Hello historians. Branchline/Atlas now has a 50' plug door GARX boxcar, either singly or in a 3-pack. Were these around in the early 50s? Better yet, does anyone know the "date built" lettered on their sides. Got enough on my plate already and don't want to have to re-letter. If these are like a couple of other Blueprint series cars, they'll look pretty nice for their very modest price.
John
Some information here: http://www.theoldandwearycarshop.com/BRANCHLINEAAR50PD.html
Can't vouch for the accuracy, though.
John,
I read the brief history at the link maxman provided. I was surprised to learn this design car was so early, with the prototypes developed in 1952. It then speaks of some 1,000+ cars coming into service between 1954 and 1959.
I suspect that the first of these cars wasn't delivered until 1954 and have no idea if those were the SP ones. As with many new designs, adoption was slow and RRs bought many fewer reefers than boxcars. I suspect production of these cars was done largely in the second half of the decade. So they're relatively rare, even probably on the roads that operated them, in the first half of the decade.
But that never kept me from buying a car I was enamored with.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Thanks for the background. I've always got my eye out for 50's and earlier SP boxcars but they seem to be few and far between. I suspect that, like a lot of SP stuff, they get snatched up right away. Currently I'd like to track down some double-doors.
Attuvian Thanks for the background. I've always got my eye out for 50's and earlier SP boxcars but they seem to be few and far between. I suspect that, like a lot of SP stuff, they get snatched up right away. Currently I'd like to track down some double-doors.
The old Athearn Blue Box 50' automobile car can be turned into a credible model of the 1936-37 Espee auto cars from General American.
There's some info HERE on the conversion, along with some under-construction photos (scroll down the page a bit to get to the Espee car).
Wayne
Wow, Wayne, I'm speechless!
Attuvian Wow, Wayne, I'm speechless!
I'm hoping that you mean that in a good way, so thank you for your kind words. I'm not modelling the Espee, but did work from a photo, so it's reasonably accurate. The Proto version of a similar car might be even easier to do, as it comes with non-tabbed sidesills.
I'm kinda late to the party here. This thread showed up in my Google search. I just bought the boxcar red version of the SP car at a train show, not knowing for sure if it was legit or not. I model SP in the mid 1960s so I hope it's real. The build date "stenciled" on the car reads "3-56." However there is a re-weigh date on the left side that reads "EC 7-66," so folks modeling the 50's would want to replace that with a "NEW 3-56." It is a nice looking car and I hope Atlas brings it back. I did look up the reporting mark GARX 51338 in the Official Railway Equipment Register dated July 1967 and did find GARX 50000-53999 listed with "note F: Cars in the series...are equipped with General American-Evans Co. (D.F.) loading devices having 9 rows perforated wall angles."
With the focus of this thread being the cars leased to the Southern Pacific, it should be noted the 150 cars leased to SP were numbered GARX 51200-51349 and built in March 1955. The 50 cars leased to the Cotton Belt marked GARX 51700-51749 were also built in March 1955. Black and white photographs, usually two per page, illustrate the cars assigned to each railroad. There is also a color section showing each railroad's addition to the GARX livery. The D&RGW opted for a silver lower area seperated from the yellow upper side by a black stripe. The Cotton Belt cars are shown with the Cotton Belt Blue Streak Fast Freight herald with its blue and white lightning bolt as well as the gothic "Cotton Belt" that replaced it. The Southern Pacific cars have the bold gothic road name to the right of the door and, both the SP and Cotton Belt cars have a large DF within a black circle to the left of the doors.
The GAEX green 50' sliding door XME boxcars are also addressed in this same volume of the RP CYC, along with the PRR X-23 family of freight cars, as well as the Greenville 70 ton fish-belly twin covered hoppers. If your interests are in accuracy in modeling, and your era is anywhere between the 1920s and about 1960, and you run across a copy of one of these paper bound books, GRAB IT! There was a total of 35 volumes covering freight and passenger cars and a few locomotives. The information was gleaned from prototype sources such as car and locomotive cyclopedias and magazines such as Railway Age, and usually includes detailed production rosters.
Much of the same information was available in the model press when we had magazines such as Rail Model Journal, Mainline Modeler and, to a lesser extent, Model Railroading. Many issues of RMJ and MRRg are posted on Trainlife. com while Mainline Modeler is available on CD from the C&O Historical Society.