The next great n scale freight car

[Dave V]

Atlas does the NE-5 and NE-6, aren't they good enough or just too general? Lee, IIRC the WM NE Steel is quite different from the New Haven NE steel cabooses. Also NE's were also on the CB&Q (wood NE-1 I believe).

I think with the wide range of NE's, specifics might be required.

Bob,

You may be confusing the NH "class NE (NE5, NE6, etc.)" cabooses with what's meant here, i.e., "Northeastern" caboose.  The so-called Northeastern caboose was used by a number of railroads such as the CNJ, LV, RDG, WM, and a number of others.  Many wound up on Conrail.

Here's a sample of the northeastern caboose:

http://www.railroad.net/articles/railfanning/northeastcabooses/media/cab-02.jpg

Versus the NE6:

http://pc.smellycat.com/pics/equip/pc19882.jpg

Very different animals indeed.

[wcfn100]

Atlas does the NE-5 and NE-6, aren't they good enough or just too general?

NE-6, yes.

NE-5, NO.  Would love to see one.

Jason

[DKS]

We've got the generic Life-Like version, which isn't awful, and then IIRC it's been done in brass--which, of course, is not for the masses. But it would be nice to have a well-done mass-produced Northeastern.

[Midniteflyer]

In the covered hopper line............. the car missing from the hobby is the Whitewater hopper cars. I see hundreds of these hoppers and no one produces them. Craig are you listening............lol

[lock4244]

a CC&F slab side hopper (I hear rumours...) would be number one on the list

Really, that would be a very good rumour indeed... been wanting those for a spell.

Point St Charles and Angus shops cabeese would make me poor

Yup, anyone doing those would get a pile of my money!

pressure unload hoopers like "someone" is doing in HO would get my undivided attention

Need those, too.

[CVSNE]

Intermountain's next car will be . . .

Whatever file folder they pull out of the filing cabinet in my old office there . . . :

[up1950s]

Quite a few people must want those 75 foot TrucTrain flats . The list will really change if they were finally made . That list is pretty slanted past the transistion era .

[TrainCat2]

Canadian made stock cars would rock; a CC&F slab side hopper (I hear rumours...) would be number one on the list

Pud, was the CC&F the same as the PGE Slab Side ?

[Walkercolt]

Tankcars, tankcars, tankcars, and more tankcars! Old, new, riveted, welded, domed, pressure cars, "hot-dog" cars, modern LPG cars, insulated, uninsulated, molten sulfur, "funnel-flo's"(ala the Con-Cor's), ultra-high pressure tankcars (ethylene gas with the bands on them), liquid gas cars, a modern helium tankcar (about a dozen 50-odd foot long 1' diameter tanks), banded riveted early small (48" or less) domed tankcars....(how many more you want me to describe?)

[bbussey]

Quite a few people must want those 75 foot TrucTrain flats . The list will really change if they were finally made . That list is pretty slanted past the transistion era .

N Scale Kits is releasing kits for these flats in the very near future.

[sirenwerks]

Quite a few people must want those 75 foot TrucTrain flats . The list will really change if they were finally made . That list is pretty slanted past the transistion era .

I think we need some era break-outs beyond just contemporary and transition. I see a lot of modelers, and include myself in there, that model the post-transition, pre-contemporary era - that is, 60s & 70s - in N scale. We benefit from having left-overs from the transition era, but a lot of the stuff being released now is on the cusp, and depending when you set your cut-off date, is too 'new' for us to use. Don't know what to call the era though - post-transition? Pre-modern? 2nd gen cusp?

[up1950s]

Quite a few people must want those 75 foot TrucTrain flats . The list will really change if they were finally made . That list is pretty slanted past the transistion era .

I think we need some era break-outs beyond just contemporary and transition. I see a lot of modelers, and include myself in there, that model the post-transition, pre-contemporary era - that is, 60s & 70s - in N scale. We benefit from having left-overs from the transition era, but a lot of the stuff being released now is on the cusp, and depending when you set your cut-off date, is too 'new' for us to use. Don't know what to call the era though - post-transition? Pre-modern? 2nd gen cusp?

Vietnam era mostly I guess , but nothing anybody can come up with better describes  " 60s & 70s " as you stated . No conversion or knowledge needed .

[lock4244]

I think we need some era break-outs beyond just contemporary and transition. I see a lot of modelers, and include myself in there, that model the post-transition, pre-contemporary era - that is, 60s & 70s - in N scale. We benefit from having left-overs from the transition era, but a lot of the stuff being released now is on the cusp, and depending when you set your cut-off date, is too 'new' for us to use. Don't know what to call the era though - post-transition? Pre-modern? 2nd gen cusp?

Peace and Love, Dazed and Confused era.

[sirenwerks]

Can we shorten that to PLDC?

[wm3798]

I always refer to it as the "second transition" between 1st and 2nd generation diesels.  Granted, lots of firsties soldier on even today, but the class one's pretty much jettisoned all the F units by the mid to late 70's.
Perhaps "post-transition" would be the best way to broad brush it.  As a modeler of this stripe, I agree with Bryan.  There are lots of varieties of coal hoppers from this time frame, but somehow the manufacturers can't get enough of coal porters and top gons.  Way too new, even for a mid-80's modeler.

Maybe it's easier to produce cars with the same paint scheme and 12 different numbers than to run a wider variety of road names on more individualized cars...  Art follows reality, afterall...

Lee