I am cleaning my large freight car roster somewhat by eliminating anything that is not to prototype. In that light, I have what I think is an MDC Flat Car that I need help with. The car number is UP 52190. The class shows as an F-100-12 which from my research is correct for that car series. My question is this: Were these cars ever painted Armour Yellow? The only pictures that I have found for that series appears to be boxcar red or something similar. (Examples are located at: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3082539 and http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=279048.)
As a follow up, the car shows a new date of 8-77. Given that this was getting toward the end of the ACI era, were these cars ever equipped with ACI labels? As the above referenced pictures show a repaint, they are no help with that issue.
ACI went to about 1979. So these cars would have had them. Without a photo of this group of cars in their early days, it’s hard to know for sure the exact placement–might find a similar car. If the sidesill is tall enough, the tag would have gone there. As opposed to a sheet metal mounting plate.
I bought one of the Athearn yellow Union Pacific RTR 60’ flat cars based on the MDC tooling last year - I believe the prototypes were manufactured by Thrall.
If I counted correctly the UP prototypes here have one or two extra stake pockets vs. the Athearn RTR HO model, but it’s fairly darn close visually. Looks like a keeper to me. I picked up a couple other of this model too as they appeared to be fairly close visual matches to Miss
Yup. If I recall this right, the MDC Thrall ~ish flatcars are essentially bogus and not a match for any specific prototype. They’re kinda close for some, so they may be sufficient as place holders depending on how exact you want to be. I don’t mind having a few around.
I had used the UP flat car index already but I hadn’t thought to check outside the number series in question. While the third link is not the same series of the car that I have, that shows me that both the yellow is accurate for the era I am looking at and it gives me a good idea as to where the put the ACI label.
Ironically enough, I actually have a Trailer Train (TTPX) Bulkhead MDC (original) car that I also put in the pile to inspect for accuracy. (That was one of the first HO cars that I ever purchased. It had to have been purchased either when I was in 8th or 9th grade. [To tell how long ago that was, my 20th year high school reunion was the summer of 2014.])
Thank you to all the people who have helped me with this. It is always ap
FRRYkid, I did notice the number series you mentioned was higher than those I found the yellow flat cars under - once you search in those numbers, they were brown flat cars. Athearns UP yellow paint do have lower numbers that are in the range of the yellow cars, at least the ones I linked.
I only have a few but they look visually decent as stand-in’s for the prototypes I matched up to - hard to say if any company will ever offer more accurate replacements. I think even SP had some similar looking ones, perhaps acquired 2nd hand. A lot of flat cars are fishbelly in profile like the GSC flats Tangent and ER (also Walthers) offer. WOT is going to offer a 62’ flat too along with the bulkheads - I’m really excited about those.
You may find, as I did, that many of the cars you purchased way back when are fanstasy cars - I’ve sold most of mine off after getting some good references to go over my collection some years back.
The MDC Trailer Train bulkhead is off - the length and number of stake pockets is the biggest difference between the model and some of the prototypes it is painted for.&nbs
We run a club layout with lots of relatively inexpensive Athearn, Roundhouse, Walthers and other cars. Some of them get upgraded with better grabs and ladders. The known cars that don’t match any real-world prototype get painted in the colors of the club’s fictional home road – no one yet has walked in with photographic evidence that the cars are unprototypical. They blend in pretty well with our cars that actually are proto-correct.
In the alternative, does anyone know if there are decal set(s) for that type of UP flats? I did a quick search of Microscale’s site and stuck out.
Given that I have had a major challenge finding flats of any kind that are accurate or at least visually close, I am willing to live with the errors on that car. (Besides which, it gives me something to show how long I have been a model railroader.)
These days it’s more of a challenge to find decals so it may be a treasure hunt - I don’t know the answer other than scour all the makers, Herald King, Microscale, Oddball and any others. Check Ebay, HOSwap, HOInterchange etc.
Modelrailroading does involve different levels of compromise and where there is a lack of accurate model, stand-in’s are sometimes necessary. In the ftat car wold and gondola’s, there are ALOT of foobies on the market. For example the E&C shops 53’ corregated gondola is only accurate for Missouri Pacific and successor RR’ UP, most if not all other paint jobs are fantasy. For the Walthers kit 53’ gondola, it is only accurate for a single class of 100 Southern Pacific gondola’s, the D&RGW version I have is only a semi close stand in. The Walthers kit 62’ mill gon is only accurage for I think BN and D&RGW - the rest fantasy.
Then you get back into the generic MDC freight cars made in the 1970’s and you would be hard pressed to find an exact match for many of their models, box cars, especially. The 60’ bulkhead flat is only close to the BN prototype, and the rest are just visual stand-in’s but most are much longer. The 60’ flat car, again, mostly semi close visual matchs to a number of roads that I’ve compared them too.
Now for flat cars, there is some good news. The Walthers 53’ GSC kit flat cars match quite a few prototypes, and ExactRail has come out with 42 and 53’
Before giving up on Microscale, I’d check out their 87-7. It appears to have a lot of what you need. If you find that the lettering on that sheet is too big ('cause you’re working on a flat car), then perhaps the N scale one will work (60-7).
I will take a look at that set. Even if it doesn’t work for the flat cat, I have a boxcar in that scheme that needs a little on a couple of the graphics that this set has.
Just as an update, I have both the HO and N scale versions of that set ordered and should have them later this week. I have also come up with another question: When were the UP 52000 series (UP Class F-100-8) built? I am fairly sure that I will need to redo the dimensional data due to the fact that I have seen a picture from the series that was taken in August of 1977 but the new date on the car shows September. Any further help would be welcomed as usual.
The UP 52000 series is/was 52000-52099, Class F-100-008 built 1975. No month mentioned in my reference. The UP equipment diagram is dated August 12 of that year.
As a further follow-up, I have sent an e-mail to the UP Historical Society to see if they can help me further help me with the built date for the flats.
Secondly, I also received the decal sheets today. As I suspected, there was part of the HO sheet that works perfectly for the boxcar.
Unfortunately, another problem has cropped up: There are no dimensional decals in that sheet. What I need is to find decals for the “F-100-008” class numbers as well as decals that I can use for the built date on the car. If needed I can improvise the class numbers from the sheets I have but the built date is not as the type on the sheets are the wrong font. I also won’t mind having a few numbers that I could use on the box car to match a picture appropriate for my era.
Any ideas any one has for this problem would be welcomed.
Go to the Microscale website. Do the pulldown on the left and click on “Data”. It’s full of neat stuff, much of which I never knew about until just now. BUT. Note 87-2–freight car data Gothic. That may well hold the bits you will need. If not, there are many other decal sheets to harvest.
I built a flatcar, once. There was not a “drop-on” decal set for it (being a one-off heavy duty car). There are 99 separate decals on it. For a FLAT CAR. But it is absolutely correct. It can be done.
I hadn’t thought about the generic data sets such as that. I will put it in the pile to order.
Your flat car project reminds me of another project I have going at the moment: some BN Thrall Gons. I have no idea how many different decal pieces I have used on each car. The cars used 4 different types of decal sheets. I am just waiting on a little more info to finish those cars.