Mysteries of the Funaro & Camerlengo

Freight Car Kits

Having built several resin kits of military vehicles and aircraft, I was used to instructions sheets being somewhat vague,
but none were ever nearly as vague as the instructions of these kits.

Having a limited number of photos of SR & RL rolling stock with clear details of rolling stock hardware for the SR & RL, I
spent $150 plus shipping on the three volumes available of Jerry Devos’ excellent books, “The Sandy River and Rangeley
Lakes Railroad and its Predecessors” so that I could hopefully find some clear photos of the details of construction, and I
did. Jerry’s books are indispensable if you’re serious about SR&RL rolling stock.

Here is what I learned after many, many hours of studying the books, studying the parts in the kit, and learning the hard
way where all of this stuff goes.

There are two different boxcar kits. Here are the instructions side-by-side and compared. The kits are the 5040-5041
and the 6191. They are both of the same production series of cars, with some minor variations in the end walls, the
main difference being the end ‘doors’ for the grain car versions, and in the one kit, the roof is one single piece that sits
on top of the walls and it has a separate cover for the car door rails, and in the other kit, the end walls extend up to
include part of the roof, the center of the roof nestles in between these two end pieces of roof, and the covers for the
door rails are molded on.

As you see from the above photos, the only difference in the instructions is in the first paragraph, referring to how to
assemble the roof to the walls because of the difference between the two kits. Everything else in the instructions is the
same, and the back page is exactly the same.
In the kits, the brake cylinder and the reservoir are two separate castings, which caused some confusion because there is
no single casting to cut in half, and there is no explanation or drawing whatsoever of what the rest of the pieces are,
other than two break levers that if you look enough, you’ll realize re in the drawings, and are two of the parts in the kit.
For the chassis of the car, the instructions tell you to glue on the brake cylinder and reservoir, and add as much of the
rest of the brake and line components as you desire. It’s up to you to figure out what those components are and where
to put them.

After scouring the three books for photos of overturned rolling stock to try to figure out what should be under there,
and comparing them to the kit, I finally deduced that the underneath of all the F & C rolling stock kits for flats, gondolas,
pulpracks, and boxcars are based off this one photograph: (right is zoomed in)

The only difference between the boxcar chassis and the flats/gondolas/pulpracks is that the boxcars have two truss rods
and the others have four. Here in the above photos you can make out some of the components that are in the kit. Look
at the photo to the left below shows the air reservoir, cylinder and brake levers circled, and points out the truss rods and
part of one of the air lines. Notice that the air reservoir and cylinder are to the outside of the truss rods, and you need
to make sure you glue them out far enough away from the truss rods that the truss rods are not ‘rubbing’ against them.
You’ll also notice that the linkages from the brake cylinder to the brake levers are below the frames of the chassis, or
above them as you look at them with the car upside down as it is in the photo. This is important if you’re trying to
model them on the kits. You’ll see the problems later on.

To the lower right is a diagram of the brake pipes (air lines), air reservoir and brake cylinder, couplings (glad hands) and
pressure retaining valve.
The combined reservoir/cylinder was used on different cars, not the ones in the kits, so you’re modeling the separate
ones on the bottom of the diagram to the upper right. As I got better at putting these kits together, I made decisions on
what to bother with and what not, and you’ll see in the coming photos. I thought about running the air line to the
pressure retaining valve, which is located on the end of the car up at the top next to the brakeman’s wheel, and after
doing all the parts of the brakes underneath, threw that idea in the bin. Below left is another copy of the above left
photo with more clarification of parts. Below right is the first assembly you’ll make for the kit.
Now, after having done all that, I painted the whole thing black. In the bottom two photos, compare the one with the
truss rods added and all the brake parts I added (and believe me, there was more crap under there than I added, and
what I did was quite a pain in the butt and took a couple of hours), to one with no brake parts other than the cylinder
and reservoir.

I only added the brake details to one box car. If I set all ten of the boxcars I’ve made on the table right-side up and leave
them there for a while, I forget which one has the extra detail, and have to really make an effort to figure out which one
has the extra parts. Sooooo….
With all the research time it took to figure out how to get this far, and knowing I couldn’t even do it exactly like it’s
supposed to be, and adding a couple of hours of build time to each car I would have to do this to, take a close look at the
photo on the kit box itself, and you decide for yourself if you want to add the brake details. THEY DIDN’T.

Now let’s move on to the exterior details. The drawings on the instructions show where all the grab irons go. But you
won’t be able to tell without being familiar with where they were on the real cars already. They are just lines drawn on
the drawings with no clarification. The instructions give very generic explanations of where they go. So after studying
the three books in detail for the series of cars the kits represent, this is what I came up with.
Below you’ll see some added detail that I did on one of my cars. There were two cars that were modified to carry dairy
products. Because they had no refrigeration, they cut the ‘end doors’ into the ends of the box cars, and would put the
milk cans in them and then pack sawdust around them to insulate them. They left the ‘end doors’ open so the wind
could blow through the car to help keep the milk cool as the train traveled along the track. They did this with boxcar 21,
later renumbered to boxcar 59. They then built another one, boxcar 145, using the same principle. I opened up the ‘end
doors’ on two of my kits, and use one as a milk car, and the other one I just put the same stuff I used for the sawdust,
but left the milk cans out, and that one is one of the ‘grain cars’, with the doors left open. They also added two more
ladders on the sides of the cars and two more roof end walks, so that you could get to the top of the car from any
corner. Why they felt this necessary, I haven’t figured out. I got the info on and photos of these cars from Peter S.
Barney’s “Industries and Freight Train Operations of the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes Railroad---Volume 6”

I hope this helps anyone else out there in figuring out what the heck all those mystery parts are and where everything is
supposed to go on the F & C SR & RL rolling stock kits. I started by opening the first box and looking at the instructions,
and immediately had questions that had no answers in the instructions. The answers were in hours of study of photos
and descriptions of Jerry DeVos’ and Peter S. Barney’s excellent books. So this is the best I could do, and I already know
about the mistake of the wrong direction of the end walks on the roof sides. If anyone can add anything to what I’ve got
here, please do so, and by all means, please correct any mistakes I’ve made. Thanks!