Elvas Tower: Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul 3 truck boxcar - Elvas Tower

CM&StP3TruckBoxCar Version 1.0 March 31st, 2023
Frank Musick

WARNING: OpenRails ONLY!!! Pretty sure it won't work in MSTS.

OpenRails model of Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul 3 truck boxcar. The car, meant to carry carriages, was designed by Hodges Car Company and appeared in a 1892 issue of the Car Builders Magazine. I found the reference to the car in the April 1970 issue of Model Railroader. Whit Towers wrote the article and built a model. I assume he based on plans he found in the 1897 magazine. It's like a predecessor of the 50 foot automobile cars. You would think it would have wider doors, but those on the reference model appear to be standard length.

The HO scale model was built with Fox trucks on either end. Since I based my model on my existing models I went with the archbars from those models. I didn't include the car data. I could not make it out in th photo.


The model is high poly and may cause framerate issues. I haven't had any problems, as long as I remember to shut down all the other apps I use to create these things.

The model has 3 levels of detail. I suppose that if the framerate performance is still poor, one could use some utility to eliminate the first LOD and use the second. It has no rivets, but may also be missing parts you might rather appear in the sim.

Installation Procedure:

Unzip CM&StP.7z into the OpenRails Trains\Trainset directory. I have not included any consist file.

This content may be redistributed for non-commercial purposes only. The assets (including all library, musical, cinematographic and artistic works found in the sound, music, video and data files) contained in this model remain the property of the original authors.

I thinks that's about it.
Regards,
Frank Musick