Southern Pacific Bay WIndow Caboose 1741 Wow!

[Nato]

   In 1972 Southern Pacific repainted C40-6 Bay Window Caboose 1741 into an expiermental paint scheme, bright red body, natural aluminum roof, gray trucks and undedbody, gray lettering. This car is shown when newly repainted on page 312 in the book "Southern Pacific Freight Cars Vol 2" Cabooses and several other color photos show why the scheme was not repeated. Severe weathering and faiding.                          Now Athearn has released their model of this one of a kind car and it is Drop Dead Beautiful.The prototype photo shows the car with the bright aluminum window screens on the bay windows, which are inlcuded with the model. The nicely done gray frame and underbody, complete with gray truck sideframes contrasting with the red body is very nice effect. The white curved side grabs and grabs on the body ends are carefully painted. This is one car I would not weather,but run as is. I also recieved one of the Western Pacific Brown versions of the C40-6 car, these have some side windows on the body,wow! Another gem with yellow hand rails and platform rails, even the yellow step edges,congrats Athearn a perfect ten on a 1-10 scale. Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[TrainCat2]

It's a foobie though. Athearn's body is a C-50-7/8/9.

[PacRail]

I looked at the new Southern Pacific ones at a LHS yesterday.  All the hand rails were bent on each one. Could that have been a shipping problem?  I compared the handrails to the Micro-Trains bay window ones and the MT seem like they are made from a more rigid material.  The yellow for the Kodachrome scheme didn't seem to be the correct shade.

The good news is the Bicentennial and the Red one looked great.  I also liked the Rock Island and Western Pacific schemes.

Does anyone know how long the Red one stayed in that scheme after it was painted in 1972?

[Kisatchie]

I seem to recall Micro-Trains getting criticized for making one-of-a-kind cars.


Hmm... welcome to my
Borneo & Sumatra RR...

[Ryan87]

I seem to recall Micro-Trains getting criticized for making one-of-a-kind cars.

Yes but often they only make the one of a kind schemes... Athearn has at least done the common schemes too...

[Nato]

  To protect the cars from damage Athearn now is uauing a white cardboard outer sleeve with a cutout area on the back so the Bar Code  can be scanned. My two cars did not have bent railings, but I'am sure that can happen. Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[Nato]

      There is a photo at the top of Page 312 in the SP Caboose book by Thompson of the Red CAR 1741 taken in April 1976 at San Luis Obispo four years after it was painted Red. The car is very dirty,weathered, roof at the angle it was photograped at looks black,but was probably natural aluminum. Red paint is very faided. Nate Goodman (Nato).