E&C Shops Wisconsin Central PS1 Modern Boxcar

A few months ago I promised more rolling stock and I haven't delivered.   2020 will be the year of more frequent rolling stock posts.   These will mostly be smaller with fewer pics than my usual in-depth posts, but there will be more of them.   Expect lots of OOP and uncommon kits.

Here's an E&C shops PS1 Modern Boxcar.  This was a good $10 find at my local shop "Zientek".  Most of my trains that don't come from an online deal or a show come from Zientek.  John the proprietor has an absolutely massive selection of the sort of affordable, NOS kits I enjoy building.

Detail is nice as expected.  E&C kits are similar to Athearn Blue Box in terms of detail.  They do have separately applied stirrups that slot into the bottom of the body which is a nice improvement.

Assembly was quick and easy.  Roof is press-fit.  I added about 1 oz of weight to bring it to NMRA standards.

The end printing is a nice step up from older BB kits.  KD #5's installed in the coupler box with no difficulties. 

  

I don't know about a prototype for this particular car, but there does appear to be a 177xxx series of ex-Soo Line boxcars on the WC roster so it's at least plausible.  

The wheels run nice and smooth after applying the Truck Tuner.  Painting the wheel wells and a ding I made on a ladder with a ruddy brown paint marker was the only bit of "paintwork" I did. 

Wisconsin central is not one of my main collected railroads, but I have a few pieces as they fit nicely into the CVR as a railroad that interchanges with Chicago, and they mesh with my obsession with smaller Chicago area lines.  

I can heartily recommend these E&C Boxcar kits.  I've built a couple different E&C boxcar varieties  and they all assemble easily and achieve good results.  E&C is long gone and the companies that followed it "LBF" and "Huberts" are also defunct, but there's plenty of these kits available on the NOS and second hand market.   You can still see a bit of info about the similar discontinued Hubert's kits at the Intermountain website.

-Karl