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Why is there a lack of 53’ or 40’ O scale well cars? You would think they’d be common given how prevalent they are in real life. It seems the only ones readily available are 48’, which I find puzzling because I’ve never seen one before. Lionel, MTH.. everything they make is 48’.

I know Atlas made fantastic 53’ cars a few years back, but I can’t find any for sale anywhere..

Any advice or thoughts? Seems I may just have to relegate myself to unprototypical 48 footers.

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Because the market O/48 for contemporary stuff is too small.  I'm going to attempt lengthening MTH 48' spine cars to 53'.  48' stuff came and went in the real world after only a few years with the introduction of 53' stuff.   There is still some 45' stuff out there for International shipping but with the recent introduction of 53' International shipping I expect it will be 20' 40' and 53' only in the near future.

I think for the foreseeable future the availability of stuff from the past 30 years in the real world will disappear as Atlas focuses on the old MTH stuff they bought.  The 53' well cars are off the menu and their Trinity hoppers appear to be in the same boat.

@rdunniii posted:

Because the market O/48 for contemporary stuff is too small.  I'm going to attempt lengthening MTH 48' spine cars to 53'.  48' stuff came and went in the real world after only a few years with the introduction of 53' stuff.   There is still some 45' stuff out there for International shipping but with the recent introduction of 53' International shipping I expect it will be 20' 40' and 53' only in the near future.

I think for the foreseeable future the availability of stuff from the past 30 years in the real world will disappear as Atlas focuses on the old MTH stuff they bought.  The 53' well cars are off the menu and their Trinity hoppers appear to be in the same boat.

Here’s a MTH Premier 48’ car lengthened-to 53’ . Splice in a 5’ (1 1/4”) section to make it 53’.

0C966985-40B3-4F18-B2EF-48AFC6600359

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  • 0C966985-40B3-4F18-B2EF-48AFC6600359

Looks awesome Jeff!   I was going to try the same thing with a Lionel Husky stack but they are such rare prototype I decided against it. Maybe I'l try shortening one to 40'  I was also starting to convert an Atlas 53' set to standalone cars but the models are too rare to make that cut.  I've also cut the ends off of an Atlas twin stack to make a Maxi Stack I but coming up with replacement bolsters has not happened yet.

Where did you get the decals for the XPO container?  Or is someone else making them I don't know about.

I have some 20' and 40' containers coming from a company in China that are actually scale contemporary containers without the logo panels and plus the ribbed roof.  The pins actually matchup with the Atlas containers but the holes on the Atlas containers need to be a bit bigger.  There are just very few liveries available in O scale.

Last edited by rdunniii

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