Building The StromBecker HO Scale Refrigerator Car - Part 1

My first exposure to StromBecker kits was to the stacks of them at my local hobby shop in the early 1970's. How long he had them can only be speculated. I was just ten when I started to be a bit more serious about model railroading, and felt that these extremely simple kits were below me (I longed for Central Valley, Silver Streak, Ambroid, all great and much more complicated kits). 

By the time I decided to look into one, after a disaster with a Central Valley kit, they were all gone, apparently all picked up at the same time.

More than fifty years later I figure it was time to try again.

The wooden parts that represent the body are common between the refrigerator and box car. Whoever had this kit before me had already sanded the roof, but my concern was the possibly eighty year old wood parts themselves. This is pine, and depending upon how long it had dried before being cut would determine if there was any warpage. As it turned out, there was no real warpage but possibly some shrinkage. It wasn't enough to deter me, as I expected that if it was too great I could always shim it up.

Since the Casco glue failed to mix I was left to use its lineal descendant, Elmer's Glue-All, something I have used my entire life. Using the pre-gluing technique (apply glue to parts, stick together, pull apart, allow glue to partially set, reattach pieces) the body's former went together with ease. I used rubber bands to hold it while the glue set.

Once this had set for a few hours it was time to do a little painting. My plan was to paint both the roof and the underside before adding the sides, but instead opted to do just the roof. While the kit was a bit confusing, with the instructions and the printed parts recommending different colors, a little research into Illinois Central 50000 series refrigerator cars mentioned that apparently many used the same shade green as the trim on the sides for the roof. On newer, more accurate kits this color is an olive, but the shade used on the old StromBecker kit was lighter. I found a good match in Apple Barrel Kelly Green. After two thin coats, the project was set aside overnight.

The next day I decided to add some weight to the inside of the car. While I could pick up old cast trucks, it wasn't always a guarantee, so eight small fishing weights were glued to the floor corners using E6000 silicone adhesive.

Next, we moved on to the printed ends and sides. Using an OLFA Snap Utility Knife I carefully cut the sides out first. I should mention that I had done a little measuring of the printed parts before beginning and found that the ends were slightly wider than the with of the body former. Since the details on these was close, I decided that these would overhang the sides. 

After the pieces were cut I used markers for touch up, coloring the edges where needed.

As suspected, the sides were almost 1/8" too long. They'd need to be trimmed 1/16" on both ends.

Once the pieces were trimmed and the edges colored they were carefully glued into position, making sure to push the top against the roof overhang.

Now time to do the ends. These were cut to printed size and their edges blackened.

The ends were glued into position and were a good fit. Since both the sides and the ends dropped slightly below the floor of the car I felt it was a good idea to reinforce those corners with some Elmer's Glue-All. 

The final details for this part of the assembly were the four roof hatches. According to the instructions these fit at the ends of the roof and up against the roofwalk (I have yet to check against drawings of the prototype to check these out). Once more, the edges were colored with a marker.

Once these were colored they were glued into position. 

With this, the basic body is finished. Now, it waits for details, specifically trucks and couplers.