Athearn N Scale Announcements 05/27/2022

[Cajonpassfan]

Milk Cars.  Did any western roads run milk cars?  It's my late 40's to mid '50's era.  I don't remember seeing any milk cars in any of my reference photos of UP passenger trains.

...
Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

Bob, people forget that with the reductions or outright demise of milk traffic by rail in the early fifties, many milk cars were converted to other use, including head end express service, such as the Erie cars below. I don't know about the UP, but ATSF handled Erie express shipments to the west coast. It wouldn't surprise me if other ex-milk cars found their way on other western railroads' trains as well.
Otto K.

[robert3985]

Bob, people forget that with the reductions or outright demise of milk traffic by rail in the early fifties, many milk cars were converted to other use, including head end express service, such as the Erie cars below. I don't know about the UP, but ATSF handled Erie express shipments to the west coast. It wouldn't surprise me if other ex-milk cars found their way on other western railroads' trains as well.
Otto K.

Thanks Otto for that information.  I'll do a little research and see if I can find any ex-milk cars in some historical photos...

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Chris333]

I don't think the problem is how much people in China make. Or how much the cars cost. The problem is how much we make 

[nkalanaga]

Tom D:  In your quote of my post about Northwest milk cars, where did the second paragraph come from?  It wasn't in my post, and I can't find it anywhere else in this topic.  In fact, as far as I can find, that's the only place "Jerry" appears.

Has the software started randomly inserting parts of other topics into quotes?

The MILW car in the photo link you posted was just a freight reefer, according to Doug Nighswonger's "Milwaukee Road Color Gide, Vol 2", page 66.  Numbered 89000-89999, they never had more than 84 cars, which sounds like the MILW's numbering schemes.  According to his caption, they were built with extra insulation, and were commonly called "cherry cars", used for such things as cherries, frozen fish, ferns, and bulbs from Washington, and, according to the photo he has, beer.  They were built with standard freight trucks, and no signal lines, so were limited to regular freight service.

[thomasjmdavis]

Tom D:  In your quote of my post about Northwest milk cars, where did the second paragraph come from?  It wasn't in my post, and I can't find it anywhere else in this topic.  In fact, as far as I can find, that's the only place "Jerry" appears.

Has the software started randomly inserting parts of other topics into quotes?

The MILW car in the photo link you posted was just a freight reefer, according to Doug Nighswonger's "Milwaukee Road Color Gide, Vol 2", page 66.  Numbered 89000-89999, they never had more than 84 cars, which sounds like the MILW's numbering schemes.  According to his caption, they were built with extra insulation, and were commonly called "cherry cars", used for such things as cherries, frozen fish, ferns, and bulbs from Washington, and, according to the photo he has, beer.  They were built with standard freight trucks, and no signal lines, so were limited to regular freight service.

My apologies on the addition to the quote. I did 2 or 3 edits before posting. I must have somehow moved that line into the quote box while ditzing with the edits.

I did not mean to mislead anyone, I was just passing along information. Wrong information, as it turns out, but I meant well.

My only "authority" on it being a milk car (or a Pfaudler car, even if it wasn't being used in milk service) was the note in the listing in the Passenger Car Photo Index. Which is apparently incorrect, but identifies it as "URTX 89078 - General American Pfaudler milk car. (CITY OF VANCOVER ARCHIVES)." That said, it does look a lot like a Pfaudler car. My understanding is that the Pfaudler car modeled by Athearn are a General American prototype. If this is true also for the URTX/Milw car, I may just be seeing a 'family resemblance.

[nkalanaga]

OK, I'm not offended, but it did seem curious that the extra paragraph seemed to come from nowhere!

The car may be General American, although the caption in the Color Guide doesn't say.  It does say that "some of the cars had GARX reporting marks", which would be General American.
From pwrr.org's list of reporting marks:
"GARX       +GENERAL AMERICAN MARKS CO. (GATX DE MEXICO SA de CV;
      GENERAL AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION CORP.; GENERAL AMERICAN REFRIGERATOR EXPRESS)"

[Chris333]

If you want to be offended the G in GATX used to stand for German. They changed their name during the war.

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2681.html

[sd45elect2000]

Tom D:  In your quote of my post about Northwest milk cars, where did the second paragraph come from?  It wasn't in my post, and I can't find it anywhere else in this topic.  In fact, as far as I can find, that's the only place "Jerry" appears.

Has the software started randomly inserting parts of other topics into quotes?

The MILW car in the photo link you posted was just a freight reefer, according to Doug Nighswonger's "Milwaukee Road Color Gide, Vol 2", page 66.  Numbered 89000-89999, they never had more than 84 cars, which sounds like the MILW's numbering schemes.  According to his caption, they were built with extra insulation, and were commonly called "cherry cars", used for such things as cherries, frozen fish, ferns, and bulbs from Washington, and, according to the photo he has, beer.  They were built with standard freight trucks, and no signal lines, so were limited to regular freight service.

I have never seen evidence of the Milwaukee handling bulk milk. Most of the Milwaukee territory was also CNW territory and there is quite a lot of evidence of the CNW hauling bulk milk to the large Chicago dairy's I do know that the Milwaukee hauled milk cans using standard baggage cars.

I have a 1947 equipment register I will take a look at.

https://www.lakestatesarchive.org/Ed-Wilkommen-BW-Collection/Traction/Municipality-of-East-Troy/i-3QNB8DX/A

Here is a Pfaudler car in an unusual place. I cannot make out the marks but since this is a car going to a milk condensary I am guessing this is a bulk milk car. The prototype would be the car that was made by MDC roundhouse. The newest Athearn car is a different car.

To date there are three types of bulk milk cars available in N scale, the above-mentioned Roundhouse car that was an express reefer built for REX, the car was also fitted out to carry twin milk tanks. The steel PFAX car from intermountain built as bulk milk cars and the newest Athearn cars that were wooden cars built for PFAX. I also have a couple of brass cars that were mostly used in the East. There is a series of books from the Renselear group on hauling milk but most examples are from the East. I can only conclude that in the Midwest , milk was hauled in cans.

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr1401/tmm12.jpg

There were of course some exceptions. Containerized milk evidently was a thing on the trolly lines out of Milwaukee....

[Mark5]

Some good info on milk cars here (including the Chicago region): https://riverraisinmodels.com/libraryData/milktrains.pdf

[mu26aeh]

Athearn announced on their FB page today 6/24, that the N scale acid tank cars are on the way from the factory.

[robertjohndavis]

I have never seen evidence of the Milwaukee handling bulk milk. Most of the Milwaukee territory was also CNW territory and there is quite a lot of evidence of the CNW hauling bulk milk to the large Chicago dairy's I do know that the Milwaukee hauled milk cans using standard baggage cars.

I have a 1947 equipment register I will take a look at.

https://www.lakestatesarchive.org/Ed-Wilkommen-BW-Collection/Traction/Municipality-of-East-Troy/i-3QNB8DX/A

Here is a Pfaudler car in an unusual place. I cannot make out the marks but since this is a car going to a milk condensary I am guessing this is a bulk milk car. The prototype would be the car that was made by MDC roundhouse. The newest Athearn car is a different car.

To date there are three types of bulk milk cars available in N scale, the above-mentioned Roundhouse car that was an express reefer built for REX, the car was also fitted out to carry twin milk tanks. The steel PFAX car from intermountain built as bulk milk cars and the newest Athearn cars that were wooden cars built for PFAX. I also have a couple of brass cars that were mostly used in the East. There is a series of books from the Renselear group on hauling milk but most examples are from the East. I can only conclude that in the Midwest , milk was hauled in cans.

http://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr1401/tmm12.jpg

There were of course some exceptions. Containerized milk evidently was a thing on the trolly lines out of Milwaukee....

A few notes…

At least 7 dairies used milk tank cars in the Midwest, serving the Chicago area (the common terminology was “tank” not “bulk”).

There have been quite a few milk tank cars made in N scale.

As you said, the Roundhouse car could be modified to represent similar tank cars (the major exterior change is removing the ice hatches, but there are other tweaks).

PSC and Athearn both made the common Pfaudler/General American car. These were the common type in Chicago.

Intermountain made one of the two most common steel Pfauldler tank cars in plastic.

NSE sold National Car Company flat cars with two different shaped tanks from the short-lived milk intermodal era.

Key (and likely others) made the Borden’s “butterdish” tanks.

That leaves only a couple of milk tank varieties not made in N scale.

Surprisingly, there are very few can cars in N scale, despite their widespread use.

Milk by rail is a fascinating topic.

Rob