I assume that car and the road number are pure fiction because NS does not have any of the old baby hi cubes in the roster at this time. I can not find any NS 522675 on any prototype photos or listings.
Is that right?
ps. I intend to use similar shells on the track cleanings cars visually matching my layout anyhow but it is good to know they are fiction ony.
From what I can tell, most of the paint jobs are for RR’s that never had that particular freight car. I had a couple of the D&RGW version years ago, and eventually I discovered Rio Grande never had any when I bought my Morning Sun Books Rio Grande Color Guide to Freight and Pasenger Equipment. I sold them. More recently I found that Tangent makes 40’ high cube that accurately matches the cars D&RGW owned.
There may be more than one road which had that box car, but so far I was only able to identify UP:
The 40’ high cubes that the Athearn car represents were originally built around 1967 which was over 50 years ago. Is that contemporary with your layout period?
Thanks for the fast response. That is what I assumed, it is pure fiction. I read a lot over the baby hi cube made in the 60s and the latest use was MOW in the 1990s.
I spray mine dark brown, silver roof, white top matching the 50’ BNSF hi cube I use on the layout. They are fiction but I want to hide / camouflage the 40’ track cleaning carrier on a 2000+ layout.
Many freight car models made back in the 1970’s thru 1990’s are pure fiction and fantasy models are still offered today. With a little research you can often locate example of freight cars which models from that time frame actually do match.
From what I understand, the baby high cubes such as the Athearn car and the Tangent car were used to ship appliances for around 15 or so years, say into the early 1980’s or so. Many were re-purposed after that. I believe Tangents baby high cube was used same as the Athearn plug door car.
They do mention MOW service so looks like that should work for your track cleaning car. The UP version is the only RR that I’ve been able to identify that had cars matching the Athearn model. I looked up ATSF, and they had baby high cubes but the side sill was different - but if you are going to paint for BNSF, then that could be plausible enough.
I would probably just heavily weather the CSX car so it looks like an old car still in an earlier paint scheme, like the “big sky blue” GN boxcars I saw in 1990-1991, 20 years after the BN merger.
I suppose the good thing about modeling modern is you can assume a RR acquired a box car 2nd hand and do a repaint. Such types of transfers of rolling stock are not uncommon over the years.
Many cars, especially from years ago, were really only representative. Exact accurate models for prototypes are a relatively new thing. I’m still OK with representatives, I don’t lose sleep over it. To each his/her own.
In the early 1980s, I was watching the local TV news out of Cedar Rapids IA. They had a news item about the CRANDIC and it’s operation of the former Milwaukee Road branch to Amana IA and the Amana Refrigeration plant there. They had video of a CRANDIC train going by the Amana depot on it’s way back to Cedar Rapids and the first car behind the engines was one of those 40’ Hi Cube boxes. It was a DRGW car and had the same number Athearn had used on their model. It’s the only time, so far, that I’ve seen the prototype car the model, exactly accurate or not, was meant to represent.
Now I’m in N scale and have a SOYX covered hopper. I regularly see those cars out around Council Bluffs and have seen the number above and below the number on my model. I’m still watching.
Yep, as always. The cool thing about this relatively “new thing” is those of use who are thrilled to obtain models that actually look like the real thing can get them. For me, anyway, it is a major enhancement to the hobby. Everyone can do what suites them of course. That’s why it’s the golden era of the hobby now. Lots of pretty accurate cars on the market along with the many foobies of yor. Choice is good!
This is probably as close as you can get without building something yourself.
Pics from 2005 and 2006. Ex SP units, then GVSR paint, then back to SP. I think they are called a B-100-32 originally built for the coper mines. Shorty boxcars, not sure if they are 40 footers and they are not totally hi-cube, but the big door makes them look like the Athearn 40 foot hi cube, IMO.
Athearn made an OB 40 foot hi-cube in Golden West paint that looks similar to this prototype. I have one.
Still might be a foob, but its probably as close as you can get without bashing something. Again, they were in service in 2006.
Those 40’ high cube boxcars was made in the 60s for appliance service and several Eastern roads own them and they was in pool service much like auto part boxcars.
Athearn released the 40’ “Ugly Duckling” boxcar in '66 or '67.
Thanks for all the information. I got four of the 40’ high cube shells, painted them dark brown with white bars at the top ends very similar to the brown used by BNSF for their 50’ high cube cars. They track cleaners run in each of my trains and keep the rails in perfect condition. At the first glance do they fit seaming-less into the trains. Just waiting for some Microscale BNSF decals to make my “fake track cleaner” complete.
The outcome. All four 40" track cleaners got a 40" high hood shell sprayed dark brown and lettered with Microscale 60" BNSF high hood boxcars. They stay permanent in their trains and blend nicely with the real high hood boxcars. Just the huge Microscale BNSF logo stands out. Thanks for all your input.
