I was looking for Detail Associates freight cars in the 2004 Walthers Catalog. I could not find any, so I searched for them on Walthers’s website. They are listed there, however they are referenced to the 2003 Walthers Catalog. I check some listings for other products and they are referenced to the 2004 Walthers Catalog. I wonder what is going on. Did Detail Associates find that listing their freight cars in Walthers Catolog does no good?
Also, most of the 2-bay Center-flow hoppers have TBA for their status. They said this back in the Ninties. Have these ever been produced?
I’ve never heard of Details Associates making any freight cars at all,though Details West had. I have a few of Details West freight cars and they are really neat.I’ve got a CNW,Rock,Weyerhauser,Georgia Pacific,St.Regis,Bend Mill Works,and FGE. All of these are double door boxcars. You can find some of these kits if your lucky at train shows and some hobbyshops that are not frequently visited like major hobbyshops are in some cities.
If you can find an older Walthers catalog, DA cars will be in there. They make the SP wood sugar beet gondolas. They have been saying for close to a decade that they will make 2 bay Center-Flow hoppers. However, as far as I can tell, they have never released them.
As for Details West, unfortunately, Athearn bought their car line. In the past I would have liked Athearn making more products, however, DW offered them as kits, Athearn has them in their RTR and Genesis lines. Bah!
I bought a Southern Pacific double plug door boxcar and like it, except it did not have a Hydra-Cushion underframe, and had an incorrect number (but correct class stencil). Technically, SP did not own any of these cars (built by Evans), however, they did have cars that looked almost identical built by PCF. I bought an Athearn car like the SP but decorated for WP. It is nice, but not the same since I did not assemble it.
Actually, Detail Associates did release their ACF 2 bay center flow covered hoppers. I have three of them that I bought off eBay over the last couple of years. They are a flat kit like the old Ramax cars. Keep your eyes open on eBay and I’m sure you will catch them.
Yes, DA did indeed release the car. The only two decorated versions they did were for Portland General Cement out of Sacramento CA and Northern Pacific. The NP cars are pretty sought after because the NP had a lot of them. They also offered this in undecorated. These were available perhaps in the early 90’s??? I don’t recall off the top of my head anymore. I actually have 2 of the PGC GATX cars on my workbench as well as the NP car! I renumbered the kit supplied 44501 to 44500. I have both of the cars assigned to GPC. The only problem is that the prototype only had 3 evenly spaced hatches, not 4 like the model. I’m modeling the car with 3 hatches. I just need to get these in the paint shop to paint the roofs and I can fini***hem. They are getting roof upgrades, (about the only after-market detail they really need.) These cars are not easy to build and need a lot of work to look right. I would put them in the craftsman kit category. If you build them up right and take the time to add a metal roof they look great! They are a nice car to augment the IM two bay hopper since these are earlier versions of the IM car with a number of differences. They do show up on E-Bay from time to time so keep your eyes peeled. Keep in mind though that these are not shake the box kits in any way, shape, or form. Best of luck to you!