"Dollar Box Car" - what is this?

[Anonymous]

I've heard of this "dollar box car" mentioned off and on over the years.

What is it? Was it a scratchbuilding project in MR years ago?

[jfugate]

It was a how-to article for kitbashing a unique boxcar for your layout for the cost of a dollar. That was back in the days when you could buy Athearn BB cars for 75 cents to a buck fifty.

These were typically some prototype-based boxcar your could not ordinarily buy.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Joe

Maybe someone should submit an updated, "$10 boxcar" article?

[hminky]

Back when Model Railroader cost 35 cents they had a series called "dollar cars". It was a series about scratchbuilding cars. Since MR now costs 5 bucks I guess with inflation it would be the $10 dollar car now.

They didn't have Athearn cars when it started in the early fifties

Just a thought
Harold

[Anonymous]

WOW! 35 cents. I remember MR priced at 50 cents and the old Model Trains magazine (remember "All ages, all guages") was 35 cents. That was in the mid 1950s. I don't go back far enought to remember a 35 cent MR. Those were the days, eh?

[BNSFNUT]

The "dollar box car" was a MR project if I am remembering right. I beleive the was a series of dollar projects that ran for a while and possibly a book.
Someother long time modeler with a better memory can help out here.

[IRONROOSTER]

A number of these articles were collected into a book. They included a number of techniques that would not be well accepted today such as using model railroad spikes for door guides and handles. The idea was to produce a reasonable looking car at a cheap price. If you can find a copy of the book it'll give you a relatively low cost way to scratch build a car. Of course you can use parts like door handles instead of using spikes, but the cost will be higher.
Enjoy
Paul

[West Coast S]

If you want to get back to basics, search for vintage wooden craftsman kits such as Ambroid, Laconia or be insane like me and go streight for the kill and order thirty-five wooden reefer kits from Ye Old Huff & Puff. [:D]

[orsonroy]

Using today's materials, $10 isn't too far off the mark. I just dug through Walthers looking for materials to scratchbuild a simple 36-foot double sheathed wood boxcar, and I cam up with $10.19 before tax:

1 sheet Evergreen V groove siding = $1.85
four assorted lengths of Evergreen strip styrene = $.88
Tichy AB brake set = $2.50
Accumate couplers with draft boxes = $1.49
Con-Cor Bettendorf trucks with wheelsets = $1.49
Accurail box car body details (ladders, grabs, stirrups, Ajax power brake) = $1.98

Now, you have to buy the Evergreen in packs of more than you'll need for the car, there are a few things I'd replace (Con-Cor trucks? Accumate couplers?), there's no weight, and the price of glue isn't included, but you COULD wind up with a passable scratchbuilt car for right around $10.

[Anonymous]

We are talking about prices and it is fun to remember some of the prices that our first engines cost.

NKP Bershire 64.95 add 10. for local paint shop work
This was a PFM engine and I found out later that you could actually get them at a discount if you looked in MR. I wasted about ten or twelve dollars on that one, which could have been used to purchase a complete freight train.

Anyway, it is reported George Washingon once threw a dollar accross the Potomac river. That is hard to believe until you realize, a dollar used to go farther in those days.

[timthechef]

Kits are rapidly disappearing. I very saddened by this. I enjoy building kits and would like to scratch build but am not quite ready to yet. I don't want ready to run, where is the fun in that?

[IRONROOSTER]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bangert1

....

Anyway, it is reported George Washingon once threw a dollar accross the Potomac river. That is hard to believe until you realize, a dollar used to go farther in those days.

[(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D]

Enjoy
Paul

[jfugate]

QUOTE: Originally posted by timthechef

Kits are rapidly disappearing. I very saddened by this. I enjoy building kits and would like to scratch build but am not quite ready to yet. I don't want ready to run, where is the fun in that?

If there's a market for kits, then you can count on cottage industries forming around them even if the big guys stop making them.

So they'll never disappear completely unless the market totally dries up.

[SpaceMouse]

Lil Guy (below) $18

[dknelson]

There were "dollar car" articles and "dollar model" articles (structures etc), mostly back in the 1950s -- and the quality was often very high even by today's standards, allowing for trucks with huge flanges and staples used as grab irons and stirrup steps etc
. Even as late as the 1970s E.L. Moore had structure articles in MR and RMC which if you followed his instructions could often be built for a dollar or so -- in fact since he used paper and balsa perhaps a dollar could still build some of his structures, which were wonderful. I think Denis Stevens and Don Reschenberg wrote a lot of the doilar car articles. There was a classic coal tipple that was a great model.
One thing to remember -- in figuring out that dollar they figured you had a pretty good "scrap box" of stuff from prior projects, such as strip wood, glues, thin cedar cigar wrappings for roof shingles etc etc
Dave Nelson

[JohnT14808]

I still prefer digging through the $.50 box at the local swap meets.....