What Scale Steam Era Car Should Be Next

UP 40' DD Express boxcar B-50-25 #9100-9199 (1939) B-50-31 #9200-9229 (1941). I'll take a 4-pack in 2R of the 1946 TTG paint and a 4-pack in 3R of the 1952 Armor Yellow. Nominal 40' but not as tall as standard boxcars.

UPHS Streamliner Vol. 5 No. 4 issue has detailed diagrams and photos.

Also a CNW rebuilt wood drover caboose. Mid-continent Railroad Museum has great diagrams, photos, and an actual prototype:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=...ZQjSd6ECcz205eLQZDIw

But I seem to be a market of one. ��

Those with the caveat of multiple road appeal have been done to death in O, and in HO, where every boxed set once contained an off-center cupola ATSF "metal" caboose lettered from A to Z.  Cabooses are the most individualistic of cars, which is why there is a custom builder and once unique but difficult kits. Too bad, as another thread addressed, brass cabooses are so expensive. As are brass freight cars, but unique ones are available from Rich Yoder.  Unique and plastic molds are not compatible.  Plastic molds demand high volume.

(Anybody ever high-railed a Yoder car? I'm guessing not easy due to underbody detail?)

How about the PRR X-29 boxcar? While they were pretty much only Pennsy there were thousands of them running across the country. Also there were rebuilt versions that might be made from the same basic tooling.

Another benefit was their relatively same size, would not be out of place with traditional size cars

Scotie posted:

How about the PRR X-29 boxcar? While they were pretty much only Pennsy there were thousands of them running across the country. Also there were rebuilt versions that might be made from the same basic tooling.

I thought that Atlas produced LOTS of those PRR X-29 boxcars, by the dozens. I'm pretty sure I have a bunch of them, some even equipped for express/passenger service with high-speed trucks and steam lines.

Scotie ... Atlas certainly did produce scale X-29 box cars. "Beth" at Public Delivery Track  has a variety of road names .... including special runs.

I just bought some 2-rail versions from her, but I know she stocks many 3-rail also. She has much more in stock than what is listed on the website. Beth promptly answers emails.

Matt

Atlas did indeed do a beautiful X-29.   The original model was contracted for by "Middle Division".    They also did the H21 PRR Hopper.   

The X29 was done by Atlas in paint jobs for other roads that had very similar cars such as NYC, B&O and some eastern roads.    The X29 design was actually proposed as the 1923 ARA recommended design.   It was not specified by the ARA committee, but some members liked it enough to build versions.

As for the group of photos, many of those cars have been down recently.    Lionel did a decent PRR round roof 40 ft boxcar such as in the NP photo.   They suggested they would follow on with a 50 ft version but have not so far.    MTH did the drop bottom GN Gondola shown.    Atlas and MTH have produced USRA outsided braced (sinle sheath) boxcars.     They are both very nice versions.    Any car as shown without runnin boards, would not be steam era.   Atlas has also done a 50 ft single sheath car similar to as shown in their Train Man Line.    Thse are not as detailed as the Master Line, but still very nice scale size cars.    There were done mostly in Western roadnames as shown above.

I would like to see a detailed steam era 52 ft gondola.    We have the ATlas Train Man version and the Mth version, but these have details cast  on and look slightly crude when compared with the detailed boxcars and tankcars coming from these importers.

N&W H2a 70 ton hoppers, scale sized 3 dome tank car, any steam era freight car for Southern railway, more cabeese in Southeastern and Midwestern road names such as N&W, L&N, Southern, Illinois Central, Frisco, Wabash, etc.

Joe Congemi posted:

N&W H2a 70 ton hoppers, scale sized 3 dome tank car, any steam era freight car for Southern railway, more cabeese in Southeastern and Midwestern road names such as N&W, L&N, Southern, Illinois Central, Frisco, Wabash, etc.

Another vote for 3 dome tank cars.

-Greg

Joe Congemi posted:

N&W H2a 70 ton hoppers, scale sized 3 dome tank car, any steam era freight car for Southern railway, more cabeese in Southeastern and Midwestern road names such as N&W, L&N, Southern, Illinois Central, Frisco, Wabash, etc.

N&W 70 ton, 3-bay hoppers! Yes! All them there Y6b's out there and only the H1/HU 2 bays to pull.......or fake hoppers with N&W painted on.

rex desilets posted:

Joe Congemi posted:

N&W H2a 70 ton hoppers, scale sized 3 dome tank car, any steam era freight car for Southern railway, more cabeese in Southeastern and Midwestern road names such as N&W, L&N, Southern, Illinois Central, Frisco, Wabash, etc.

N&W 70 ton, 3-bay hoppers! Yes! All them there Y6b's out there and only the H1/HU 2 bays to pull.......or fake hoppers with N&W painted on.

What about those highly detailed 3-bay hoppers that MTH has offered for quite some years?

Other threads have lamented the lack of plain-jane black single dome UTLX and GATX tank cars. I continue the wailing. A once fairly common Hallmark brass caboose is a model of an ATSF drover's caboose similar to that C&NW one above.

Hot Water posted:

rex desilets posted:

Joe Congemi posted:

N&W H2a 70 ton hoppers, scale sized 3 dome tank car, any steam era freight car for Southern railway, more cabeese in Southeastern and Midwestern road names such as N&W, L&N, Southern, Illinois Central, Frisco, Wabash, etc.

N&W 70 ton, 3-bay hoppers! Yes! All them there Y6b's out there and only the H1/HU 2 bays to pull.......or fake hoppers with N&W painted on.

What about those highly detailed 3-bay hoppers that MTH has offered for quite some years?

They are not N&W prototype. I'm at the point in railroad modeling that I must have correct models. I've been collecting brass H2/H10 etc hoppers, enough for a respectable train. But it surely is an expensive part of my hobby.

A few stock cars,even if they seem unpopular.

Norm

A scale accurate helium tank car.....

Southern SU 36' boxcar.  Used by Southern, Mobile & Ohio/GM&O through the end of the K brake era.  

 I would like to see a CPR "Mini" Box car.

 The Railway had 7500 of them.....And maybe one of these covered slab side hoppers

Al

I would like the PRR leased n&w h2 Hoppers as well.

This WMRR caboose.  The prototype is sitting next to the football field at McDaniel College formerly called Western Maryland College.

An accurate UTLX X3 tank car in 4,000/6000/8000/100 gallon versions.  Basic black.

Accurate 1923 ARA steel box cars in all the versions.  Nope X29's aren't close enough.

Southern SU truss rod box cars.  They had 15k of these.

Wood sheathed FGEX reefer cars.  FGEX had the third largest fleet of reefers after PFE/SFRD.

Bill N posted:

Southern SU 36' boxcar.  Used by Southern, Mobile & Ohio/GM&O through the end of the K brake era.  

I'll second this, as well as the N&W 70-ton, 3-bay hopper.  With all the As and Ys being cranked out time and again, it's hard to believe nobody (in 3 rail) has made these, such a large part of what they pulled and pushed.  Not to mention a CF caboose...  Here's what we're talking about:

49Lionel posted:

Bill N posted:

Southern SU 36' boxcar.  Used by Southern, Mobile & Ohio/GM&O through the end of the K brake era.  

I'll second this, as well as the N&W 70-ton, 3-bay hopper.  With all the As and Ys being cranked out time and again, it's hard to believe nobody (in 3 rail) has made these, such a large part of what they pulled and pushed.  Not to mention a CF caboose...  Here's what we're talking about:

I seem to recall that Weaver imported a beautiful, brass N&W steam era caboose, as I have one already. While on the subject of caboose models, it has been discussed many, many, many times here, that not enough 3-Rail modelers have been willing to pay the prices necessary for Sunset/3rd Rail to continue to offer O-Scale cabooses.

Now, concerning that great N&W 70-ton, 3-bay hopper; if Sunset/3rd Rail were to offer such a car, in either ABS plastic, or brass, what do you think the sell price should be? Plus, would that sell price be low enough for someone/anyone able to purchase at least a dozen or more, in order to have a REASONABLE looking N&W steam era hopper train (I'm thinking at least 35 to 50 cars)? 

Hot Water posted:

Now, concerning that great N&W 70-ton, 3-bay hopper; if Sunset/3rd Rail were to offer such a car, in either ABS plastic, or brass, what do you think the sell price should be? Plus, would that sell price be low enough for someone/anyone able to purchase at least a dozen or more, in order to have a REASONABLE looking N&W steam era hopper train (I'm thinking at least 35 to 50 cars)? 

I think that you can forget about brass as an option as it applies to your limitations of "reasonable" ( I have no idea what that really means...) and wanting to buy more than 12 and up to 35-50.  My last conversation with a brass importer on freight cars was that the day of the under $300 car has come and gone.  Making it cheap would probably result in lack of reasonable and certainly limit the broad acceptance than might be needed to make it even feasible.  A resin kit might be feasible for ~$100, but if you're married to RTR, then holding your breath is the next near-term option.....

ABS is something entirely different; Glacier Park produced an exquisite kit for an SP drop bottom gon that was in the area of $100.  I'd imagine a hopper would be somewhat simpler to do having far fewer parts, but still something to assemble. 

In sum, it's not something that fits the Van Pelt economic model,

Perhaps I'm missing something (beyond a budget for it), but why would these need to be in brass?  Take as an example the recent Lionel PRR GLa hoppers.  They certainly look nice to me.  Would there really be that much less interest if Lionel, MTH, or Atlas made the N&W cars?  I know people like their PRR...

49Lionel posted:

Perhaps I'm missing something (beyond a budget for it), but why would these need to be in brass?  Take as an example the recent Lionel PRR GLa hoppers.  They certainly look nice to me.  Would there really be that much less interest if Lionel, MTH, or Atlas made the N&W cars?

Not at all, as long as Lionel or MTH did the cars CORRECTLY, plus offered double six-packs of all different road numbers. But again, how much are you, and other modelers, willing to spend if Lionel, MTH, or Atlas offer/produce CORRECT N&W 3-bay hopper cars?  Remember that those Lionel PRR GLa 2-bay hoppers were pretty expensive too.

49Lionel posted:

Perhaps I'm missing something (beyond a budget for it), but why would these need to be in brass?  Take as an example the recent Lionel PRR GLa hoppers.  They certainly look nice to me.  Would there really be that much less interest if Lionel, MTH, or Atlas made the N&W cars?  I know people like their PRR...

It doesn't.  Hotwater posed the question and I responded regarding the non-viability of brass.  Your example of the GLa hoppers certainly demonstrates that as a viable route and material option.

Now as to interest level; well, if folks are really going to buy 35 cars vs. 1-3, that might speak well on the numbers game and marketplace.

If you have an N&W Y or A, how many hoppers would you be able to run on your layout? Say 20. OK, that is an indicator of the market. At about $90 per would use up my hobby budget for this year, but, OK.

In my case, re the Gla, I bought 9 of them, to go along with my dozen or so H-21's. That actually exceeds the club limit....

rex desilets posted:

If you have an N&W Y or A, how many hoppers would you be able to run on your layout?

My hopper train, made up of all 2-bay hoppers for either my Sunset/3rd Rail C&O T-1 (2-10-4) or Sunset/3rd Rail C&O H-8, consists of 55 cars. Probably looks "better" on our layout with only 40 cars though.

Say 20. OK, that is an indicator of the market. At about $90 per would use up my hobby budget for this year, but, OK.

In my case, re the Gla, I bought 9 of them, to go along with my dozen or so H-21's. That actually exceeds the club limit....

I'd like to see SFRD steel rebuilt fish belly reefers done in plastic.  Their 5'  doors are noticeably wider than the 4' doors on PFE, ART, FGEX and most other ice reefers.  SFRD reefers were also distinctive in that their ice hatches were hinged to open to the center of the car vice the end of the car.  These SFRD reefers were painted with slogans (Scout, El Capitan, Grand Canyon, Chief, Super Chief) on one side and the ATSF route map on the other.  Many years ago Pecos River Brass imported these cars ready to roll in O scale 2 rail in classes ranging from RR23 to RR40.  There are subtle differences between the classes - and PRB did them right down to matching the car number, class, and slogan.

Caution - once you have a "wide door" ATSF ice reefer on your layout you may no longer be happy with 4' door AtlasO, MTH, or Lionel PFE prototype reefers incorrectly painted SFRD.   Pecos River Brass  SFRD cars command high prices on internet auctions. It would be nice to round out a SFRD reefer block with cars available at a mass produced price.

RR23

RR27

RR32

RR32

RR33

RR34

RR35

RR36

RR37 (Ambroid kit)

RR40

I bought a few of those PRB Santa Fe cars from Pecos John in the 3 rail version way back then.  They are still really nice cars.

Norm

I too would like to see scale plastic SF rebuilt fish belly reefers! Thanks, forum.

Funny how many of the above mentioned cars have already been done in plastic / resin / brass at some point.

The ONE car that has not been done, that I wish would be done in plastic is the UTLX X3 tanker.

(I'd also pay brass type pricing for one Southern SU boxcar, but I'm not holding my breath)

Been looking for a long time for a transition-era, steel, B&O gondola with earlier reporting marks than what MTH and K-Line produced. This HO model appears to be what I'd be wanting to purchase.

49Lionel posted:

I'll second this, as well as the N&W 70-ton, 3-bay hopper.  With all the As and Ys being cranked out time and again, it's hard to believe nobody (in 3 rail) has made these, such a large part of what they pulled and pushed.  

I'd be good for at least 3 1/2 dozen of these. 

CGs and CFs, three and two of these.

B&O/best&only posted:

Been looking for a long time for a transition-era, steel, B&O gondola with earlier reporting marks than what MTH and K-Line produced. This HO model appears to be what I'd be wanting to purchase.

If you have deep pockets, Protocraft will be coming out with a 50' steel gon, but not the B&O version.

Norm has announced:

CB&Q/DT&I/ERIE/NKP/NYC/P&LE/SB/PBR/PM/C&O/RI/SL-SF/WP

Versions.  

Interested in a South Buffalo or Patapsco and Back Rivers car?     I have to dig out the ORER's from the time to see if any other Bethlehem Steel railroads had similar cars. 

Been waiting for a legitimate stock car such as UP or SP had with braced ends as in the Fowler Stock cars.  Similar to the Broadway Limited HO car or the Scale-Craft O scale and OO scale stock cars with modern details.  All the O Scale ones currently available are really box cars where the side tooling was changed.  Too high generally and too new style ends.

No one has produced this for the mass market.

J2M

albertstrains posted:

 I would like to see a CPR "Mini" Box car.

 The Railway had 7500 of them.....And maybe one of these covered slab side hoppers

Al

These boxcars look pretty much identical to the PS-1 grain cars Lionel will hopefully deliver this summer?

albertstrains posted:

 I would like to see a CPR "Mini" Box car.

 The Railway had 7500 of them.....And maybe one of these covered slab side hoppers

Al

Al the CPR mini box is available from Southern Car and Foundry. Cost 140.00 us. it's a resin kit, nice car when assembled. I have built a few no problems.

Jim R:MR CN

How about more outside steel braced boxcars and gons.I was a kid I saw 40 wooden boxcars and wooden gons.Still hauling freight and how about some 40 ft flatcars with lumber loads 1940 style.Just a few ideas.