Introduction

Question: What happens when you have a brother that buys lots of kits but doesn't have time to put them together?  

Answer: You get to pick though some awesome kits to assemble for your brother!

The Great Northern Railway Historical Society released a resin mixed media kit for an X-1853 weed sprayer in 2009, apparently at their Duluth Convention.  The following is a screenshot from their website with information about this kit.  

This is the finished model as shown on the above website. 

As one can see, this is quite a unique model.  

Why...?

Why this kit?  My brother is a huge fan of the C&EI which has a famous scene of a Nalco Weed sprayer on its tracks. 

The hope was that the GNRHS kit would be a good model of this kit with Nalco decals applied.  However, even a quick glance between the two shows that it isn't possible.  The Nalco weed sprayer has a different corrugation pattern, different window arrangement, has the sides knocked down in the rear, just way too many differences.  Therefore, the resin kit will be built following the directions to help gain an understanding to potentially kitbash or scratch build the Nalco weed sprayer someday. 

The start.

The picture below shows the components of the kit. The upper left contains the resin parts, the lower-left has various styrene strips and rods, a bag of trucks and ladders and brass wire, and the bags on the right are a Tichy 40' underframe, a Tichy 40' roof walkway, and a Tichy AB brake set.  

I must say the instructions for this kit are very well written and the kit so far has gone together very nicely.  The first 9 steps or so were the assembly of the resin parts.  The Tichy floor is used to help keep everything in line but isn't attached till the end.  Here is what the resin parts look like assembled together. 

And this is a top view better showing the roof porch area along with the styrene stairs going down to the first level.  

It looks like the remainder of the steps are mostly adding Tichy details.  The underframe brake detail, side detail with grabs and ladders, roof walk detail, then the assembly of the sprayer booms.  It should be fun. 

NALCO Decals...

The decals for the NALCO spaying car came from Vickey Graphics Design and Print.   http://vickeygraphics.com/scale-model-artwork-decals/

Thanks Doug, from that brother. 

Dave

The tank cars in the lead photo...

If anyone can identify the tank cars in the prototype weed sprayer photo, I would be very interested in hearing what you thin they might be. 

Thanks,

Dave

Noooo!

I need one of those kits! Happen to have a second one? In all seriousness, I look forward to the progress on yours!

Roof walk in place.

@ Sean - Sorry, this is the only kit. 

The stock Tichy roof walk has been cut down according to the instructions and glued in place.  The grab irons and the roof walk supports that were in the Tichy bag have also been installed. 

Working on underframe

Work on the floor now begins. The kit included a Tichy underframe.  The molded on coupler boxes were removed for Kadee snap on boxes.  The bolsters were also moved out from the middle a tad to match the prototype as per the instructions.  The rest of the center beam and cross members were glued into place as well.  

I then started to add the brake parts.  I added the main brake line using the supplied 0.020" brass wire.  It is in two pieces so that it can fit through the frame in the middle.  The kit also include a Tichy AB Brake Set.  I have added the three main parts, the triple valve on the top, the brake reservoir on the bottom, and the brake cylinder on the right.  The Tichy underframe kit included the brake support stirrup things.  I wanted to let the glue dry so tomorrow will be the installation of the rest of the brake rods.  Also, I hope to get to some of the ladders and grab irons as have a SNOW DAY TOMORROW!!!

Brake stuff done

I finished the brake detail on the underside of the weed sprayer.  It's just like a regular boxcar.  I used 0.0125" brass wire for the piping and brake rods.  

Progress

I was able to do some work on this weed sprayer a little over the Christmas break. 

Ladders on the side, a few platforms, some grab irons, etc.  

Progress

Slowly chipping away at it.  I've got all four sides completed and have started to work on the rooftop details.  There are several railings, a fence, and four sprayer jets to construct up top.  There are also a few stirrup steps to install and then the main front spray boom as well.  The following pictures show where I am at so far. 

Kudos

Interesting

I had to ride in cars like that 40 years ago when I was an Asst. Roadmaster (nothing worse than traveling at 18 mph ALL DAY over jointed rail on a hot day in car loaded with chemicals.)

The operator sprayed along the right of way in a "narrow" pattern then they used larger spray nozzles and the water cannons to reach out further at grade crossings to spray the approaches to the crossings.  The spray bars on the front had air operated cylinders that folded the spray bars back against the car that were operated by the person in the "cab".  When ever they came to a bridge or some sort of close clearance that operator had to fold the spray bars in so they wouldn't get damaged.  The train stopped frequently for the crew to clean or adjust nozzles.

Thanks for the update

Thanks for sharing the pics.  Even if there are no kits the pictures you have of your model would make building one much easier.  That would be a neat piece on a layout for sure.

Thanks,

Steve

@Dave Husman

Dave,

What do you recall as the color of such cars?  I Have Nalco decals, but can't find a good color prototype photo.

Thanks,

Dave Forbes

Color

The Habsco car was some shade of boxcar red and it used black tank cars, but it had a lot of light colored "dust" (dried herbicide overspray) on the outside.

weed sprayer car

   Great job on the construction. This model reminded me of the time my 7th grade friends and were walking home along the tracks when we heard a strange horn coming around a curve. The sight of the spray rig coming toward us made us scramble up the cut bank in record time. The SP car was bit different from what I recall as it passed by, seems that it might have had a visible tank section instead of a box car type body? .....DaveB

@Dave

Dave,

Thanks for your rememberances.  

Dave Forbes