I casually collect vintage/unusual HO trains and upgrade them to modern operating standards to run. Recently I picked up this old ATSF stock car when my model railroad club was disposing of some old/broken equipment. I would like to know it's heritage, but there aren't any identifying marks on the car.
The car is entirely made of metal (frame, shell, even the brake wheel!) which I assume to be cast steel. It's trucks were sprung metal, but those were missing springs so it currently has some random other trucks. The stirrups are made out of bent wire, and I'm not sure if they're original. The coupler boxes are body mounted (sorry, I don't have a picture of them) with 2 tiny screws and a square peg to hold the coupler in place. It originally had metal horn hook couplers, but I misplaced those. They are too narrow to accept Kadees so I'll have to modify them eventually.
I think the ATSF lettering and number boards were added later. It also may have been custom painted at some point. I think it's at least as old as the 1950s, if not much older. I have a Varney CNW stock car from the late 50s and that's all plastic.
Does anybody know which manufacturer made all-metal stock cars?
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Matthew Cheng
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Ulrich was probably the last maker of die cast metal freight cars (I have a couple of Ulrich Sierra passenger car kits). I believe Ulrich was in production into the '70s.
In the '50s, before die casting plastic became common, die cast metal (usually a lead zinc alloy) was in use. Mantua, Varney, Athearn, Roundhouse (I'm sure there were others, too) all produced metal car kits along with Ulrich. All but Ulrich (and perhaps a couple of others) switched to plastic by the '60s.
Fred W
....modeling foggy coastal Oregon in HO and HOn3, where it's always 1900....
I'm almost certain this is an Ulrich car. With a little TLC, it is a keeper for sure!
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
mobilman44 I'm almost certain this is an Ulrich car. With a little TLC, it is a keeper for sure!
Actually, it is a Model Die Casting car, just like this one:
Most likely from the 50's.
The Ulrich car had a metal body but a wood floor.
Sheldon
Yep, MDC.
OUTSTANDING !!! I said "almost certain" as I could not find the ATSF car in the Ulrich listing. Now that you brought it up, I do recall the MDC cars from wayyy back.
Thanks for the correction!
I have one of those Model Die Casting stockcars, picked up at some unremembered swap meet, probably as part of a package deal of freight cars (a temptation I am prone to)
It builds up into a reasonably nice looking model and while I am not aware of a specific prototype, there usually was one, but of course the paint schemes did not necessarily match the car. The painted cast metal just has a different and in some ways more satisfying texture than the plastic.
One thing I can say as a word of warning is that some of those old MDC cast metal cars have gotten brittle with age. I was attempting to improve the looks of a metal boxcar and one side panel just shattered into bits. The same thing happened with one door and the running boards on my stock car. So just be gentle when assembling or working with one of these models. There is nothing you can do about the brittle nature of the metal. I have also seen some MDC metal cars where the metal actually seems to have swollen and distorted, presumably a form of the dreaded zinc rot or zinc pest.
I have yet to assemble my old MDC cast metal ore jenny but will certainly be extra careful knowing that it too might be brittle.
Somewhat off topic, but back in the late 1950s Model Die Casting/Rounhouse's ads in Model Railroader boasted that THEIR models were metal, not this plastic stuff. They were exploiting some of the prevailing dislike of plastic at the time, and some guys were pretty intense about it. Then of course they brought out their own line of plastic rolling stock, often duplicating what they had had in metal, and the ad themes .... well, let's say they changed very quickly.
For a time they kept some metal cars in their line, such as the very short flatcar and one or two others but eventually I think those too all became plastic. If you can find an all metal short flatcar buy it if the model interests you, because it tracks way better than the plastic version which is impossibly light.
Dave Nelson
It's not uncommon for models to come apart and/or disintegrate over the decades. In my case, a Silver Streak wood caboose kit (my first wood kit that I had built) splintered itself in storage, leaving a box full of broken wood pieces (still have). A Rivarossi Heisler ('70s 1st version) had all the plastic components in the superstructure and drive train loosen and let go, leaving a box full of pieces. Didn't hurt as much as the caboose, because the Riv Heisler was way too modern for my era. I've also had zinc pest and metal disintegration in a pre-war Lionel locomotive. And a fire at some point damaged the wife's childhood Marx lithographed train set.
dknelsonIf you can find an all metal short flatcar buy it if the model interests you, because it tracks way better than the plastic version which is impossibly light.
This one's a plastic flatcar, but it's not short...
...it does, however, track rather well, at 4.7 oz.
This one, from Authenticast, is all metal, but it weighs only 2.4 oz.
This one's plastic, too ...
...but it has a piece of steel (included with the kit) in the fishbelly underframe...
...held in-place with a generous application of WeldBond epoxy. Despite the added weight, it weighs only 0.9 oz.
I do have a couple other metal cars, including this one, from Varney, which was originally in Pacemaker red & grey...
The body is stamped sheet metal with a cast metal underbody, and originally had plastic ladders and a cast metal running board, (which was beginning to deteriorate). Because of that, and the fact that the metal tabs which held the body shell together were rather loose, I decided to tidy it up a bit.
I lined most of the car's interior with .060" sheet styrene, held in place with contact cement, then drilled holes at every location where there had been holes in the metal for mounting the ladders, or for wire grabirons. Each drilled hole in the plastic lining was enlarged to match the size and shape of the holes that had been originally stamped in the sheet metal.
Next, I used various sizes of styrene to create "plugs" that matched those enlarged holes, coating it generously with either lacquer thinner or MEK (can't recall which I was using at that time), then forcing it into each hole.Once the plugs were secured, I sanded off any excess that wasn't flush with the body shell, then drilled holes for mounting ladders, grabitons, and sill steps...
...I also replaced the stamped metal doors with better detailed plastic ones...
...and added a little more underbody details...
Here's the almost finished car, now owned by the C&O (and with it's not-yet-painted-black doors.)
...a detail of which I was unaware.
The re-worked car weighs in at 5 oz.
Wayne
Wonderful stuff as always Wayne. Is there a sow's ear that you have not been able to make a silk purse out of? By which I mean, do you ever just give up and declare a model to be hopeless?
The MDC short flatcar that I was referring to is about 30' long. I think it might have had a D&H prototype. Not much space to add weight.