Athearn "new" 35' stock cars?

[Cajonpassfan]

I just saw this in the December issue of MRH. I assume it's the same old Roundhouse model? Hope I'm wrong; we need more shorties for the transition era...
Otto K.

[Missaberoad]

Both the Stock car and the Caboose mentioned are old MDC tooling...

[Dave V]

Guessing it is.  Hoping the graphics are good.  AT&SF truss rod stock cars would be at home on my Colorado Midland.  I can pick up the old Roundhouse ones easily on eBay but the printing is kind of crude.

Really wish they'd do an actual Colorado Midalnd Palace Stock Car...and in the correct oxide color versus the black one Roundhouse did in HO.

But really really I'm just ecstatic that Athearn is doing old-timey stuff again!

Could an upgraded DCC-equipped old timer 2-8-0 have a nonzero chance at reality?  Hmm...   

[Cajonpassfan]

really[/i] really I'm just ecstatic that Athearn is doing old-timey stuff again!

Well I'm excited too, but for a diffent reason. For some (marketing) reason most of our 36' shorty house cars (box and stock) come "decorated" in "old-timey" schemes, sometimes flashy and dated. So most folks white them off as "old-timey" stuff (not you Dave, you love the stuff, and I do too). But in reality that's lost on most people, at Pearl Harbor time, a full 35% of the North American fleet was shortie cars, and even as late as 1950 which I model, there were as many 36-38' house cars on North Americal rails as there were fifty footers. I have way too many 50' cars and not enough shorties, but I love the variety and contrast they provide, see below.

Archbar trucks were banned from interchange traffic starting in 1940, but truss-rod under frames lasted until 1952, and even later In company service. And there were a large number of steel underframe 36' cars, like the MT and Rapido reefers, and shortie boxcars like the NYC and CN cars below. I wish Athearn (or anyone) would do more "modern" steel underframe shorties with updated lettering and Bettendorf trucks...
Otto K.

[nkalanaga]

Quite a few 36 ft stock cars lasted until the end of stock shipping by rail.  Partly that was because the loading/unloading facilities were set up for them, and partly because there wasn't enough profit for the railroads to want to spend money on new cars.  Some of  the GN's lasted into the late 60's, although all were out of revenue service by October of 1969.

[mcjaco]

Really wish they'd do an actual Colorado Midalnd Palace Stock Car...and in the correct oxide color versus the black one Roundhouse did in HO.

I have that car in HO.  I thought it was so cool.  Now I'm ashamed of the foob.....

[Dave V]

I have that car in HO.  I thought it was so cool.  Now I'm ashamed of the foob.....

Heh, well given that the Colorado Midland "died" before the advent of color film, nothing's really a foob color-wise, is it?   

I spoke with Mel McFarland and Dan Abbott at local trains shows about Midland colors...both are railroad historians who have authored books on the Midland and live locally.  I think it was Mel who told me about the stock car colors.  I asked because in some B&W photographs they look like the same shade as the boxcars.  Apparently he got a hold of CMRy painting instructions as he was putting together his book (since they apparently "conveyed" to the Midland Terminal Railway when the MTRy took over the CMRy's shops at Colorado City) and there was no evidence he could find of any rolling stock being painted black.  It appears that all of the freight cars were painted in the Midland's freight car color except for the famous double-door Hanrahan refrigerator cars with the Indian logo.

But...again...this is a railroad whose last revenue runs were 98 years ago.  No one would begrudge you a black stock car, and if Athearn does it in black in N scale I'll buy one too.

[SP-Wolf]

What is the prototype for this car - ?
(Just curious)

Thanks,
Wolf

[Chris333]

Erie and NH also had 36' car that lasted into my era. I made a NH car some time ago, need to do a re-make of it:


And Kaslo did the CN fowler car in resin.

[OldEastRR]

Chris, that's a repainted Class XM2 NH car? Meaning repainted from the original 1926 lettering. Would there be any NH cars in the 50s still painted as first built? Paging Mr Bussey.....
Where id you get that car model?

[Chris333]

It is a MDC boxcar with Red Ball ends and cut down doors. Already started a new one.

[up1950s]

Bring on those truss rod stock cars , I'm in .