CN Wood - Sided Transfer Van

I guess we can tell that CN operated at least three of these cute little wooden vans.  Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sept. 13, 1952. Kieth Sirman Collection.

By Peter Mumby, 

with model photos by George Dutka, and prototype photo from the Sirman Collection

Several years ago I acquired an incomplete model of a CN wooden transfer van at one of the area train shows.  It had been built from a standard Juneco Kit, minus the cupola.  Assembly had been neatly done, and the car was painted.  All it required was lettering and final finishing.  The fly in the ointment - for some reason the typical CN slatted step areas had been replaced with the solid step wells used by most other railways.  Was I going to be able to live with this compromise?

I went ahead and lettered the car and protected it with a flat finish.  It then sat on the shelf for many months while I considered its ultimate fate.  I could add trucks and couplers, ignore the shortcomings and keep it in the collection, or I could move it along at the next train show.  Shortly thereafter, Trueline Trains released a finely detailed model of this very car, and part of the problem was solved.  George suggested that I could convert the incomplete model into a yard office/storage shed.  All it needed was a weathering job, and a stack of timbers for a foundation.  The solid steps remained, with this rationalization:  the original steps had been damaged in an in-service mishap, and when the car was converted to its subsequent use, the solid replacements were quicker and easier to apply.  The purpose of the slatted steps was to cut down on snow build-up in the step wells, and this was no longer an urgent consideration on a static structure.  So there you have it -  my collection now features two CN wood-sided transfer vans, and I am happy with each one.

This is how the Trueline Trains version of this model looks right out of the box.

Here is the completed "shed."  What do you think of the non-prototypical steps?

I'll take one of these, and one of those.