While at a LHS recently I saw an Accurail boxcar on sale for $8 - Apparently I looked only at the price - could not pass up what I thought was a bargain - completely ignoring the fact it was a 50’ car. I have tried to keep my layout in the transition era and use only 40’ cars. So, it was no bargain and I now have this outsized 50 footer on the track. I will be more careful when I buy my next bargain. Has anyone else bought a bad bargain???
Yup. And too many to list [8D]
Got about 50 of ‘em in the basement. Thinkin’ about ebay.
Tom
The short answer is a resounding YES!
I have four pages (typed in MS Word) of stuff (most new in the box, some used) that I am in the process of getting ready to sell. It’s hard to pass on a wonderful bargain!
OTOH, if you want to run some fifty footers: To the best of my knowledge…They were in service behind steam. I have a year stuck in my head somewhere but can’t pull it out this morning, but I’m thinking 50’ cars were already on the roads in the early 40’s.
Not sure of the problem - you’re modeling the '40s/50s (usual transition era defintion), right?
Plenty of 50foot boxcars on US railroads at that time (heck, quite a few in the early times of the 1920s/1930s). If it’s got a roofwalk (1965 or earlier), then you should be OK. For example, Lots of PS-1s from the early/mid 1950s were 50ft in length…
This page gives a brief history of Boxcar production in the US, including total runs and time frame for 50ft boxcars.
Here’s my bargain story. http://wwwjoe-daddy.blogspot.com/2006/12/bargain.html
I seem to find myself in a similar albiet recurring situation about every three or four months…
JOe
“Save $3,000 this week only!”
I’ll save 30k by not buying the car at all!
Ok, buying stuff you can’t use wastes billions of consumer dollars each year. I’ve bought some useless items in my time. I won’t be that humble to give any examples. An $8 50’ car is something to bring to a swap meet. Maybe weather it, or change it’s number and add some grafitti. Call it a practice piece for yourself, but call it a work of art when you sell/trade it.
Butlerhawk:
I model the 'forties, and I’ve got lots of 50-footers. Double-door box (automobile) cars were very common back then. If, as another poster says, your car has full-size ladders and a roofwalk, you should be okay. The only thing would be the paint scheme and railroad the car is lettered for. If I remember correctly, most of the Accurail 50-foot automobile cars are lettered well within the steam/diesel transition period. If the lettering is too ‘modern’ or for a railroad hat didn’t exist back then (example: Penn Central, Conrail, BN, CSX, etc) then you could do what I’ve done–repaint the car and get a set of appropriate period decals and back-date it.
Tom [:)]
[(-D]
That $3000 savings is a hard sell for some people to pass up.
Kind of like the weekly furnature store ads for their ‘blowout’ sales. “20-70 percent off EVERYTHING!!!” All stock Must GO!
Question is, How high did they jack the price before marking it down?
How was the car a bad bargain? You picked up a decent 50’ car for $8. Was it because you failed to look at anything but the price tag? I usually read before I buy. Yup, somehows you dun got yourself screwed, and it weren’t by the hobby shop, Accurail or the price tag. If I ever screw myself, I may tell a few friends but the whole world? Sux2BU!
Just another vote for what is being said here…
In my original response from this morning, I had said I couldn’t remember a date:
Well I just looked at my notes from when I was doing research on what I could run on my road and found that I had noted (from the official car registry) that some earliest 50’ cars that would still be in service into my era were out-side braced, wood sheeted, with steel doors and ends that were built in the early to mid 20’s. So…As already stated; the only thing that may hold this car from rolling on you road would be roof walks and color schemes and certian markings.
As said, just another vote for 50 footers running in the transition era!
Butlerhawk–
Just a thought, but could you post a picture of the car? That way, the rest of us who model the ‘transition’ era might let you know whether or not you got a good deal, and if not, what you might be able to do to salvage it. As I said in my previous post, if the body’s correct for the era but the paint scheme is too modern, you can always re-paint and re-decal it.
Tom [:)]
On the link I posted earlier, I found this tidbit:
“Pullman-Standard built a series of 50’ box cars for the Southern Railway in 1960 which employed external post side construction (single sheathed) and non terminating ends for the first time.”
So if the car has outside post construction like most modern boxcars (NOT outside bracing), then it fails the transition-era test, I’m afraid
I cannot post a picture, but thank you to all who set me straight that 50 footers were used in the transition era. To WP 3020 - I did look only at the price and was surprised when I started to assemble the kit that I did not buy what I thought I had bought. But now I know that a 50’ car with a roofwalk fits in my scheme.
I used to do that all the time…except they weren’t bargains and they were 40-footers instead of 50 footers like I need…[:-^]
Do you mean like my Accurail 89’ open auto racks that are both too long and too old for my layout?[:-^] They were a real good deal and fun to build though.[tup]
I try to avoid such pitfalls but,I fail miserably.
Of course there was 50 foot boxcars in the transition era so maybe its a bargain after all.
50 foot boxcars were plentiful in the late 40s on.
Call them the first gen “transisition” cars.
They were also used for lumber, furniture, and other lightweight high cubic loads.
Watch some to the WB vids of the B&O and WM to see 'em in action