Athearn PS-1's

[Mark5]

Conrail with roof walks? I don't think so.

This is Athearn, not Micro Trains, they only do "real"

Hahahahahaha - right. Uh huh, sure.

there is a reason real is in quotes.

I guess that would be a real reason then. Let's keep this serious gentlemen.

Mark (Warped frustrated old man)

[sirenwerks]

The WM's have a New date of 4-63 but a Lube date of 8-29-61

Pre-lube maybe?

[up1950s]

Thanks for the feedback guys , I guess I will just get the Seaboard then .

[Bob Bufkin]

But at least their now packed in jewell cases!!!

[GonzoCRFan]

Conrail with roof walks? I don't think so.

Conrail is one of those railroads where if one ends up saying "no, they never had any of those", one usually ends up being wrong.   

The car itself looks correct. The number is in the series for the BE50F class, which were ex-EL cars that were indeed prepared for clean-lading service (hence the white door). The photo in the CR Color Guide shows one that has been retrofitted with a low brakewheel and had the roofwalk removed, but I would never bet that CR bothered to do this to every single car in that class.  ;D

[David Leonard]

My recollection is that roofwalks were required to be removed from interchange boxcars by February 1974. Does anyone know the story? I agree, it's not a big deal to remove the roofwalk (and use it on an Atlas 50' box car maybe!) so I'm not worried about that. But I still want to check photos to see if the car is mostly correct otherwise.

[SirTainly]

My recollection is that roofwalks were required to be removed from interchange boxcars by February 1974. Does anyone know the story?

supposed to be 74, but extended into the early 80s apparently.

[asarge]

I sent them a message asking for clarification on the artwork issues regarding roofwalks and build and shop dates. It'll take a couple of days before I get a nasty reply back from John at Athearn.

Did anybody notice on the the stencil on the RI car that said for "Ammunition Loading Only"?

[Mark5]

It'll take a couple of days before I get a nasty reply back from John at Athearn.

Lucky you. I don't get responses from Athearn. Like when I pointed out the errors on each release of the N&W PS 2893 hopper lettering. Or the N&W scheme they released earlier this year on the PS1 boxcar ...

(yes I point them out diplomatically) :

Mark

[RockGp40]

Did anybody notice on the the stencil on the RI car that said for "Ammunition Loading Only"?

I did. Interesting timing too with MTL's MKT release here recently.

I will probably pick them up, change out the couplers, and use them on a thru freight   (at Lee's house, en route to Baltimore!  ;D  although I don't know of any major conflict during the late 1970's that would necessitate multiple boxcars). They are marked for El Reno, OK.  I don't know if there ever was a munitions plant out that way or not. Anybody know?

[Bob Bufkin]

Only ammo plant I know in Oklahoma is this one:

http://mcalestr-www.army.mil/

[asarge]

It's somewhat unusual to ship one carload of ammunition even in when there is no conflict. It's much easier for the military to track a train of ammo rathere than a single car. I saw ammunition trains on CSX Abbeville Sub here in Winder run a dedicated train of amo. Most times now it's a load of containers, but sometimes you will have CSX Boxcars. back in the mid 90's it was always Boxcar.  Most have warning stencils for Ordnance, but the boxcars would have green signs saying "Explosive Ordnance. Do Not Hump".  Even if they didn't mnark the cars it's easy to spot. Loco's 5-10 cars of coal or sand a bunch of container flats or Boxcars or both and then anoth 10-15 coal or sand hoppers bringing up the rear.

You can also count on alot of advance activity from track inspectors and see CSX SUV's keeping up with the train.

[Walkercolt]

El Reno was a ammunition supply dump for the Army during WWII. Maybe the Rock served the old Artillary School at Ft Sill, OK.Used to love to go see the annual "firepower" displays down at Ft. Sill. Seeing them drop 205mm rounds on old tracked vehicles is better than any FX in a movie. Saw them use an Apache with 20mm mini-guns take-out an old tank with a 2 second burst. Nothing bigger than my fist left. The Katy served McAlester(actually Savannah) when it was the Naval Ammunition Depot. Inside the plant they have a railroad, with an ex-"tea-kettle" turned into an air-powered engine. Drags a big air hose around. At some much earlier time, they might have had an outside boiler plant, not sure. I had a great-uncle who worked there during and after WWII, but he passed away ten years ago, so I can't supply more details. All the "capital" caliber shells(10" and up, and maybe some 8"ers) were made in Savannah. There was a special on OK Ed. TV on the plant recently. Mainly showed how complicated the shells were internally. Many "big" shells had tube-type "computers" in them for various reasons.(Air-burst and armour-piercing shells used them to control when they detonated.)