Hey Kiz, Here's a perfect "1971" Boxcar...

[Denver Road Doug]

So I went to our Model Railroad Ops Christmas party last night, and got a nice little sack of goodies in the gift exchange.   One of which was this boxcar
http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH10692 along with two others.   One was the nice Athearn 50ft boxcars with etched roofwalks but clearly out of era, and the other was a Southern 50ft Airslide, which I can make work for my late 90's/early 00's era, if not locale.   Turning my attention to the Rio Grande NACC car, I thought *maybe* I could stretch it a bit and make it work, maybe they were bought by some leasing company and patched....something along those lines.   Then I came across the following:

http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=9857&

Here is what Jim Eagers book has to say:

"North American Car built the 50600-50624 series in 1965, and the 50625-50674 in May, 1966 for lease to the Rio Grande. These exterior post cars were assembled by North American using Stanray roofs and ends, Keystone cusioned underframes, 10 foot Superior plug doors, and either Euipco or Evans load divider bulkheads and side fillers. The 50600-50624 had Morton perforated running boards but the 50625-50674 were built without roof walks and full-height side ladders which were to be banned beginning January 1, 1967. Both series used Wabcopac truck mounted brake cylinders and the livery was modified to delete the silver paint below the black stripe. The 50638 was assigned for loading on the New York Central (which was shown in the picture) These cars were returned to North American by 1972 and were replaced by more modern reefers with the same numbers."

So as a Rio Grande boxcar, NO DICE.  Still maybe a chance that they got sent back out in that paint scheme but I suspect the chances of them surviving into the late 90's is slim, especially in that scheme.  I seem to recall from my research before that the NACC cars generally didn't last much past the 80's anyway...could be wrong about that though.  I do have the Dresser-Magcobar one that I'm keeping on my roster that was always spotted at a local drilling mud company into at least the late 80's/early 90's.  I'm just gonna weather it heavily and chalk it up to an anomaly.

ANYWAY, I thought that it would be a perfect boxcar to say "it's 1971".   Of course, that would mean that more than a handful of people even know the information that they went back in 1972  ....but still. 

[Denver Road Doug]

Here's a pic of one from the late 60's...
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=68642

[Kisatchie]

Thanks, Doug, for the info and photo. I really! want to paint my undecs for Southern Pacific. All I have to do is find some photos (including the roof) and the right decals. The car kitss come with two types of roof, one kind of which I sent to Wazzou (Bryan). I kept the roof that has supports that look like long, narrow bow ties. If SP used the other style roof, then I'll just paint the cars up for my Kisatchie, Gulf & Northern fictional road.


Hmm... I've been told I
am fictional. You might as
well try to tell me Santa
Claus is fictional...

[nkalanaga]

I have the 50638.  Since I model 1974, I guess it needs to be retired.  Darn...

Dee:  I wouldn't worry about being called fictional.  A coworker once told me I "couldn't be real", and I have a drivers license and SS card to prove that I exist.  Now, if they'd said I "wasn't all there", they may have had a point! 

[Kisatchie]

Dee:  I wouldn't worry about being called fictional.  A coworker once told me I "couldn't be real", and I have a drivers license and SS card to prove that I exist.  Now, if they'd said I "wasn't all there", they may have had a point!

Ouch!

Hmm... I bit Kiz just to
prove to him I was real...

[nkalanaga]

Kiz:  Didn't bother me.  I'm VERY hard to insult!

Dee:  The old test to see if one was dreaming was to pinch oneself, so biting him should work just as well.