Micro-Trains for August 2023

[thomasjmdavis]

Do you have any idea why they offer/produce so many Big Sky Blue boxcars?
....
I'd like to see more, and I mean lots of them, brown/iron oxide box cars from the mid sixties.

One of their most popular paint schemes are their "standard" (PS-1) boxcar painted and lettered as ATSF Bx-37 "map" cars. The cars carry build dates of 1937, nine years prior to Pullman Standard building the first PS-1.

But...like everyone else, I own a bunch of them. I bought a set of five a week after I bought my first N scale loco in (circa) 1978. I was an HO modeler building a 2'x4' N scale switching layout because I was living in a small apartment. That set arguably turned me from an HO modeler into an N scale modeler.

Anyway, MTL makes what they figure will sell. Occasionally, what they think will sell coincides with what I want to buy, usually, not.  But all the 'stand in' or 'representative' or 'foobie' boxcars have made it possible to have Horse Cars and Single Window Coaches and now 65' mill gons... so I guess I'm ok with it.

Do keep in mind there are such things as paint and decals.

Also, MTL does listen to its customers. You are more likely to get the response you want (a particular car you want) by providing research to MTL, and finding other modelers who want the same car you want.

[Angus Shops]

Ive eliminated “bright” paint schemes from my layout. They only very rarely appeared in late ‘50’s CP freight trains anyway, and it wasn’t until after my era that Canadian Pacific rebranded as CP Rail, so my boxcars are all oxide red/brown. In fact my entire layout is based on the “ordinary”, rather than the “extraordinary”, including the car fleet, the loco fleet, the scenery, and the track plan itself. Nothing flashy.

However, now that this is being discussed, when did Big Sky Blue and other schemes like the Western Pacific ‘silver with feather’ scheme become a thing?

But I completely understand why manufacturers produce cars with eye catching paint schemes - they sell well.

[Cajonpassfan]

Right on! I too shoot for capturing the ordinary, bland, but realistic paint schemes for my "circa 1949" era layout, and I'm very selective about the small handful of colorful "stars" (and those get taken off often). I understand colorful cars sell, but I let others buy them

The SP boxcars look interesting, I don't recognize the tooling. Is that new?
Otto K.

[thomasjmdavis]

Right on! I too shoot for capturing the ordinary, bland, but realistic paint schemes for my "circa 1949" era layout, and I'm very selective about the small handful of colorful "stars" (and those get taken off often). I understand colorful cars sell, but I let others buy them

The SP boxcars look interesting, I don't recognize the tooling. Is that new?
Otto K.

I could be wrong, but to me, it looks like a modification of their USRA single sheated boxcar. They used the fishbelly from the double-sheathed, but I think SP is one of the roads for which that is correct. And I wonder if they used a different end- there is no indication of ribs in the graphic. It looks like a pretty good value- 3 cars and the forklift and some other details for $81 in this era of $30+/ea freight cars.

[thomasjmdavis]

The Western Pacific cars - orange with silver feather or silver with orange feather, date from 50s, with some similar schemes in the 60s.
https://www.wplives.org/modeling_material/GUIDE_TO_1950S_WP_FREIGHT_CARS.pdf  (bottom of p.2)

[haasmarc]

Its the angle it was photographed.   

Joe

That's what I was hoping for.  I wouldn't expect MT to make a new body style and not do it right!

[JoeD]

But if you look at pictures from that period in the past you only see one or two in a long string of brown boxcars. That puzzles me.

Cheers

Javier

to quote Bill Gates...we gotta keep the doors open..  LOL   We really respond to customers requests and these goat cars are always on the top of lists we get.  Numbers tell the story.  If you are interested in more subdued cars, please forward me some pictures of what you are looking for so I can get it up for review.  I can't read minds, which is why I'm single   

Joe

[JMaurer1]

The flash gets the cash!

The majority of Western Pacific cars were BCR, but the cars that get run are the silver 'feather' cars
Same for D&RGW cars...most were BCR but it's the silver cookie box cars that are run and sold
Even standard NYC cars...were they ALL blue and lettered for the timesaver?
Even my beloved Southern Pacific...compare the handful of BCR box cars to the DOZENS and DOZENS of black and silver overnight cars (including the latest upcoming 8 pack of black overnight cars)

At the same time, I would love to see more 'plain' BCR cars that I didn't have to decal myself...

[garethashenden]

Can anyone comment on the accuracy of the MTL wood reefer compared to the R 30-13 they're being sold as? Reefers aren't my strong suit and I know there are lots of little differences between classes.

[Missaberoad]

Can anyone comment on the accuracy of the MTL wood reefer compared to the R 30-13 they're being sold as? Reefers aren't my strong suit and I know there are lots of little differences between classes.

The MTL wooden reefer is based off a 1920s era FGE/WFE car. The roof, bottom sill, frame and door would be different.

Reefers of that era are all so similar in construction that you could modify them to make them "good enough". Filing down the bottom sill and putting a metal roof on the car would be a big help.

[thomasjmdavis]

The other "spotting" difference is that as built, the R-30-13 had individual grabs instead of ladders on the sides, at least according to photos I could find online. With the fishbelly center sills and grab iron style ladders, it looks like an older car- more like 1920 construction than late 20s.  Other than the door size (which is taller) the R-30 looks (to me, anyway) a lot like a USRA car. 

It does surprise me that SP built 30 ton capacity cars with fishbelly underframes in the late 20s (and into the 30s, IIRC). I would have thought that having all that steel underneath would have resulted in a 40 ton capacity by default.

The MTL car looks a lot like the FGE car in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, but has only one grab on the left end while the real car has 2. However, details like that vary from batch to batch and year to year. For my purposes, it is "close enough" to a lot of cars.

I am pretty sure that MTL issued the car with both fishbelly and conventional underframes, as appropriate for a particular prototype. Unless I switched them myself, and forgot about it in the intervening 40 years....

[OldEastRR]

Right on! I too shoot for capturing the ordinary, bland, but realistic paint schemes for my "circa 1949" era layout, and I'm very selective about the small handful of colorful "stars" (and those get taken off often). I understand colorful cars sell, but I let others buy them

The SP boxcars look interesting, I don't recognize the tooling. Is that new?
Otto K.

Yep. my NH layout is set on early '50's (before the new herald) and from what I've seen apparently 1955 was the year that began most new-look colorful boxcar schemes. PRR,NYC,SP, DRG, NH, CB&Q, RDG, NP and many other roads seemed to all switch at the same time from brown to new logos and lettering with some flashy color (to get people's attention at Xings?). I too have been looking for those old brown boxcars of any US roads (even Canada) because it seems like every RR had their cars on the NH sooner or later.

I like the brown cars with the ads for that road's passenger trains on the sides, really give that late '40s look. I also have to watch out that I don't get a fleet of mostly PS-1s -- i.e. Kadee/MTL, which I'd bought for 30 years because of the great printing. (Otherwise be stuck with those "dip-job" painting of other brands). Considering the PS-1s came out in '47, that means I pass on pre-'47 RR schemes.

But there are so many great old paint schemes that aren't on era-correct boxcars. Seaboard with the heart logo and a promo for their passenger train is a beauty. Having a layout with mostly brown boxcars but 2nd gen deisels and early '50s autos, trucks, and building styles really makes the railroad look "old-fashioned".

[dem34]

It can admittedly be tough sometimes, because the flashy paint jobs still perform their role decades later when we are shopping for new models.

That said its also why research is important. if you want to get that last mile of detail. Its sort of like my area, where everyone builds fleets of East Coast stock to populate their locals, when %90 of the stock I see in photos and film belong to PNW roads with the only lick of local flair being the common sight but rarely modeled Sand Unit train going a grand 8 miles from mine to kiln.

[Sokramiketes]

I think it’s the angle of the photo and the bright wheels. I’m going to get one to support the cause, plus they released a scheme correct for the prototype first which always is a big positive for me.

Yeah, if you move the camera higher, or even look top down on the model, the ride height goes away like magic. This trick works great in Z scale too. 

[thomasjmdavis]

It can admittedly be tough sometimes, because the flashy paint jobs still perform their role decades later when we are shopping for new models.

That said its also why research is important. if you want to get that last mile of detail. Its sort of like my area, where everyone builds fleets of East Coast stock to populate their locals, when %90 of the stock I see in photos and film belong to PNW roads with the only lick of local flair being the common sight but rarely modeled Sand Unit train going a grand 8 miles from mine to kiln.

A case in point (admittedly not a PNW road, but definitely west coast)- in 1956, ATSF converted 58 of their new FT-5 flat cars with racks to carry auto frames to west coast assembly plants. These cars were stenciled "WHEN EMPTY RETURN TO PHILMONT PA. READING R.R." Santa Fe pooled equipment with several eastern roads to get manufactured products delivered to the west.

And a fair number of PFE and ATSF refrigerator cars made it east of Chicago.