. The early cars had Dulux lettering
in Railroad Roman, while the late cars had Dulux lettering with the Burlington ribbon font. The only decals available in Dulux Railroad Roman are sheets of individual letters and numbers in normal and extended fonts, so lettering my cars would have required
piecing together all letters and numbers individually, a task I was unwilling to perform, so I used the Burlington ribbon font for all lettering. If he proper decals ever materialize, I’ll remove the lettering from the early cars and redo it with the correct
font. Meanwhile, I’ll just run the cars and pretend they’re prototypically correct.
In case there’s confusion about which is the right and left side of a car, the A end is opposite the hand brake end, and it is the front of the car, making the B or brake end the back of the car.
Facing the B end, the right side is to the right and the left side is to the left.
Nelson Moyer
