Can someone possibly tell me if the Nickel Plate Road used silver box cars as part of their regular freight stock, or were these special purpose cars?. The reason I ask is because it seems that I remember something mentioned about this here on the forum a while back but don’t recall exactly what was said.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Tracklayer
Nickel Plates MoW equipment was painted gray, which in most B/W photos looks silver. Tool cars, gondolas, etc.
This car and the crane are total figments of my imagination as to what an NKP crane and boom car might look like. I’m doing them for a customer in the UK. The black NKP logo is from an OddBalls set, I couldn’t find any other black NKP decals. The white ones are from the Microscale Mow Decals and the onlt NKP freight cars set they have.
These are only progress shots (Not even close to being finished.) for the customer who is very pleased so far and it’s him that pays the bills. But doing my research I did find out about the MoW colors.
This is another gon I did for him before I found out about the color being gray. Like I said, he’s happy and that’s what counts.
Actually, I have a silver 40 foot NKP box car made by Micro-trains, and it seems like someone said that they were only used with passenger trains. Hopefully someone will see this that knows for certain…
Tracklayer
Tracklayer- You might head over to the Trains section of the forum, and post this question there as well. Maybe an old hand would recall the information you need.
My F-I-L worked for the NKP (then N&W and later NS), I will try to remember to ask him tomorrow about these.
Good luck.
I used to play and build forts next to the Nickle Plate Line, and I’m about 90 percent sure I remember silvery boxcars on the freight trains that served this area. Not shiny silver at all, more like oxidized aluminum, in general freight service.
The large empty area we played in was right next to the right of way, and our forts were in the ditch next to the track embankment. When the train would spot cars on the industrial siding across from us, the crews would hang out and chat with us, and the image of the silver cars, detached from the loco while that industry’s cars were picked up and dropped off, is a very strong one.
Definitely not covered hoppers, these were smooth sided boxcars, with rivet lines for internal ribs, but not even external ribs like on steel boxcars. I don’t recall seeing the spelled out Nickle Plate loco, instead the image in my mind is the black letters “NKP” on a silver background. This would have been in the late 1960s.
The NKP had ten aluminum 40 foot express boxcars, numbers 8500-8509. These cars, while in NKP service (1948-1964_ were ONLY used in express passenger service between Chicago and Buffalo (and NYC), and Buffalo and St Louis. After the NKP was merged into the N&W they were relegated to the general freight pool (in the LATE 1960s, I think), until they were retired in the late 1970s.
NKP MOW equipment was painted a slightly bluish gray with black lettering…mostly. Cranes and pile drivers (and their associated boom cars) were black, fire train equipment and snow plows were boxcar red, and ALL flat or open-topped cars (flats, gons, hoppers) were black. All reporting mark lettering was 7" high.
So no, the NKP never ran silver, gray or off-white freight cars in regular freight service. Nor did they have gray boom cars. If anyone needs a reference photo or two of NKP MOW equipment, contact me offlist.
orsonroy - NOW you tell me! 
Since the decals on the boom car haven’t been sealed and I have quite a few white decals, I should probably strip the decals repaint her.
Do you have any pictures of the boom cars?
Thanks for your info. This information you supplied was more than I could find on my own.
Get Jim Kincaids new book with rolling stock pictures of the Wabash, NKP, DT&I, D&TSL, and Ann Arbor. There are also pictures of MW equipment including cranes, snowplows, etc.
Rick
Great advise. Now what crystal ball do I gaze into in order to get any further information?
It’s a brand new Morning Sun book. It’s OK if you’re a Wabash modeler or model the 1960s, but not really useful for most NKP modeling needs (remember, the NKP didn’t make it through the '60s!). I’ve got thousands of more useful photos of NKP equipment than what’s contained in the book, and they’re largely from various online sources…
Thanks a lot orsonroy. Though it might be silly to some, I don’t like to run freight unless it’s 100% correct…
Tracklayer