Neglected class of HO Freight Car models - 1970 - 1985 Autoracks

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

OK, I'll ask my questions in more detail this time.

Do we kmow what the Accurail car is a model of? Car maker, years built, railroads who owned them? How close is it to whatever car it is based on?

What cars from that era would we like to see modeled? Do we have plans, drawings, photos of those cars?

As for autos to put on them, that raises a whole new set of questions about exact years, regions of the country, etc.

Sheldon 

[mlehman]

Yep, someone could do a model of practically any autorack and could sell a bunch, given the dearth of models available. Brass is impractical for most and the limited number of such that might be available for purchase means that even if you had the $$$ you'd have trouble assembling a string of such cars. They rarely operated as single cars, so tacking just one on the end of a train isn't very plausible.

While you could build a wood kit, that would be a nightmare to get everything sealed and looking good. Again, getting a string of these would be a challenge, even with enough time and money.

Personally, I think producing a new autorack and the vehicles to go with it is something that would be a great fit for Atlas, given they also include various vehicle models in their product line. I'd think that even if one could afford 18 or so diecast vehicles to fill each rack, plastic vehicles make more sense to produce for an autorack than diecast ones due to weight and center of gravity issues.

[aloco]

I model the year 1974 in HO scale, and I've been able to find locos in the appropriate paint schemes, but finding the right types of freight cars can be tough.  I never paid much attention to models of auto racks, but I do remember seeing open auto racks when I had my first taste of rallfanning in 1974-1975.

[riogrande5761]

I specified a date range on purpose so yes, 50' auto cariers are far too early - I've been in the hobby since the mid-1970's and am probably aware of 98% of the models you are aware of.  I can't afford "nice brass ones" I am aware of the wood craftmans kits, I once owned one and gave up on it. 

I would like to see some quality RTR cars in the 1970 to 1985 range open, open with side panels or early enclosed racks with or without roofs and ends.  I mentioned generic but perhaps I should have said Accurail does what many do, offer a lot of models which don't actually match real auto racks, but just a few.  This post is more in hopes of attracting interest in manufacturers.  Autoracks are a relatively unexploited area in the HO model market so far.  That is the main point of this topic and an appeal to fill that in.

Thanks

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

Admittedly I'm not up on autoracks from that era, but please explain why the Accurail cars "generic"? I would assume they based the model on something - even if they paint it in a few roadnames that did not have that exact car?

And, were you refering to any other early period cars? Even the Athearn 50' auto rack is a reasonable representation of the original Evans Auto Loader from the 50's, and most of the other 50' cars offered by train set companies over the years are also based on the Evans car. Few were made, and they did not stay in service long, but they did exist.

If we get detail specifc enough, there is a very long list of stuff no one has ever produced, and if we talk about passenger cars, even with the current offerings from Walthers, MTH, BLI, and who ever else, there are still way more passenger cars that have not been made than those that have.

My question would be how many people are modeling that era and /or are interested in much of that kind of rolling stock?

Seems to me there were some nice brass ones offered back in that time when they were brand new on the rails - and some wood craftsman kits - Quality Qraft Models for one.

Sheldon

 

[riogrande5761]

I've noticed that there is glaring omission for HO model freight cars I would classify as the "mid-era" auto racks. Basically we have either (on the earlier end) some generic open racks from the late 60's and early 70's from Accurail, and many of them are not accurate but only generic. Then we skip ahead to the late 1980's with Walthers bi- and tri level auto racks. Even the new Intermountain Autoracks are mainly of 1990+ versions.

During the past 15 years, we've seen a real golden age in HO of new and specific prototype freight cars come out which include many nice models.  But one very neglected class are the auto racks of around 1970-1985 or so.  There were some kits which attempted with varying degree's of success to fill this voice in the 1990's - namely Schaffer Rails enclosed autoracks and Custom Rail enclosed autoracks, both of which were fully enclosed autoracks which appeared to fit the early-mid 1980's.  The Schaffer Rail cars were somewhat cude by todays standards, and appeared somewhat clunky and overly wide.  I passed over them at the time.  The Custom Rail cars were based on the old Custom Rail 89' flat car which the whole kit was not all that user friendly to build and in all my travels I've seen few assembled examples so they didn't seem to go over well.

So getting autoracks for the mid-1970-late 1980's period is one of the still missing HO freight car gaps.  I realize now that the manufacture of new HO models has cooled off with the current recession and closing of Chinese factories, but I do hope a maker of good quality HO models will take note of this gap and look into producing more accurate open autoracks (which may have the option of side panels added) and/or more of the late 70's / early 80's partially enclosed and fully enclosed autoracks.  To that end, a basic tooled model which allows different end configurations (no end doors, different end doors, no roof, roof etc, to allow for different variations would be awesome.  I'd like to see these offered in the next few years!