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History of the Soo Line Boxcar:
The Soo Line cars were essentially unmodified throughout their entire lives, the only changes being to the brakes, trucks, and lettering scheme. The cars were built with K brakes, upgraded to AB sometime around WWII. The only thing that differentiates the 1913 built car (with wood buffer blocks) from the others is the striker casting. The model is a flat kit because of the extreme detail and delicacy of this model. It would have been prohibitive to offer assembled cars for this model. We hope you enjoy this kit.
Soo Line roster series:
131000 - 132098 even numbers only, built by A.C.& F. 1914, W.C. sub-lettering
35800 - 36596 even numbers only, built by A.C.& F. 1915
While originally equipped with "T" section Bettendorf trucks, such as the old Chooch offering now available from Proto-craft or the plastic truck available from San Juan Car Co., they received a variety of newer design cast steel trucks after WWII.
As to lettering, the as-built scheme was a strange arrangement of stacked initials that is illustrated in the builder's photo published in the 1919 Car Builder's Cyclopedia or the Gregg Train Shed Cyc. reprint thereof . The later 1920's era scheme with the initials strung out over the SOO LINE name and number. This lettering scheme uses the earlier arrangement of dimensional data; all the photos we've ever seen with the data arranged to the ARA 1928 standard have the corporate initials omitted. Heralds tended to have black backgrounds through WWII; car color backgrounds thereafter.
We recommendation for color is Scale Coat Oxide red, or similar.
One last thing, by the end of their service lives many of the cars lost
their A end lumber doors, the end being sheathed solid, same as the B end. More about this car is mentioned in the decal instructions.
Special thanks:
We want to thank Bill Yancey for creating the tremendous patterns for this kit. Special thanks go to Dennis Storzek and Ken Soroos of the Soo Line Historical and Technical Society for their hard work on making this project possible. Without their tremendous skills, we could not produce models of this caliber.