Another Big Sale and More Freight Cars Join The Fleet

 Greetings All,

Another Big Sale and More Freight Cars Join The Fleet

There I was innocently looking at my emails when what should appear, a notice of a 50% off used merchandise from Trainmaster

Models in Auburn, GA which is my not so local hobby shop. I needed to get some Kadee #26 long center shank couplers anyway so Thursday the opening day of the sale was the perfect day to go.

Or maybe it wasn't!!! I did get the couplers and a little bit more. 

The yellow Athearn BB Frisco boxcar caught my eye and for four dollars it was an easy decision to nab it. Interestingly there is a lot of real good Soo Line rolling stock in the used section of Trainmaster Models in Georgia and the Soo Line PS-2 hopper was part of it.

Another Soo Line freight car I found was this MDC/Roundhouse 60' flatcar with a Mitsubishi scraper load. The car definitely needs some straightening out.

An Athearn BB 86' Wabash Auto Parts boxcar with Kadee couplers and metal wheels was quickly scoffed up. Note how high the car is sitting when first taken out of the box and the couplers are still way too low.

An MDC/Roundhouse 50' PGE (Pacific Great Eastern) boxcar for paper loading only and an Accurail CNW 40' boxcar kit that was already built with metal wheels and knuckle couplers.

Another BB kit, this one a Clinchfield 50' sliding door boxcar. The lettering in the yellow states "For Explosives Loading Only. When Empty Return to CRR Agent at Kingsport, TN."

I seldom buy private road cars but I liked the look of this Libby's 50' reefer from Athearn that already had Kadee #5s installed.

Getting The New Freight Cars Into Revenue Service

A noted in a previous blog post all freight cars from this purchase received basically the same treatments that included a blast of Testor's Dullcote, metal wheels with their faces painted either black or burnt umber where required, additional weight, Kadee couplers, confirmation of coupler heights meeting the Kadee gauge, painted trucks and underframes.

As I wrote before by keeping to the above minimum standards every locomotive and piece of rolling stock can couple up with each other for reliable operation and provide a somewhat uniform non toy like look for equipment that is running on the layout.

Libby's Famous Foods 50 Reefer

TLDX 37 leased to Libby's Foods in Chicago, Illinois. TLDX is the reporting marks for General Electric Rail Services. Libby's Famous Foods was founded in 1859 by Archibald McNeil, Arthur Libby and Charles Libby. Libby's produced canned foods, beverages and frozen foods. After WWII Libby's had canning plants across Europe and in the USA. In 1970 Libby's was purchased by Nestle.

Check out a Libby's boxcar 

SOO LINE 60' Flatcar

The Soo Line 5005 now with the deck painted "territorial beige" and the Mitsubishi scraper with several coats of Testor's Dullcote. The SOO LINE was formed in 1961 as the Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Sault Saint Marie (MNStP&SSM) and became known as the Soo after the phonetic spelling of Sault. The SOO LINE is now part of the CPKC.

The Soo Line did roster the 5000 series 60' flatcars. Check out the 5006. I'm not sure if Mitsubishi built a scraper.

SOO LINE PS Covered Hopper

The Soo Line PS2 covered hopper was an easy add as I only needed to swap out the Accumate couplers for Kadee#5s in addition to the standard practices described above. I'm not sure what this car hauled but I'm looking to put it in sugar service.

Check out Soo Line 69590.

Wabash 86' Boxcar

The Wabash RR gets its name from the Wabash River and dates back to 1865 and as of 1982 is now a Norfolk Southern property. The RR became somewhat famous for the song about its Cannonball passenger train. 

The RR served major industries in Michigan, Illinois, and Missouri that included five Ford Plants. It will now serve six when it handles traffic between Ford Plants in Detroit, Chicago, St Louis, Kansas City, Toledo and my Bedford Park NY Ford Plant.

The Low Rider

The Wabash 86'er has been lowered but the couplers now meet the Kadee height gauge thanks to Kadee underset shank couplers and attaching the underframe to the steel weight with PL600. The long plastic chassis' on these 86' cars have a tendency to droop at the ends which causes the couplers to droop as well. Securing the chassis to the weight will correct this problem.

Check out WAB 55045 

CNW 40' Boxcar

The Chicago & North Western Railroad was chartered in 1859 and served eleven upper mid-west states during it's heyday. As the company struggled it was sold to it's employees in 1972. In 1995 the Union Pacific RR took over the CNW operations.

Accurail CNW 57728 was another easy add with the removal of the Accumate couplers, replacing them with Kadee #5s and doing the above basic layout prep for the car.  

Check out CNW 57702 

SLSF 50' Boxcar

The Saint Louis & San Francisco Railway commonly known as the Frisco, operated in the mid west and south central United Staes from 1876 thru 1980. Despite its name the SLSF never came close to San Francisco nor did it enter California. The Frisco was merged into the Burlington Northern RR in November, 1980.

Possibly my favorite car from this purchase was the SLSF 6243. I just like the way it looks and quickly added it to my shopping basket. 

Ship it on the Frisco! Three Frisco boxcars in three paint schemes.

"3/31/78, three Frisco boxcars" by OHFalcon72 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/?ref=openverse.

Clinchfield 50' Boxcar

The Clinchfield RR was the last class 1 railroad built in the United States starting as the Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio. The RR began operations in 1924 with a 266 mile mainline from Spartanburg, SC to Elkhorn City, KY. In 1972 the Clinchfield became part of the Family Lines System. In 1983 the CRR became part of the Seaboard System when when the Family Lines merged with the Seaboard. The Seaboard would merge with the Chessie System in 1986 to form the CSX RR.

The Athearn BB boxcar has joined the fleet. The car is for explosives loading only and appears to be in assigned service to the Holston Army Ammunition Plant in Kingsport, TN.

Carrying explosives will obviously require careful handling.

This Penn Central book on Hazardous Materials Regulations that was a gift from PC Ralph details the appropriate loading, handling and placement of freight cars carrying hazardous materials. 

Boxcars carrying explosives must have a wooden floor which the CRR boxcar has. The CRR wood floor is painted with gray primer and any car with a metal floor would need a wood overlay.

Here is a similar 1:1 scale CRR 5874.

"Boxcar, Clinchfield" by Gary Lee Todd, Ph.D. is marked with CC0 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en/?ref=openverse.

PGE Boxcar #4505

The Pacific Great Eastern Railway was chartered as a private railroad in 1912 and became a crown corporation in 1918. The PGE would become the British Columbia Railway in 1972 and then took on the BC Rail name in 1984.

The 4505 is "For Paper Loading Only" and will deliver these high value loads to several on layout consignees and and the Long Island Newsday served by my LIRR interchange partner.

Final Thoughts and Comments

Another buying spree has come and gone with some nice additions to the roster. Finding used rolling stock and motive power at very reasonable prices keeps the hobby affordable for me and working to add the cars to the fleet is one of the aspects of the hobby that I enjoy. Researching car routes for each of the cars has become a hobby within the hobby.

Thanks for reading!!!

See you soon!!!