Well, it’s only taken me six plus years to get back to working on the slab cars. I’m using the following photo to guide the next steps of construction:

You can see from the photo below that I completed the epoxying of the buffers to the end sills. Using a round needle file, I enlarged the laser-cut holes for the brass bearing cups to get them to fit well. You can also see that I have been experimenting with Trade Secret stain markers to color the popsicle stick decking. I’ve found that the lightest colors of grey and brown are sufficiently dark to match the look of untreated wood.

Next up is paint which will be some variant of boxcar red and engine black for the hardware.