Boxcar Sunday, Let's see your boxcars.

Couple Lionel Remakes, God Bless America on 21 years after 9-11, Keep America Strong God Speed to All!

Turns out, today was MY boxcar Sunday; I ordered these Williams 40-footers from TW (on sale for 29.99 each!):

Amherst Brewing reefer

Berkshire Brewing reefer

Williams Refrigerated Transport "Mariposa Apples" reefer

Williams Refrigerated Transport "Golden Eagle Oranges" reefer

Suzy-Q (New York, Susquehanna & Western)

I don't know if the "Williams Refrigerated Transport" reefers are prototypical or Williams's version of "Lionel Lines" but it'll be fun to run 'em anyway! Video of somebody pullin' 'em when I get 'em!

A nice Atlas O Central of Georgia 50-footer. I wanted on of these for a long time. I finally got one last week.Here's a little info from the Central of Georgia historical society. 

1) The famous "blimp" scheme was only used on 50' boxcars.

2) This paint scheme was always black car with aluminum oval. Car ends were black. The lettering on the aluminum oval was black and the lettering on the black background was aluminum. Cars 5500-5999 had aluminum roofs, while 1500-1999, 4999, and 6217 all had black roofs. The monogram had a yellow background with black lettering. (The purple/silver and boxcar red/silver model versions are not prototypical.)

3) There were three lots of these cars, all built by Pullman Standard. CG 5500-5999 were built in 1954. CG 1500-1999 were built in 1956. CG 4999 and 6217 were built in 1958, apparently as replacements for wrecked cars.

I don't believe that any of these cars were ever repainted in the blimp scheme by the CofGa shops. I do have a painting diagram dated May 30, 1958, which shows the application of the standard boxcar red "The Right Way" scheme on these cars, but I've never seen a photo of one that was repainted that way. Several were eventually repainted into the post-merger scheme with block type Central of Georgia lettering.

Several older guys that need some work to get back earning their keep

Richmond Fredericksburg & Potomac outside braced boxcar by MTH.

Great Northern boxcar by Weaver.  New Haven glass lined milk tank  car by Lionel.

The 3 P's and the Great Northern

Prewar, Postwar, and Prototype

Providence & Worcester Atlas Scale. 

@trumpettrain posted:

Richmond Fredericksburg & Potomac outside braced boxcar by MTH.

Great Northern boxcar by Weaver.  New Haven glass lined milk tank  car by Lionel.

Pat, Your scenes are terrific. Lots of detail and the Lionel milk car platform fits in perfectly

Take a kit bash mixture of "X-Files" (Scully), add a "Spy" from Mad Magazine, paint it in pearl yellow, include the "eerie" Erie markings and you will end up with this.

@Wood posted:

Pat, Your scenes are terrific. Lots of detail and the Lionel milk car platform fits in perfectly

Wood - thanks so much!  I love creating and detailing scenes.  The milk platform is from my first Lionel set Santa brought me in 1957.  

Bangor & Aroostook #4002.

@BAR GP7 #63 posted:

Bangor & Aroostook #4002.

@BAR GP7 #63

OMG. Another nicely detailed box car scene. Love the outhouse and the populated river scene.

Wood

@Dennis Holler posted:

Fabulous graphics, Dennis. I grew up listening to commercials from Palisades Park on my transistor radio!!! All you need now is Freddy Boom Boom Cannon crooning in the background

Well hello everyone, happy BxCrSun to all!  Great pictures and real fun.  Patrick and BAR GP7 great scenes, Dave a neat GoGa "blimp" boxcar and Dennis a really outstanding tinplater!  Robert S. Butler - a great display of manufacturers and their "take" on a theme   Wood - a neat Massachusetts railway, not seen too often and das boot - what can I say!  Your imagination is truly working overtime and its produced a really neat boxcar!  "Spy vs Spy AND Scully"!  

Today I have a small display of my own, it illustrates Mr. Marx's variations on a theme and perhaps the highly competitive environment in the toy train business in the early post war period.  Two boxcars both in the red/gray paint scheme but for two bitter rivals, PRR and NYC.  One from the 1940's and early 50's is Marx's attempt to move into more scale trains after the way (although the designs started in the late 30's).  He chose 3/16" to the foot or "S" scale for his cars and used the 999 engine.  The other was a belated response to the emergence (as a surprise) of Unique into toy trains in about 1947 or 48 and the 7" series of cars (all 4 wheel) was the Marx response issued first in about 1951 and lasting until the middle 50's.

Here is the Marx "scale" (S scale) NYC "pacemaker" box car from about 1945, note especially the scale trucks .  All lithographed steel.  By the 1950's, Marx would be moving to plastic.

The Marx 7" series, 4 wheel and plastic knuckle couplers (although they did come with tab/slot as well).  The PK coupler puts this gal post 1953 and most likely around 1955.

Here they are together for comparison.  Except for length, the scale car being about 7 1/2" long and the seven inch car being (surprise!) about 7 1/4 " long.  Since the NYC scale car is S scale you can see it is much closer to prototype dimensions than the PRR car.

Well Happy Sunday, hope you have a good week

Best Wishes

Don

@Wood posted:

@BAR GP7 #63

OMG. Another nicely detailed box car scene. Love the outhouse and the populated river scene.

Wood

Wood,

Thank you.🤝

Johan

A few repaints by me. Some of my earlier work…

Tom

@Krieglok

Very nice job on the repaints.  Great decals too.

2 of my latest. Actually got quite a bit in Lancaster PA yesterday.

I did some P&WV cars.

Here's the five Williams 40-footers I mentioned I was ordering from TW inspired by this thread. I got 'em Friday. Fantastic quality for 29.99 each! Metal frames and, although my photo doesn't show it, great graphics. And I didn't get to a video yet...

@das boot posted:

Take a kit bash mixture of "X-Files" (Scully), add a "Spy" from Mad Magazine, paint it in pearl yellow, include the "eerie" Erie markings and you will end up with this.

This is fantastic! I love Spy vs. Spy. Read as many of 'em as I could get my little hands on when I was a kid. Mad magazine was kinda "verboten" in the day. Quaint, when considering today's "content." Will there ever be a "Black Spy" version to run behind this one?

@Bill Park posted:

Several older guys that need some work to get back earning their keep

Somehow, that "Suzy-Q" looks familiar...

@Bill Swatos posted:

This is fantastic! I love Spy vs. Spy. Read as many of 'em as I could get my little hands on when I was a kid. Mad magazine was kinda "verboten" in the day. Quaint, when considering today's "content." Will there ever be a "Black Spy" version to run behind this one?

Thanks for the kind words, there will be a "Black Spy" in the near future with Mulder. Then I will reverse the colors with Scully and Mulder for a total of four variations on the same theme. I have a continual bad habit of always doing more than just one. Of course, there will be a matching diesel engine and smoking caboose.

@das boot posted:

Thanks for the kind words, there will be a "Black Spy" in the near future with Mulder. Then I will reverse the colors with Scully and Mulder for a total of four variations on the same theme. I have a continual bad habit of always doing more than just one. Of course, there will be a matching diesel engine and smoking caboose.

I forgot to mention I'm also "mad" for X-Files. I and a couple of co-workers from GE Plastics in Mt. Vernon, IN had a "watch party" for the series debut in September of 1993 and I've watched nearly episode in the series since then, including the "reboots" in 2016 and 2018. I need to get the DVD's and start over.

Anyway, I don't know how you make these cars, but I wish I could buy 'em! About all I'm good with is the mechanical/electrical stuff...

ATLAS O 50-foot Louisville & Nashville

Bangor & Aroostook #1230.

That L&N boxcar looks really sharp. That’s one roadname I don’t have enough of…

The BAR car looks great and the setting really looks wonderful. Who made the end door car?

A few repaints I did, but wasn’t too happy with the results on a couple of them…they will be weathered eventually…The others came out okay. Atlas, MTH and Weaver models

Tom

@Krieglok posted:

A few repaints I did, but wasn’t too happy with the results on a couple of them…they will be weathered eventually…The others came out okay. Atlas, MTH and Weaver models

Tom

Outstanding as always Tom. I really like the Mississippi Central.

That Mississippi Central car was actually a “problem child”…lol. I couldn’t get the final finish to even out, so I weathered the heck out of it…

Tom

Chicago Great Western - Fact and Fantasy

  Up until 1932 or so a number of manufacturers of tinplate freight equipment featured real railroad names and logos on the sides of their cars.  Some of their offerings were close to what could be seen on the real railroad boxcars of the day and some were just a tinplate manufacturers fantasy.  A case in point of the latter:

Chicago Great Western fact - courtesy of Atlas

Chicago Great Western fantasy - courtesy of Ives

As a point of interest, according to Hertz, the elaborate coloring of the Ives CGW logo required more passes through the litho press than any of their other offerings.

Before I buy a model boxcar, or any freight or passenger car, I research the color scheme to make sure it fits in with my late 40s era layout.  While getting the correct car type is sometimes impossible in 'O', I can usually find the correct color scheme.

However, I have made some impulse buys without doing the research and regretted it later.  An example is the PRR L.C.L Service scheme that MTH, Lionel, and Weaver, have made.

This was a design proposed by Raymond Loewy but never applied to any PRR boxcar.  I bought the 4-car set at York and luckily I found someone to buy them who liked the scheme (and knew it was fake).

The Loewy design actually used was the Merchandise Service scheme later referred to as Phase 1.  Like nearly all Loewy designs, this scheme was soon modified to a cheaper design to save money.  These cheaper designs are referred to as Phase 2 and 3.  Here are a couple of my Phase 1 cars.

These are MTH's generic AAR 40' and PS-1 50' cars, so-so stand-ins for PRR's X29b and X41b boxcars.  At least they are the same length.

Well good morning everyone.  It's BxCr Sun again and you all have posted some really neat cars.  Dave the L&N "Old Reliable" is a really neat color and livery.  I envy you the ability to run 50 ft cars, my layout is too tight for those long ones.  BAR GP-7 neat car X-1230 with your "handle" on it (BAR).  Krieglok (Tom) a great series of cars, I especially liked the Dixieland with the yellow stripe and the ARA in orange. Robert S. Butler - thanks for the info on the CGW and how our friends in toy trains often "improved" what was there in reality.  I liked the IVES boxcar, realistic or not. CAPPilot - again thanks for the lesson in how the PRR really decorated their merchandise service car...luckily mine is the correct livery.

Today, I am moving a bit afield as I am posting a stock car.  I just acquired this one for my early pre-war collection and I think its in rather good shape for being almost 100 years old.  Its the Lionel #821 stock car from 1924-1926. This was one of the first series of "large" 0 gauge cars (8 wheel) that Lionel began to offer in 1915 and although the stock car was catalogued, most references feel that it was not produced until at least 1924 and was withdrawn in 1926 and replaced with the 813 in 1927.

Here is the side view, "Union Stock Lines" in black stamped lettering is about the only decoration although it has "Made in USA, the Lionel Corporation, New York" stamped underneath and its number on one end.

Top view showing the roof.

The "number end" showing the stamped number.

Well that's my post for today.  Hope a "stock car" vs a box car is close enough to qualify.

Best wishes for a great week to come

Don

@Krieglok posted:

That L&N boxcar looks really sharp. That’s one roadname I don’t have enough of…

The BAR car looks great and the setting really looks wonderful. Who made the end door car?

A few repaints I did, but wasn’t too happy with the results on a couple of them…they will be weathered eventually…The others came out okay. Atlas, MTH and Weaver models

Tom

Tom,

Thank you. I made this car based on the original picture and the rear doors are 3D printed. On the floor of the car I installed the rails for the resin, in addition there is a small winch inside, the ramp also fits inside the car.

Johan

Can anyone ID this boxcar?

q

Two oldtimers still earning their keep

I decided to take a "crack" and design a Florida "orange  cracker" fantasy, a 40' high cube boxcar in honor of someone special.

Here's video of my entire boxcar consist highballin' on the IFGT&TCRR:

And my favorite one. I got seven of these thanks to Boxcar Sunday!