A REQUEST FOR FREIGHT CAR MANUFACTURERS/IMPORTERS

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

This is directed to the manufacturers/importers but feel that it would also be of interest to modelers as well.

My question is this: When you offer a freight car you obviously have “all” of the data pertaining to that particular car so why don’t you include the year it was originally built?

I have bought freight cars before only to get them home and find out they are too new according to the builders date on the car. Conversly I have also passed on cars beleiving they were too new only to find out later that they would fit my time period.

I personally feel you would be doing yourselves and the model railroader a great service by including this information in your ads and on the box.

Thank you, Mark

2

I have run into that problem too, and would appreciate a build date on the box. The manufacturer’s research while collecting all the information about a freight car is easy for them to add to the box without having the modeler (me) to go back home and do my own research, and back to the hobby shop to buy it.

3

I agree, Mark. I wish all manufacturers provided that type of info on their boxes. There are a few companies have been doing it though:

  • Branchline
  • Intermountain
  • Funaro & Camerlengo
  • Kadee(?)

However, they aren’t always consistent with it, either.

My LHSes usually leave the kits untaped so that I can check the BLT and/or NEW dates, which is important to me. Some kits are a little more challenging (e.g. Proto 2000) as you have to unwrap the tissue paper to get to the model for the information.

Tom

4

The other problem is also the new date, a car may have been repainted into a new paint scheme that postdates the period your layout is set in.

Of course this is impossible with the present mania for pre-ordering that is required to get a certain car and find that the artwork and car data are all incorrect and the manufacturer will not take these cars back.

Rick

5

While this is probably a good idea, I don’t really think that the manufacturers have “all the data”. This is because they generally issue a group of fantasy paint schemes to go along with whichever prototype paint scheme the car is really supposed to represent. So even if the built date is generically correct, the prototype railroad may not have actually had any of the represented cars.

And even if the manufacturer comes up with a series of road names that are correct for a series of particular model cars, the prototype car fabricator probably did not build every one of them during the same month or year.

So, how accurate do you want to be? The exact month and year? The exact year but you’re willing to bend on the month? Within a 2 year span?

Even if you were willing to paint and decal the cars yourself, the typical decal sheet only has a couple of built dates included. So when you put together your train of 20 hopper cars you’d end up with most of them built/rebuilt about the same time. Totally non-prototypical.

I do have some cars that are as you describe, with dates beyond my era. I got these before I realized that I was not paying attention. I regard this as a lesson to do some research before I purchase anything else.

6

Just to clarify things, the “NEW” date refers only to the weight of the car when built. Depending on the car type and the era, “NEW” is painted-over and the area re-stencilled when the car undergoes a scheduled re-weighing, with the new stencilling consisting of the code letters/numbers for a scale location and the date of the re-weighing.

As Rick notes, older cars were often re-painted in schemes much more modern than their original ones, although unless the car was extensively re-built, the “NEW” stencilling would not be used.

I re-date freight cars as required to justify their presence on my late-'30s era layout, although there are still quite a few that need to be changed. When Accurail introduced their 1941 AAR gondola, I lettered a couple for my “home road” with 1936 BLT dates:

I also altered the BLT dates on several ones lettered for prototype roads, but, not being too familiar with those railroads, can only hope that the paint and lettering is still suitable for the earlier timeframe. [:-^]

Wayne

7

It is entirely possible to not have the year a given car series was first (or last) built. What the manufacturer/importer has may not be nearly the complete data package you think it is. The “data package” may contain just a set of plans that were published earlier in one of the model railroading magazines. Many a model has picked up the errors in published plans. Or it may be just a few photographs that is the only source of data. Or it may be a combination of both plus some tracing through ORERs. In those cases, the only year built data may be for an individual car instead of information for the whole series. If really lucky (for more modern cars), there may be a set of prototype manufacturer’s specs. Or for older cars, there may be the railroad order information when purchasing the cars - but that would apply to only one buying railroad.

I agree it would be nice if the model manufacturer/importer has any historical information to provide what they do have in a piece of paper in the car box. As mentioned, some manufacturers do provide a summary of what they know - which is invariably a subset of what is out there. Murphy’s Law says that key prototype info will always turn up after the production dies or the paint masks have been cut.

Which is why many manufacturers produce models of museum, display, and restored prototypes - they can take actual measurements and photos of these. Whereas building a model of a prototype as it was in the past risks having a photo turn up later that contradicts the manufacturer’s best guess. And th

8

Forty Niner

I totally agree with your suggestion. Putting at least the era on the box should be a must do. I have acquired more than a few cars that are not true to my late 50’s time frame. Kudos to those manufacters who do include the build dates.

Dave

9

Just to add, that for the cost of better freight cars nowadays $20. -$30., I dont think that is asking too much.

10

I agree. At least include what the model is based on - CN&W boxcar photographed in 1957 or drawings in August 1972 Model Railroader or we made this up to look like a 50’s gondola or whatever.

A plus is the year(s) the car was manufactured and the year the paint scheme was introduced.

Enjoy

Paul

11

I’d just be satisified with a decade window, kinda like the Germans do with their model trains.

12

Accurail also provides build dates and (if I understand the dates correctly) rebuild dates on their web site. Their product is not as high end as some, but all I suggest is that you run your trains a little faster so nobody can see the differences anyhow.[;)]

Dave

13

I agree an era system similar to the German method would be quite helpful for a quick and easy check of era.

I’ve noticed in their reviews, MR has been giving era information

Eric

14

True or False?

This is an Accurail HO 3-Bay grain Hopper. Check the New and Built dates highlighted in yellow as you may have to enlarge the photo more to see the “BLT” date. I have not changed the dates myself yet as this is out of the box ( date wise ).

Did Accurail mess this up?

In case you can not enlarge the pic more it reads: NEW 7-78 BLT 3-65

15

I’d say so. [*-)] The “NEW” date, when applied, should match the “BLT” date. If you take the “BLT” date to be correct, instead of “NEW 7-78”, it could read “BI 7-78”, indicating that the car was re-weighed at Blue Island Yard, in Chicago, in July of 1978. This was a Rock Island-owned scale, but the stencilling could also read, for example, “CB 7-78”. “CB” is Council Bluffs (Iowa), a Union Pacific-owned scale.

If you accept the “NEW” info as correct, the “BLT” date should also be 7-78. BLT refers to the date which the car was actually built and never changes unless the car is re-built, which is usually a major operation involving the car’s frame. Re-painting the car, changing the doors, or even the roof, for example, is not considered a re-build. In the case that a car’s frame is altered or replaced, it would get a new “BLT” date (or, sometimes, a “RE-BUILT” date), and would also be weighed, acquiring a “NEW” stencil with the appropriate date.

A good way to give your cars a bit of history, to go with the application of weathering, is to give them re-weigh (and re-pack) data. The car pictured below, a 50 ton PRR boxcar has a “BLT” date of July, 1934. It was re-weighed, as required, 30 months later, in January of 1937, at East Altoona, PA, and stencilled with that scale’s symbol, P57, and the date. Because the car’s “LT WT” had changed from what it was originally, the original weight was painted over and the new weight stencilled on. This also affected the LD LMT, as, for a 50 ton car, the total of the LT WT and the LD LMT must equal 169,000. Consequently, the figu

16

Perhaps manufacturers are slowly getting the idea. An ad for Athearn’s GE U50 diesel in the January MR lists order year and retirement year for both railroads offered, though there is no mention of what years the particular paint schemes were in use (could have been the same for the entire lifetime - I don’t know).

One thing I dislike about the ad is the use of a prototype photo instead of a model photo. It’s a great photo, but can’t imagine they don’t have a model they could use instead. But maybe not - I don’t know how they run manufacturing these days.

17

Okay, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that both dates are incorrect, but the 7-78 date is almost correct.

The May 1994 issue of Railmodel Journal has an article on the Accurail CF4600 three bay centerflow. Included in the article is a photo of car SSW 800362. This a reporting mark slapover of a Rock car, being blue, lettered The Rock, with the large R at the end of the side. The photo caption says this car is from RI series 800000-800499. It also states that some of these cars also went to GTW and Milwaukee Road. The caption further states that these cars were built April-May, 1978, so the 7-78 date on the model appears incorrect by a couple months. The 3-65 built date appears to be totally incorrect.

Here is a link to SSW 800021: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?id=415416 If you enlarge the photo, you can clearly see the new 5-78 date. It also appears from this photo that the built date lettering shown

18

Thanks Guys. [tup] I’ve got some changing to do.[:)]