North Shore box express model

[dinwitty]

I visited a model train show in Kalamazoo sunday the 29th,
big show, lots of sellers and operating layouts.

One vendor however had for sale this obvious North Shore Box motor
(express) for sale, 25 bucks, he went to 22 bucks and I bought it.

Theres no question the car is a NS express box motor, it is built
much like the Walther's passenger cars with stamped sheet metal sides
and cast ends. The trolley poles are however very reminsenct in style
to what was used on the
Paul Moore kits, with a spring on the pivot instead of your usual true
blue trolley pole design.

The drive train looks like an obvious diesel mechanism thrown under
it, the wheels have roller bearings...hehe
Also the drive train is a band drive like the old Athearn rubber band
drives but powers only one truck with the ole pittman motor inside.
No bands however.

The middle doors and one end doors actually open up, nice work by the
builder.

Studying the North Shore freight book these cars got inducted into
freight hauling, which is exactly what I will do for this model.
I dont have a steeple cab...yet I know there are models and parts out
there to make one, I have the GE 70 ton Bachman to use.

I have the NS 4 truck 458 model but I am holding off operating it for
drive mechanism work to fix its wobbling.

I'm thinking about repowering the box motor, throwing a few ideas
around, its easy to use the NWSL underfloors, but I have Ernst regear
kits for the RDC because I want both trucks powered, 2 pdt's may be
too pricey when you want to get some pulling power out of the model.

I recall the Walthers North SHore cars were actually first made thru
some folks in western michigan before Walthers picked it up.

The car can only be Walthers or a Paul Moore creation.

The end casting are slightly different from the Walthers Passenger
cars, so it cant be a mod from a passenger car.

Any ideas zeroing down on the origin of this car would be cool.

Thanx in advance, and this is a rare find.