Micro-Trains July 2017 Releases

[Bill H]

Glad no one on Railwire never slips up...

Well, I for one am quite happy with the B&O business car. It might have a few issues to the purists, but it is better than any other business car I have for the B&O.

Kind regards,
Bill

[unittrain]

The MTL 50' boxcar ends match these  http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=nw164071&o=nw on these Pullman Standard 50' boxcars so they are correct for some types. Will still be buying these boxcars from both MTL and Athearn.

[Point353]

For the Conrail fans, the NSE is now offering the new business car body style decorated as track geometry car #21:



http://www.nscaleenthusiast.com/NSE_SR_Pages/NSE_Conrail_Geometry.asp

[cjm413]

Looks like MT worked from this photo for the ATSF car.   The height looks off, but I can't tell how much is carbody and how much is ride height.

Prototype ends: original handbrake location, ladders on the left side of the ends and grabs on the right.

Model ends: low handbrake and low ladders on either side of the ends matching a car built without roofwalks...and as far as I know, zero cars that were modified with lowered handbrakes.

Prototype sides match a pre-1960 PS-1 with grabs on the left, ladders on the right, no gussets under the door opening.

Model sides match a pre-1960 PS-1 with lowered ladders, but as far as I know, don't match the post-1966 ends.

Seems like all of this effort was more of a step backwards than a step forward....

[gbcaboose]

Prototype has handbrake in the original position, model has lowered handbrake...WTF?

Cars in the 58000-58199 series were built with low handbrake according to the GM&O PS 50' SD boxcar roster (?).  Do you have a pic?

http://home.mindspring.com/~paducah/icg69.htm

Mike

[cjm413]

Cars in the 58000-58199 series were built with low handbrake according to the GM&O PS 50' SD boxcar roster (?).  Do you have a pic?

http://home.mindspring.com/~paducah/icg69.htm

Mike

I was referring to the model with the plug door vs. the photo of the ATSF prototype.

[Curtis Kyger]

I love the GM&O car.  'Especially happy with the perforated coupler platforms and the stirrups being cast in GM&O green. Graphics are great!  Thanks Micro Trains 

I body mounted MT1025's (painting the coupler boxes GM&O green and the couplers a rusty brown), installed BLMA 70 ton roller bearing trucks to lower the height a tidge (I'm sure "tidge" is a technical measurement somewhere), and installed Fox Valley wide tread 33" steel wheels [my personal choice; but perhaps overkill since the BLMA trucks came with perfectly good BLMA steel wheels which actually look better IMHO]. I painted the face and back of the wheels, and the axles, Rail Brown.  I also added a .020x.020 shim beneath the doors to "tighten 'em up a bit" (I think it just looks better).  Added ACI labels, mild weathering and added the car into JMRI and off we go....

I'm mildly surprised MT didn't do these in a three car set: 
Cushioned;
DF; and
Cushioned + DF. 
Cushioned + DF was the least prevalent on the GM&O so of course MT did one of those.

[gbcaboose]

I was referring to the model with the plug door vs. the photo of the ATSF prototype.

Sorry, I thought you were talking about the GM&O car. I see you revised the post to make it more clear.

"Cushioned + DF was the least prevalent on the GM&O so of course MT did one of those."

I have no documentation of this but I have read or been told that none of the GM&O PS1's were delivered with both the "Cushioned" logo (upper right) AND the "DF" logo (lower left). The cars that have both were originally "Cushioned" only, and had the "DF" added to the lower left when they were shopped and had their load-restraining equipment updated or replaced. If that's the case, and I'm not totally sure it is, all you need to do to make it correct would be to replace the "New date" with a shop date, maybe add a lube plate and/or car tracking label to represent a slightly older car.

I'll check my GM&O/IC book tomorrow as that may have been where I read this.

Mike

[gbcaboose]

I have no documentation of this but I have read or been told that none of the GM&O PS1's were delivered with both the "Cushioned" logo (upper right) AND the "DF" logo (lower left). The cars that have both were originally "Cushioned" only, and had the "DF" added to the lower left when they were shopped and had their load-restraining equipment updated or replaced. If that's the case, and I'm not totally sure it is, all you need to do to make it correct would be to replace the "New date" with a shop date, maybe add a lube plate and/or car tracking label to represent a slightly older car.

I'll check my GM&O/IC book tomorrow as that may have been where I read this.

Mike

Well I can't seem to find my GM&O/IC Pictorial but I did find a photo in the GM&O News with a new pic and caption.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

This is a GATC car, but delivered the same year in the same scheme. According to the caption the "DF" in the lower left is an add-on. But the picture also shows "New 4-68", so it doesn't appear to have been shopped. So it looks like the MTL car is correct, even though the "DF was added after delivery.

[cjm413]

Sorry, I thought you were talking about the GM&O car. I see you revised the post to make it more clear.

"Cushioned + DF was the least prevalent on the GM&O so of course MT did one of those."

I have no documentation of this but I have read or been told that none of the GM&O PS1's were delivered with both the "Cushioned" logo (upper right) AND the "DF" logo (lower left). The cars that have both were originally "Cushioned" only, and had the "DF" added to the lower left when they were shopped and had their load-restraining equipment updated or replaced. If that's the case, and I'm not totally sure it is, all you need to do to make it correct would be to replace the "New date" with a shop date, maybe add a lube plate and/or car tracking label to represent a slightly older car.

I'll check my GM&O/IC book tomorrow as that may have been where I read this.

Mike

Plenty of info from Dan Kohlberg here:

http://home.mindspring.com/~paducah/icg69.htm

[Mark5]

So @Shipsure, are the new box cars lowered with body mount couplers or not?

Jason

I saw the GM&O box in the store today - the couplers are truck mounted.

Mark

[wcfn100]

I saw the GM&O box in the store today - the couplers are truck mounted.

Mark

Thx, Mark.  Now were they lowered at all?  Anyone get theirs yet?


Jason

[Curtis Kyger]

No they do not come with body mounted couplers -- they come with the truck mounted couplers on regular Micro Trains trucks.  That's why I body mounted MT1025 couplers.
No they aren't lowered.  That's why I put BLMA trucks under mine -- it lowers the car... approximately .020.

[brokemoto]

The car did not receive the Silver Springs name until well after the 70s, carrying the name Wayside until at least 1980.  The first shots of it being came after year 2000.

Thank you, i was going to ask about that.  There was a lounge/dormitory car called Silver Spring which the Baltimore and Ohio acquired in the 1950s--at least that is what i can glean from whoever it was that wrote those books on B&O passenger service (I am too lazy to run upstairs and look at the book to see who wrote it).  The car that MT is offering looks like a  modernised version of their open deck observation car.  That would fit for a business car.    The car carried the number 905, but I do not know if the MT offering has that number on it (i can not tell from MT's photographs of it).  It would seem unusual that a railroad would run two cars simultaneously that had the same name.

The name is Silver SPRING in the singular, not plural.  Silver SPRINGS is in Florida.  Silver SPRING is in Maryland.  That station was in many B&O passenger train publicity shots.  In fact,  I used to ride the train into school from that station.  The westbound station building exists, although the trains do not stop there, any more.  They stop slightly to the west near the METRO stop.  There used to be an eastbound building, as well, but it came down when the moved the B&O Eastbound track over to make room for the METRO tracks.  You crossed under the tracks to get from one to the other.  The over pass over Georgia Avenue near the station is nicely done, as well, I suspect that the railroad had it done that way.

[Maletrain]

Brokemoto wrote: "The car ["Silver Spring" open-platform business car] carried the number 905, but I do not know if the MT offering has that number on it (i can not tell from MT's photographs of it)."

Actually, I think the B&O number was 905 when they owned it and used it as a business car.  When it was bought by a private owner and named "Wayside", pictures show that the number that had been centered below the windows was moved to the closed end, and the new name was centered under the windows.  But, all pictures that I can find of the car when it was later named "Silver Spring" show the number in smaller font as 8000329, where "905" had been at the closed end of the car.