I realize that this might sound a little odd to ask, but I don’t recall ever seeing a thread that asked about a prefered rolling stock.
Personally, mine is 90 ton open coal hoppers. What’s yours ?.
trainluver1
Reefers. No, not the illegal ones that are full of ‘funny tobacco’, the ones that have ice bunkers and carried produce from California to the rest of the US back in the 'forties, 'fifties and 'sixties. Nice, colorful cars from PFE, FGEX, ART, Santa Fe, NP, GN, Burlington and a lot of other roads. Sunkist orange and lemon yellow–you could see a reefer train coming for miles back then. Many railroads ran solid blocks of them–50 to 85 cars as ‘extras’ and on the SP, at least, EVERYTHING got out of their way except mail trains and first class passengers. I probably have more refrigerator cars than every other type of freight car combined on my layout. A big, hunky Articulated with a long train of reefers charging upgrade on my mountain layout–to me, that’s RAILROADING! [:D][:D]
Tom
Actually this one is hard for me. Every car has a special place in my heart. A story behind each. Though lately I’ve been wanting 40’ and 50’ HI-cube box cars. There’s justs something neat about having a bunch of standard height cars in a yard and have a couple hi-cubes sticking out.
Andrew
I’m very partial to tank cars myself. Kinda wierd in that the layout I’m planning will haul mainly coal and lumber… may have to do something about that!
I also like really unusual and uncommon cars… Schnabel cars, depressed center flat cars, dynamometer cars and anything with a lot of wheels. I still remember seeing some tank cars with 6-wheel trucks many years ago during a visit with relatives in Cincinnati. There was whole bunch of them in a yard along the river bank. WIsh I could find some models of those.
Solid block of Tropicana reefers-all shades of green from bright new to faded, almost gray.
Solid block of Ortner hoppers-[FEC] with the old faded yellow numbers to the newer ones with the white numbers. Sat at the mouth of the yard as a consist pulled out with 2 Gps. pulling 144 hoppers and 4 boxcars.
Flip
I have a thing about boxcars especially short lines and the per diem era boxcars.[:D]
I just love coal hoppers, any size. But especially of the 90 to 100 ton variety.
Of course, I love all freight cars.
Don’t really have one, WAIT!
I know,
Ones that don’t derail!
yes, that’s it!
One’s that don’t derail! [;)]
Gordon
LOL Gorden. My favories are steam era freight cars from back in the forties or so.
Ballast hoppers designed to spread the ballast as the train rolls down the track. Saw one of these in operation about a month ago, and it’s just neat! 
pretty much anything that’s made of wood , especially if it has truss rods . also the wood ore cars that tichy makes a model of . i have about 20 of those sitting in the to-build box
Pickle cars. There aren’t any in S scale, so I’ll have to scratch build them.
Enjoy
Paul
Covered hoppers, reminds me of harvest time in the midwest where I grrew up.
Rick
I’ll have to go with twhite on this. There’s just something about those PFE reefers.
Tom
Any wood or composite car, especially trussrodded 36-foot gons and boxcars.
I sometimes think that I should be modelling 1916, rather than 1950!
Me too!
a long string of Short little Ore cars are what I’m looking forward to seeing run down from the mine, I also like the look of box cars being pulled into a crowded yard, Oh yea then there is the 40’ gon’s piled high with pulp logs and don’t forget the 50’ gons with over sized machine loads!
ah heck a local freight with a nice mix of everything will do in a pinch.
bill[:D]
boxcars,in HO there’s so many cars to choose from,diferent makes ends ,you can’t have enough.I model '68, so40-50 footers still rule
Box cars specifically my weathered MEC and flat cars with M1 Abrams tanks.
I would have to say wooden or wood end box cars. They are so…naturally rustic and have more character than the newer metal ones. Very classic and cool looking. 55-ton coal hoppers run a close second…
Tom