On a whim, last year I bought for cheap at Wal-Mart a very rudimentary HO set, and gave it to my cousin for his kids. I’m proud to say that Papa had the good sense to mount the track onto plyboard instead of taking the easy way out and relying solely on the Bachmann-with-ballast raised rails to keep the set from too much floor grunge.
I already knew not to expect much in the way of historical accuracy from a kid’s set, but since the freight train had a “Super Chief” type engine and a UP caboose, I was lucky to find an AT&SF red caboose on sale.
Now I want the consist to show a little more variety: I’m not pretending to be accurate at this, but that side of the family are all Southerners and the old Southern Rwy. mainline is only about 15 mi. away, at Salisbury, NC. I worked the 'Net quite a while a couple of weeks ago and nowhere could I find at any price for retail sale an HO boxcar from pre-1965 Southern . . . nor N&W. C&O, ACL, SAL or L&N.
I know there’s a big debate raging right now on this forum about hobby shops. I’ve chosen not to interrupt it. The nearest such store to deal seriously with ignorant penny-pinchers like me is at the other end of about 15 mi. of slow urban driving. Not this Christmas.
Another concern is that I have never actually assembled scale rwy. rolling stock, but I feel fairly confident that I could finish the old Athearn type.
Sometime in 2007 I’ll try again for a vintage HO boxcar from a premerger Southern road.
Well between www.athearn.com and www.walthers.com you should be able to find almost anything. One problem is you may find is that a boxcar online or wherever isn’t going to be listed as “1960 Southern boxcar” (except maybe for “old time” equipment), it will say “Southern PS-1 boxcar” or “N&W USRA boxcar” or something similar, so you need a little idea of what type of car you’re looking for.
Anyway, Athearn/MDC and Walthers make quite a few 40’ “late steam/early diesel” boxcars and I’m sure they have ones lettered for N&W, Southern etc. if you search their sites. (Of course, availability is another issue!!)
Because loads went where the money paid for them and transfering loads was innefficient cars built and maintained up to current standards go anywhere business takes them in “interchange service”. pu simply; most cars go anywhere. So you want to be looking more at keeping cars within era than at railroad ownership. For the 1960s almost anything from the 1950s “transition” era…steam to diesel will do what you want. (Yes I do know that transition started much earlier and ended pretty much mid 50s for all but the tiny roads).
Oh… cabooses do tend to stay on their home road - or at least behind their home road power if running through on other lines using “trackage rights”.
Oops! Just gave you a whole bunch of other questions to ask…[:-^]
The very best source for what you want is Branchline Trains. They have one of the largest selections of southeastern and mid-Atlantic rolling stock available.
Go to their website at www.branchline-trains.com. Click on Yardmaster series. This is their easy to build freight car line. Just a little more to assemble than an Athearn car, but a much better looking one when you’re finished. The list price for the cars is just over $10. and they can be purchased from any number of online hobby shops; often for a lot less. They can be ordered from most local hobby shops that deal with Walther’s.
In the Yardmaster series they have box cars lettered for Southern, Atlantic and East Carolina, C&O, L&N, Virginian, Central of Georgia, Georgia Railroad, Seaboard and Atlantic Coast Line.
You can also check out their Blueprint series cars. They offer even more southeastern railroads, but the cars are more detailed and harder to assemble for new modellers. With more experience, they are definitely something to look at. In addition to the above roads, the Blueprint series includes cars lettered for the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, Western Railway of Alabama, Atlanta and West Point, Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis and Western Maryland, to name a few.
I have more Branchline cars on my layout than any other. You won’t be disappointed. Just check out their entire website.
I also forgot to mention that on their website (www.branchline-trains.com) they have a list of dealers by state, a list of web only dealers or you can order directly from them.