Also called Tuscan. All are Fundimensions era and I have been out of the hobby since 93 so there all 1970 to 93. 33 counting the smaller postwar Pennsylvania boxcars 2458x & 2758x. I bought them as I wanted the more typical. I also have many other really good looking Fundimensions freight cars.
Dennis
HO has a much higher percentage of brown or red boxcars than 3 rail does.I would think many don’t have as many. I thought it was a trivial point of intrest. I see lots of posts that are not real important.
I see what you’re getting at; and it’s a valid point that toy trains lean toward brightly colored and unusual cars, not that they don’t exist in real life; but they are less common. Thanks for the explanation.
If you are trying to get a good “hi rail” appearance, then it really is important to have a high percentage of your boxcars painted some shade of “boxcar red”. It is more important if you are modeling the “steam era” but by the end of the 1950’s and into the 1960’s more colorful paint schemes were increasingly found on the prototype.
On my hirail S Scale pike, 40% of my boxcars are boxcar red or tuscan, which is a little low for the 1959 era it is set in, but I run what I like. It is tough not to buy that colorful car with the really “nifty” paint scheme, and that’s one of the reasons I say am a “Toy Train Operator” rather than a “model railroader”.
I have 32 Lionel CN red #9013 hopper cars. They are one of the cheapest, lightest plentiful 027 cars you can find. Once bought they all get the plastic pins replaced with bolts and nyloc nuts. Another car cheap and easy to find many of the the Republic Steel gondolas in blue #9136 and green 9142. 9020 UP flat cars are cheap too but weigh only 1 ounce and thus are extremely light. I also love the look of tuscan colored brown/red boxcars and other cars of that color. Lately its one of my favorite colors.
The blue Great Northern 027 two bay hopper is very plentiful and can be found for $10 or less at most train meets. Pick up 6 or so, add some weights in the hopper, cover with styro and add some coal and you have a nice set of colorful hoppers.
I recently started collecting AF equipment, and though I only have a small collection, 4 out of 6 of my boxcars are tuscan. It think it does make the train look more prototypical, and more importantly I have noted that on the open market those plain jane boxcars don’t command the stratospheric prices that the fancy cars do. I refuse to pay 3 figures for a traincar, no matter how “collectible” it is. And as for “Christmas cars”; Bah, humbug!