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Bowser HO scale Trinity spine car
While I appreciate the background information on the prototype, the 1989 date is misleading. The first all-purpose spine car design was the 48’ version (designed to accomodate up to 48’ long trailers). This is the prototype represented by the Walthers spine car model. The 53’ prototype represented by the Bowser model is a later design introduced in 1997. According to freight car historian David Casdorph, the 5-unit cars (TTX class RAF53C) were first delivered in August 1997, and the 3-unit cars (TTX class RAF33) were first delivered in December 1997.
Hooray for Bowser, they didn’t jump in with a lot of road names that never had these cars. Now how about some of the earlier spine cars designed to carry just contaners for modelers of the late 70s & early 80s?