I noticed a while back that one of my model railroading buddies has a couple of cars that he runs with almost every train he sets up. One is a modern missle car he got for Christmas a couple of years ago and the other is a crane car from the 1930s… I have to admit that I also have favorite cars - like my latest creation, a flat car with two Sherman tanks on it, and another one with a stack of oil pipes on it. I also pick certain cars when building a consist and wonder why I ever even bought others because I never run them.
Yes, early 40’ Airslide covered hoppers. I’m buggered if I know why. I recently superdetailed one I had that was made by ConCor, and I was very pleased with the results. The Walthers kit is a bit chunkier, and would benefit from the same treatment, as would the Eastern Car Works kit. Cheers, Mark.
I have many HO rolling stock pieces that I like to run, but my all time favorite piece is one that I have on display that my grandfather built back in the 1950’s. More sentimental value than running. It is a bulkhead pulpwood car, click the link below:
My favorite rolling stock in my collection is my Athearn Genesis CP and TTX 60’ box cars. I’ve got 10 TTX cars and 6 CP cars and they look very impressive.
Well as far as a type of car, it would have to be ore cars. As far as specific cars, I guess I do have some sentimental attachment to some cars. I had an uncle who worked for the Minneapolis and St.Louis, so when I switched to HO in the eighties one of the first (maybe the first) car I built was an M-St.L green boxcar. My Dad’s favorite singer as a kid was “Slim Jim” Iverson, his local radio show was sponsored by Crazy Water Crystals in Mineral Wells Texas (where Dad went thru basic training in WW2 by the way) another early car was a Crazy Water reefer. There are some cars that I bought/built that remind of cars I saw in person and/or photographed, like a dark green NP plugdoor box at Northtown Yards in Minneapolis shortly after I learned to drive, or a green GN boxcar that was in captive service along the MNS/Soo line I grew up next to.
I’d say my favorite car’s have to be the gondola’s. I have a few that I bought from a guy at a show who does custom work on them, adds scrap and just details the heck out of these cars. I bought 2 gon’s from him, my favorite by far and away has to be the Railgon one that I bought. Also some of my other favorite cars are the Railbox boxcars. Something about those things. I’m also a big fan of ACF centerflow hoppers. Of course the well cars/intermodels are favorites as well. I guess I’m just a fan of all types of freight cars in the modern era.
I have a nice collection of grain hoppers, Nebraska and Iowa lettered for communities that I have visited. I run them on the layout, and the majority of them are appropriate for my era.
I have a set of three LBF Boeing 747 aircraft rail cars which are not appropriate for my layout but my father worked for Boeing and they are a nice memory.
Yo, one of my favorites too, now bashing some ConCors into three from GN’s 71900-71924 series. Critical question: Did you ever figure out what the kit’s part 9 was? It’s supposed to go on the A end, but it doesn’t show up in any photos I’ve seen.
My favorite is my Norfolk Southern Covered hopper, And my C&I COal hopper that my grandfather gave to me. Even though it has littel too do with my time era im modeling i still like it.
All of my rolling stock gets run, and my car distribution system determines which cars end up in a given consist. With 10-25 through freights (depending on date) and a dozen locals on the timetable, plus four unit coal trains in each direction, there are lots of opportunities to get every wheel rolling.
That said, I do have some favorites - most of them seriously ugly freelance kitbashes. Among freight cars the wierdest are Tomikawa Tani Tetsudo seven axle articulated coal hoppers and their accompanying hopper-brake vans. My favorite loco is also a TTT unit, a Baldwin-built 0-8-0T, class of 1897, upgraded with air brakes and knuckle couplers.
Just for curiosity’s sake, how did you end up detailing the Shermans?
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September 1964 - with tongue in cheek and fingers crossed)
First of all I purchased the Sherman’s at Walmart for $1.00 each… After marking with tape so I would know where the tanks went, I glued the tanks to the surface of the flat car with Super Glue, then added half inch pieces of square tooth pick across in front and back of each tank. The final touch was painting tan colored canvas muzzle covers on the tips of the gun barrels.
For some reason I have got hooked on the Tyco Old Dutch Covred Hoppers.
Maybe it is the color, decals and I like covred hoppers period. But I hnow have 10 of them. They are easy to up grade as well. Cut of the horn hooks, tune the trucks a little, added PK 2000 33" wheels, Kadee coupler box and # 5’s and .6 of weight and they work great. My goal was 10, I am now bumping that to 20.
Next is 50 foot gondolas, have 3 Reo Grand and 3 IL main termial, order 4 of each yesterday. All so like the Athearn 62’ tank cars, order 3 of them as well.
Shilshole wrote: <“Yo, one of my favorites too, now bashing some ConCors into three from GN’s 17900-17924 series. Critical question: Did you ever figure out what the kit’s part 9 was? It’s supposed to go on the A end, but it doesn’t show up in any photos I’ve seen.”> It appears to be a representation of an air compressor. I haven’t seen any in photos either, but an early trade advertisement for the Airslide cars mentions this feature. The idea being that the car could be unloaded at locations where there was no fixed compressed air supply. I’ll make an educated guess and say that Con-Cor based their model on the original prototype specification which incuded the compressor, but General American later altered the spec. Cheers, Mark
Will you guys accept “Any Thing John Deere”? Well you are going to have to accept it. Because nothing runs like a deere! It would be my JD Flat with Tractors or my JD well car with 4 containers. Baker
