Boxcar Sunday, Let's see your boxcars.

@Dave Ripp. posted:

Happy New Year Boxcar fans. For the first Boxcar Sunday of 2023 a Weaver fantasy scheme MoPar parts car. I grew up in a MoPar household and love the colors and logo.

...........and then there are times when fantasy schemes are a whole lot more fun.

@das boot posted:

My maxim for toy trains, "if Lionel and MTH do not manufacture what you want, then create it yourself."

This is my first Groucho design, have two more brewing on my mental drawing board. On a limited basis, I do custom one-of-kind train cars for others.

@das boot

My E-Mail address is in my profile. Send me an E-Mail with the subject train cars. I am intrigued.

It is late 1947 and a new Pennsy 44-tonner is moving some boxcars full of food from Pennsylvania residents destine for France and Italy.  These will be added to the Friendship Train to be taken to New York for shipment by boat to Europe. 

One of may favorites.
I wonder if Weaver did any more cars in this livery.

Happy New Year,

Weston

@Weston posted:

One of my favorites.
I wonder if Weaver did any more cars in this livery.

Happy New Year,

Weston

Very good looking! If I remember correctly, they only did one South Shore and one North Shore.

@CAPPilot posted:

It is late 1947 and a new Pennsy 44-tonner is moving some boxcars full of food from Pennsylvania residents destine for France and Italy.  These will be added to the Friendship Train to be taken to New York for shipment by boat to Europe.

Ron did you buy or make those boxcars, Thanks Mark

Havde a Great New Years!! Must be a Federal Agent keeping an eye on those cars.

Thanks Dave.
I like that Mopar car!

Weston

I run a lot of antique stuff.

This is an all metal caboose.

These are all metal boxcars. I have a bunch and they can be challenging for my locomotives in a train, 10 or 15 cars, requiring at least two powered units.

Something a little different here.

Pecos River imported a lot of 1937 50' ARA boxcars. Single door, double door and double door with doors in one end. They came undecorated as kits or painted and lettered for various railroads as ready-to-roll in 3 rail and 2 rail.

The cars have detailed plastic bodies, a pouched and formed steel sheet floor panel with a detailed plastic underframe.  While not all that popular with picky 2 rail O scale modelers, they are good looking cars with a moderate price tag.

I worked out a way to push them a notch or two over so-so, ho-hum RTR models by installing wood sheathing on the interior sides, and make computer printed paper wood flooring panels that were glued to both sides of the black steel floor panel.

Because the Pecos River boxcars are assembled with screws, they are relatively easy to take apart, apply the detailing and re-assemble. Just don't lose any of those tiny screws!!!  Doing it this way avoids making the steel floor too thick, which would happen with thin wood strip overlays on both sides. It would make reassembly more difficult and also change the coupler height when put back together.

Prototype box cars have unpainted wood flooring that shows on both sides - inside the car and underneath as well. It's rarely ever modeled correctly, except perhaps for a top rate contest model.

Not shown here is the car side interior wood sheathing. It was made with sheets of Micro Mark 1/8" decking, fitted between the floor and eaves line and between the door edges and car ends.

On the sheathing to the left of the doors at about 6' or so up from the floor, I used a pencil to put in the car's reporting letters on one line, and the car's number below that.  A very important detail for freight handlers in loading or unloading cars when they cannot see exteriors to identify the cars in question.  I have (or had) that photo, but I can't seem to find it.   ARRGhhh!!

S. Islander

@Sitka posted:

Ron did you buy or make those boxcars, Thanks Mark

Those are standard Atlas X-29 boxcars that I added the poster too.  The poster is pretty close to what the real cars had.

The Friendship Train, actually trains since there were several, eventually dropped off around 700 cars at NYC's docks.  The vast majority of these mostly boxcars were not specifically painted for the train, although there were several that were.  Both MTH and Lionel have produced the cars painted for the train.

I am trying to duplicate the signs that were on the cars that had pictures taken of them.  To help me with this, several years ago I took these photos of a HO set at a PRRT&HS convention.  Click on them to enlarge.  I have many more photos of actual cars, but due to the rules I can not post.  Search the web.

What I really want to duplicate is the searchlight car used to advertise the location of the train for food dropoff.

Sitka,

I bought these and others used but, in good shape at train shows many years ago.

Ron H

S. Islander,

Great boxcar !!!

Ron H

@das boot posted:

My maxim for toy trains, "if Lionel and MTH do not manufacture what you want, then create it yourself."

This is my first Groucho design, have two more brewing on my mental drawing board. On a limited basis, I do custom one-of-kind train cars for others.

Here's a fun Don Martin Tribute Das Boot did for me:

The "MAD" logo is being taken over by some of Martin's characters as he was treated rather unfairly by MAD's publisher, Bill Gaines, in later years.

@Weston posted:

One of may favorites.
I wonder if Weaver did any more cars in this livery.

Happy New Year,

Weston

I've got to find one of these boxcars. In my high school and college years in the mid to late seventies, I rode the "Insull Era" coaches caricatured in the "The Little Train That Could" graphic from Chicago all the way to South Bend on several occasions. The same graphic was featured on the coaches. The traction motors made a wonderful sound as the pinion gears meshed with the drive gears. On one trip, we lost a rectifier and had to wait a while for a replacement. I believe the 1926 Pullman coaches I rode had been lengthened and "modernized" in 1943-44 and had picture windows and A/C added in 1949-50.  These runs would prove some of the last for these grand old coaches, as they were all replaced by Nippon-Sharyo coaches beginning in 1982 when NICTD took over passenger operations on the South Shore.

Here is a whimsical offering from Weaver. I bought this many years ago and have yet to put 3 rail trucks on it.

  Canadian Pacific #42637

All my Atlas/POLA Boxcars

Clem

@clem k posted:

All my Atlas/POLA Boxcars

Clem

Fantastic Pola collection Clem. Do you use a lightweight caboose or weight the cars? I always have trouble with the caboose being heavier than the cars if I don't add weight. However, I only have 54-inch curves.

Assuming reefers qualify as boxcars, I think my best boxcars/reefers are the 2 Atlas cars I bought at the last York show. They weren't cheap, approximately $100 each:

Love the detail on the Atlas cars.

Dave I use a regular caboose, however I do have a couple of Atlas/POLA caboose I use. No weights in cars

Clem

My model of Maine Central #36123 was made by Atlas O (8687) in November 2006 with MSRP $49.95. It is a model of a single-sheathed 50-ton boxcar designed by the United States Railway Administration during World War I. Data on the car-side says it was built in May 1919. The Atlas O detail of the steel frame and wood sheathing is exceptional. One of my favorite boxcars. I didn’t realize that I had bought it as long as sixteen years ago.

MELGAR

                                                    BN #2295 Western Roads...

Two New York Central Lines subsidiary cars I painted recently. A MTH 19th Century Reefer and a MTH 40” boxcar in an early steam era scheme…both used K4 decals…

Tom

Here a few boxcars under my Christmas tree.

Lionel Burlington from Christmas past and a swift scout type bank car Have a good Sunday all!

Here is another MTH Premiere outside braced car, this time in Western Maryland lettering.

Well here we are in the second Sunday in 2023.  Today I have, following Sitka's lead, two Lionel 0-27 box cars.  Indeed these were called a number of things, although Lionel always referred to them as 0-27.  Collectors often call them "Plug Door" boxcars (which they are not in reality) or as Sitka has mentioned "Scout" type - as some of the early ones did come with Scout type couplers. They are mostly just fun to collect as Lionel often saved its most colorful livery for these cars in addition they were always inexpensive and so were often used in special sets for particular customers.  These two fit that category, both appearing (in different years) in special sets made up for "Tru-Value" use at the Christmas season.

First the Lionel #9046 appearing in 1976 in Special Set 1698 with Steamer #8601, 9020 flat car, 9078 caboose plus 4 straight and 8 curved pieces of 0-27 track.

Next appearing in 1977 with the same livery except for the car # but in green.  This car also came as part of a special set, # 1792,  which was identical to set 1698 above except for one small detail.  In 1977 this Tru Value car was packed in a unique Tru Value bag placed within the set.  This is important because if you are a collector, to claim mint condition for this car you must also have the bag.  (to answer your question...No I don't have the bag).

Well all the best for starting off 2023.  May your week be happy and healthy

Don

American Model Toys Pacemaker, bought 2022 at the Nashville Toy Train Show.

Here is a Weaver single-sheathed, or outside braced, 40' boxcar.  This WW1 USRA design had a steel frame and an exposed steel Warren Truss frame for the box that provided strength to the car, giving it a 50-ton capacity.

Here is a Lionel double-sheathed boxcar.  Designed at the same time as the single-sheathed boxcar, the USRA double-sheathed boxcar sat on a heavy steel fish-belly underframe and had an interior of horizontal boards and an exterior of vertical boards with a wood frame sandwiched between them.  Since the box was wood it was cheaper to make but had less strength so it was limited to 40-ton capacity. 

Because the double-sheathed car's box was wood it proved less durable then the single-sheathed cars.  The double-sheathed cars were mostly gone by WWII except for MoW service, while the single-sheathed cars lasted into the 60s.

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Assuming reefers qualify as boxcars, I think my best boxcars/reefers are the 2 Atlas cars I bought at the last York show. They weren't cheap, approximately $100 each:

Love the detail on the Atlas cars.

Nice aquisition Arnold.  ( priceless  )

I love the hobo sounds car, and other VisionLine sounds cars. Happy Railroading Everyone

For all you "X-Files" fans "out there," here's a cool tribute boxcar (ok, reefer) to the TV series made for me by Das Boot:

including a sinister "passenger:"

To keep the "ember" brightness consistent between the voltage ranges required for various locos, I added a rheostat:

Super cool. Love the X files.

Here is an odd Boxcar I've seen several times but never got close enough to get a picture. It was the 25th car out of 105 that I videoed on lunch Friday. The video is too long to post but here's a snippet.

@SIRT posted:

                                                    BN #2295 Western Roads...

Sirt, is the Chinese Red a 60 foot & who manufactured it?

Pecos River from Texas, no longer in business. 50' D.D.

Trainz and the bay generally have them for 25-35 bucks. Nice cars other than the chunky grab irons making them the widest car in O. No decorated floors, have to print out your own and install.

I own four Pecos.

@Bill Swatos posted:

For all you "X-Files" fans "out there," here's a cool tribute boxcar (ok, reefer) to the TV series made for me by Das Boot:

including a sinister "passenger:"

To keep the "ember" brightness consistent between the voltage ranges required for various locos, I added a rheostat:

Sharp Bill good looking Reefer!!

A Hardy Boys "Mystery of the 45," from 1957 to 1962 and beyond, can you solve and spin it?

AMT Sentinel Boxcar.