Blog Post 1,001 / Adding New Freight Cars To The Fleet

 Greetings All,

Blog Post 1,001

Adding New Freight Cars To The Fleet

Today's post makes this my 1,001 blog post and has me asking myself how does someone with so little to say say so much?😊

For this milestone I welcome you to another installment of the hello, my name is John and I am a trainaholic series. What does a model railroader do when he knows he has too much rolling stock in his fleet? He looks for more! Below are some of the "sale" items I came across in late 2022 that I absolutely, positively had to have.

Is there anything more exciting for a model railroader than to receive a new train or trains? The thrill of opening the box, admiring the train and running it for the first time on the layout is one of model railroading and life's simple pleasures.

In late 2022 I was on the lookout for some gondolas and 2 bay covered hoppers. Along the way I found the two 50' P-1000 High Roof Boxcars.

A close up of the new boxcars. If the Penn Central car looks familiar that is because I already have two with different numbers with one being in Virtual Ops or PCCM service.  

The prototype information on the box tells us that the largest single customer of these boxcars was the Penn Central that leased over one thousand cars in two classes. 

The book Penn Central Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment by James Kinkaid reports that the PC purchased these cars from 1/72 thru 4/73 and classified them as X72 and X72a Mr. Kinkaid further reports that this car design was basically used by only the Penn Central though the Western Pacific received a few.

So having a couple of PC cars and the WP car on the layout doesn't seem so far fetched at all and is easily rationalized. 

The WP car is a good looking eye catching car. It has no specific assignment listed on the car so I plan to use it in both appliance and paper service as it was designed for just that.

The PC 229408 is in assigned service to the EL at Marion, Ohio which I'm interpreting to be in appliance service out of the Whirlpool Factory located thereat.

The two non PCCM cars are coupled together and have their car cards and waybills prepared. 1:87 PC Ralph inspects the new cars and finds a couple of discrepancies.

The first discrepancy is that my third P-1000 PC X72 boxcar is in a totally different shade of green! That car is the one in virtual ops service so it won't matter too much.

The second discrepancy was the lack of an ACI label. Both PC cars now have their ACI labels in their prototype position and are 1:87 PC Ralph approved.

The WP car has its ACI label placed according to a prototype photo. The D&H two bay hopper that we'll discuss next also received an ACI label.

Two Bay Covered Hopper 

I've been slowly adding some two bay covered hoppers to my freight car fleet to haul bulk dry commodities like lime, cement and fly ash.

I added these two Central of Georgia cars in June 2022 as part of the Great Train Store Haul. Both of these hoppers were assigned to  limestone service out of Crab Orchard, Tennessee which is the home of a huge limestone mine now owned by Lhoist North America.

 

While looking for two bay covered hoppers with Northeast road names I came across this Atlas D&H  #12065 model and added it to my shopping cart.

The two bay hopper has received Kadee couplers and the wheel faces have been brush painted black. The car received an ACI label as noted in an above photo and some weathering. Checkout Big Mike in the background checking us out!

The Rodney Dangerfield of Freight Cars

I wrote about the gondolas being the Rodney Dangerfield of freight cars meaning they get no respect in the adding open car freight loads post a couple of weeks ago. 

The gondolas have since become one of my favorite freight cars now that I have decent loads for them and they look good both loaded and empty. In late 2022 when the opportunity presented itself to add four more gondolas to the fleet at closeout prices I couldn't resist. Well, I probably could have but you know my story!

A pair of Proto 2000 52'6" drop end mill gondola kits for winter building. This style of gondola was first designed and built by the Greenville Steel Car Company in 1940. The innovative drop ends allowed for longer loads with the use of flatcar spacers at each end. 

The gondolas have a build date of 7/49 and a rebuild date at AO in 7/56. AO was the NYC shop code for Ashtabula, Ohio Old Shop. The small lettering to the right states the car is equipped with a wood floor. This pair will join several other similar NYC & P&LE P-2000 gondolas in my fleet.

Both kits have been built and are now in revenue service. The 71290 features a new laser cut wood crate from American Model Builders that I posted about here.

This pair of Atlas Trainman orange Boston & Maine gondolas were a nice find at a very nice price.

B&M 9020 and 9058 sport the Minute Man herald and a build date of January 1976.

The two panel COTS block was introduced in 1974 and continued to be applied thru the rest of the 1970s. Both gondolas have been equipped with Kadee #5 couplers and have their wheel faces painted black.

The B&M gondolas with newly applied ACI labels arrive in Terminal Yard with gas pipe from on layout Empire City Gervais Pipe & Fitting that will be going off layout to Lynn Gas & Electric in Lynn, Mass.

On another day the B&M gondolas are in Terminal Yard with wrapped machinery from Reliable Machine Company in Empire City for the Navy Shipyard in Boston Mass.

Getting The Above Freight Cars Into Service

All of the freight cars in this post came with metal wheelsets and I painted the wheel faces flat black to reduce the shine. The trucks were either painted rattle can flat black or received a blast of Testor's dullcote. The cars themselves were also sprayed with dullcote. All cars received Kadee #5 couplers that were tested with the Kadee height gauge. 

Final Thought and Comments

This post covers some of the newest additions to my rolling stock fleet in late 2022 but not all of them. Seems I came across deal after deal after deal of railroad cars I absolutely could not live without and just kept adding things to my carts. And then there are the pre orders I came across... 

Hello, my name is John and I'm a trainaholic... I'll be posting about the other purchases in follow up posts. There may be a lot of them!! 

Last But Not Least

A big thank you to everyone who reads this blog. I enjoy the comments and being able to share the model railroading hobby with you. It's a great hobby!!  

Additional Links and Prototype Info

PC 229288

WP 4059

D&H 12061

NYC Gondola 710000

NYC Gondola 710426

B&M Gondola in 1982

B&M Gondola 9018 in 1987 

Dating freight cars with details

Thank you for reading!!!

See you soon!!!