Atlas N April Announcements

[nkalanaga]

It is good for the NP 4700-4999 series, built 1929.  I doubt that any of these were in interchange service after the BN merger, but some were in BN MOW service. 

There were at least two cars still in revenue service in 1973, as they went over the Pasco hump.  I don't know the numbers, but one was a 4800 and the other a 4900. 

My father brought home a stack of hump lists in June, 1973, and I made a summary roster of BN and predecessor roads from that.  Cars are lumped into 100-number blocks, simply because I didn't want to write every individual number.  This was long before PCs...

[thomasjmdavis]

Otto-

Thanks, appreciated. Too bad. So what roads, if any, is this car appropriate for?? I do like it a lot.
Otto K.

It is very similar, if not the same, prototype as an HO car produced by MDC/Athearn.  That car is reportedly based on cars of the Western Pacific and Texas and Pacific.
Vhttp://designbuildop.hansmanns.org/a-guide-to-1920s-era-ho-scale-plastic-freight-cars/ scroll down about 1/4 way down the page.

The car also resembles a lot of USRA 40' cars, with a couple of extra sections added for the extra length.

I am also wondering if it might be a better match for an earlier- say 1919 or 1920 vintage ATSF FE car. 

Photos I have aren't much help- I keep coming up with "rebuilts" from the 1940s- when FE (letter of your choice) were rebuilt into FE-19s and FE-25s, etc.

[bdennis]

Sorry, likely a copy and paste error, it will be corrected, thanks for pointing it out.

Cool.. Back onto my short list to order the sound version. Thanks for the update

[Cajonpassfan]

It is good for the NP 4700-4999 series, built 1929.  I doubt that any of these were in interchange service after the BN merger, but some were in BN MOW service. 

There were at least two cars still in revenue service in 1973, as they went over the Pasco hump.  I don't know the numbers, but one was a 4800 and the other a 4900. 

My father brought home a stack of hump lists in June, 1973, and I made a summary roster of BN and predecessor roads from that.  Cars are lumped into 100-number blocks, simply because I didn't want to write every individual number.  This was long before PCs...

Very good, thanks for that. I need a number of box cars for my late 40's GWS train (GN-WP-Santa Fe) that brought finished lumber and paper products from Canada and Pacific Northwest to booming Southern California, and this looks like an excellent candidate. (And I already have the Walthers version of the WP car, Tom, so that one will be good enough also).
Otto

[Missaberoad]

Keep in mind that both the NP and WP cars had radial roofs if that sort of thing matters to you...

The Walthers car is close to a number of prototypes with some modifications... I belive in its stock for the T&P car is closest...

Definitely excited to see what Atlas does with it...

[thomasjmdavis]

Keep in mind that both the NP and WP cars had radial roofs if that sort of thing matters to you...

The Walthers car is close to a number of prototypes with some modifications... I belive in its stock for the T&P car is closest...

Definitely excited to see what Atlas does with it...

Well, it would not have mattered to me if you hadn't said anything.... But now....
https://www.wplives.com/diagrams/freight/1930/BC12001-12150.php

[Cajonpassfan]

Well dang, sometimes ignorance is bliss. Actually often...
Still, I have a lot of other good stand-ins, so until something more accurate becomes available, this one will have to do for the GWS/lumber train.
Thanks for the info.
Otto K.

[thomasjmdavis]

Well, if I were a stickler about such things, 75% of my cars would not pass muster.  How many MT "standard boxcars" (nowadays identified as a PS1) do I have in paint schemes that belong on an AAR 1944 car, or even an ARA 1932 car?  I still have a green ATSF stock car.  OK, so that's an inside joke....

I do need more wood cars (just so trains look like what trains looked like in my 1950s timeframe), and I think the one from Atlas will fill some of those slots, even if it is a compromise for most roads.  If in the meanwhile, some intrepid NP modelers talk someone into producing some radial roof cars, I am good for a couple of those as well.

[thomasjmdavis]

I happened to take a look at the Atlas production schedule page on their website, and unfortunately saw this:

N 50' Single Sheathed Box Car   April 17, 2019   June 7, 2019   Run Cancelled   -   -

Any mention of this at any of the recent shows/conventions?  Lack of orders, or was there a tooling problem? (remembering the warped doors/sides of the Walthers run 10 years ago).

[EmdFan]

I happened to take a look at the Atlas production schedule page on their website, and unfortunately saw this:

N 50' Single Sheathed Box Car   April 17, 2019   June 7, 2019   Run Cancelled   -   -

Any mention of this at any of the recent shows/conventions?  Lack of orders, or was there a tooling problem? (remembering the warped doors/sides of the Walthers run 10 years ago).

It was lack of orders. We knew the car was a bit...generic, shall we say? But we were hoping enough folks would be interested regardless. Maybe we'll shelve it for a while then try again at a later date. We were going to tweak the mold a bit to fix the known issues had there been enough demand.

[ncbqguy]

Too bad that the run was cancelled.   It was probably one of the nicest cars that Walthers did in N Scale.
I admit I'd rather see the car done with new sides as a 1 1/2 Door car.  The CB&Q, NP, GN, and MILW among others ran such cars well into the 1970s.

The 60' CB&Q Commuter Coach looks neat but it can't even be kitbased into a full car....the prototype had single, not paired windows.  Cool paint job however.  Prototype cars were modernized in 1949 to A/C and electricity provided by Power Cars to train with the double deck Budd Gallery Cars.  Originally they were open end cars built on steel underframes intended for stretched wood cars! 

Charlie Vlk

[thomasjmdavis]

It was lack of orders. We knew the car was a bit...generic, shall we say? But we were hoping enough folks would be interested regardless. Maybe we'll shelve it for a while then try again at a later date. We were going to tweak the mold a bit to fix the known issues had there been enough demand.

I thought that might be the case. I was one of many who was waiting to actually see one- to know if the issues would be corrected, and see if it was produced to "Master Line" standards (as advertised)- which would have been more than "tweaking" the mold.  It seemed (as you note) "generic"- and therefore much more a "Trainman" price level car.

[Chris333]

I planned on buying a few of the boxcars... but I did not plan on pre-ordering them.

[Missaberoad]

I planned on buying a few of the boxcars... but I did not plan on pre-ordering them.

Same situation here, was looking forward to the 50' auto boxes but do most of my shopping between MBK and Ebay...