Many of you in N scale are familiar with the beautiful Alan Curtis PRR F30d TOFC kits. I understand Alan Curtis no longer makes them. I also thought I heard that someone else was going to continue to release them, but I'm not quite sure about that. Jerry Britton can probably correct me on that.
Anyway, those kits are really nice. But a whole train of them may push the bounds of practicality for many folks. So I took another look at the Atlas Trainman-type flats and TOFC cars.
WARNING: Rivet counters (I use that as a term of endearment!) may wish to look away.
Adding Plastruct I-beam to the sides, 4 side stakes, and 0.020" styrene ramps on either end gives the impression of a PRR/TTX TOFC car with a minimum of effort.
The car in the back is with the two trailers is the stock Atlas car with the deck painted and weathered but as-yet otherwise unmodified. Notice how odd the trailers look just sitting on the empty deck. The middle car has the mods. I know, I know... It's not a correct Pennsy lettering arrangement. I may have to fix that later. Lastly, the car in front is a Trainman TTX flatcar with e Classic Metal Works PRR 32' trailer and the mods to the flatcar. I weathered it to look like a TTX paint-out, as TTX trook over the PRR F30d fleet in the year I model (1956).
A whole train of these pulled by a pair of GP9s will give me a close approximation to a 50's era PRR TrucTrain.
