Rapido Flexi-Flo hoppers are in

[tehachapifan]

Yikes! I'm not even sure what those ladder handrails are trying to represent.

Otherwise, looks like a nice model.

[GonzoCRFan]

Thanks for posting these pics, Dan. I've spent several hours over the last few days trying to justify purchasing some of these cars, verifying paint schemes against car numbers, etc... But those end rails...seriously? They look like the ones on the 30 year old Walthers double-stack cars. You might have just saved me a few hundred bucks.

Can anyone point me in the direction of photos of the Penn Central "billboard" scheme? Railcarphotos, rrpicturearchives.net, rr-fallenflags.org, Google,  and my personal collection have yielded no results so far.

[bbussey]

I had pics of the PC billboard scheme 30 years ago but I don’t know where they are now. The Rapido version looks legit. The choice of reporting marks and some of the smaller lettering might be suspect but that can’t be confirmed without photos. I know the 897820 car number we used for the ESM model is legitimate. But Rapido doesn’t always validate specific car numbers to schemes. I have builder’s photos for one of the NYC straight-FF car numbers they chose and there are notable differences between their graphics and the prototype.

[ai5629]

Thanks for posting these pics, Dan. I've spent several hours over the last few days trying to justify purchasing some of these cars, verifying paint schemes against car numbers, etc... But those end rails...seriously? They look like the ones on the 30 year old Walthers double-stack cars. You might have just saved me a few hundred bucks.

Can anyone point me in the direction of photos of the Penn Central "billboard" scheme? Railcarphotos, rrpicturearchives.net, rr-fallenflags.org, Google,  and my personal collection have yielded no results so far.

I managed to purchase six cars: two NYC (for CR paint outs), two PC paint outs and two CR billboard schemes.  I only recall seeing these in the wild on the head end of PICA (for many years, this train would have a block of cars heading to HCS for repairs) or at Hollidaysburg Car Shop for said repairs.  I bought mine to support the manufacturer for bringing these to N scale.  I too have never seen the PC billboard scheme.  The accuracy of the PC billboard scheme would be a good question to pose to the MFCL Group.  There are a lot of PC experts  who post regularly there.  Thanks.

Jeff

[Mark5]

Can anyone tell me if these ever made it south of the Mason-Dixon line? I am trying to justify seeing one of these on the N&W main through Roanoke.

[bbussey]

That is the scheme, but on the PD3000 where it was more common. But there were PD3500s that wore the scheme, albeit not many.

Doubtful they ran that far south. They required special loading/unloading facilities, which of course were located on New York Central hubs. Some in the Midwest, in Illinois  and Indiana I think. Eastern NY around the Kingston/Albany region - there was a huge facility in Saugerties which is where I went to photograph them. Framingham MA had a big facility.

[lock4244]

That is the scheme, but on the PD3000 where it was more common. But there were PD3500s that wore the scheme, albeit not many.

It certainly does seem to be a real unicorn. I've been digging around the internet for a pic of one of the 3500's in PC billboard to no avail. It's become a bit of a quest now.

I did however find a pic of PC 897000, which is a car I was completely unaware NYC and PC had... the fabled cement tube.

[ai5629]

Can anyone tell me if these ever made it south of the Mason-Dixon line? I am trying to justify seeing one of these on the N&W main through Roanoke.

Here is an interesting article about NYC Flexi Flo service, and an image showing the initial service routes.  The map shows that they could go as far south as Charleston, WV.  Thanks.

Jeff

https://nyc65.wordpress.com/2021/05/12/critical-cars-acf-flexi-flo-pd-3500/

https://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/images/flexi-flo.pdf

[Mark5]

Here is an interesting article about NYC Flexi Flo service, and an image showing the initial service routes.  The map shows that they could go as far south as Charleston, WV.  Thanks.

Jeff

https://nyc65.wordpress.com/2021/05/12/critical-cars-acf-flexi-flo-pd-3500/

https://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/images/flexi-flo.pdf

That map is excellent info - thanks! (this means that I can "dodge" this model.   )

Mark

[ai5629]

That map is excellent info - thanks! (this means that I can "dodge" this model.   )

Mark

What about having an empty or two run east from Charleston on the NW, then north up to the PC on a return trip?  Stranger things have happened.  Come on, give Rapido some support.

Jeff

On second thought, Roanoke, VA is a little further south than I realized.  Too bad.

[Mark5]

Jeff, I appreciate the effort! N&W almost made it to Charleston but fell a little short (Deepwater WV via the old Virginian New River division)

[bbussey]

The ladders aren't horrible.  But the long horizontal grab iron extending from the ladder is as bad as the upright hand rails and will have to go.

It's beginning to seem like etching the vertical grab irons may be the best option.

[samusi01]

For those who might be interested in modelling an unloading facility, someone has published on Shapeways an early pneumatic trailer:

https://www.shapeways.com/product/MHU838THM/n-scale-1-160-trailer-16-1960-s-fruehauf?optionId=301303499&li=shops

It appears more or less similar to the trailer in the PDF brochure linked above. Decent model although I wish the designer had done the wheels separately. I purchased one a few years ago as the NP's trucking subsidiary used them for concrete transport during highway construction in the '60s.

[bbussey]

Ugh. Compared to the HO model, there are a lot of features that need work. The only thing wrong with the HO model are the weird oversized caps at the end of the horizontal reinforcement belt rails. They cheated a lot on details of the N model, including the bolsters and all the grab irons being compromised when they didn’t need to be. It’s going to take more effort to upgrade the shortcomings than expected, and more than what I remembered when I saw the unpainted pilot models in Springfield earlier this year.

[bbussey]

Got my set of PD3500s today.  There are other details missing that will have to be added.  And the wheel diameter is only a scale 35½", not 38", which is EXTREMELY disappointing.  The 36" diameter is correct for the 25 early cars but not the remaining 200 late cars.  .557" axle length. 

I think Kato makes 38" wheels, maybe for one of their intermodal well cars.  Hopefully they are adaptable.  NWSL also might make something that fits.