Boxcar question

[Catt]

Bought myself these two 50'boxcars for my birthday on the 11th of this month.



Car on left is MTL right side car is Athearn,both are identified as FMC 50'single door boxcars and overall they appear to be twins. road numbers are both in the 5000s,but the colours are not even close.

I have no problem with "close enough for the girls we go with type cars",but my curosity is getting the best of me as to which car (if either of them ) is the most accurate.

Anybody got any thoughts without making this a mfg bashing thread?

When you look at the pic the MTL car looks longer but it is not they are both 50'.

[Atlas Paul]

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2874776

[Atlas Paul]

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2919655

Draw your own conclusion...

[bbussey]

The MTL car rides higher over the rails, but the body is height-compressed so that the roof top is the proper height over the rails.  The Athearn car (ex-MDC I believe) rides at the proper height over the rails, and the body height is more accurate.  While the color of the Athearn car is a better representation of a freshly-painted car, the MTL car could represent an aged paint job.

[Catt]

Like I said,"Good enough for the girl I go with".

[TiVoPrince]

Hard 
to judge colours when the graffitti is not present...

[ljudice]

I've gotten into the habit of checking rrpicturearchives or railcarphotos before buying anything.

I'm more than willing to change numbers, weather, etc... but it is a way to screen out foobies or at least let you make what Paul Graf pointed out - your own comparison...

On the SRN cars, this was discussed here some time ago - whether they were ever actually red - or started out in a reddish boxcar red brown color, BTW.... 

[cv_acr]

The MTL car rides higher over the rails, but the body is height-compressed so that the roof top is the proper height over the rails.  The Athearn car (ex-MDC I believe) rides at the proper height over the rails, and the body height is more accurate.  While the color of the Athearn car is a better representation of a freshly-painted car, the MTL car could represent an aged paint job.

The MTL car represents a Plate B car, the Athearn is a Plate C. If both cars are actually riding at the correct ride height, the MTL body SHOULD be lower than the Athearn.

[cv_acr]

(And the real SRN car is the Plate C version....)

The Athearn car is the correct colour; but the paint colour-shifted in really weird ways as it weathered.

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=srn5008&o=srn
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=srn5175&o=srn
http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=srn5325&o=srn

[ljudice]

Thanks Chris, I knew I remembered something about these cars...

I have two heavilly weathered, faded, darkened FVM versions...

- Lou

[Catt]

Comparing the two cars to proto pics shows me that the MTL car needs the lower sill lower,the bottom door guide needs to be lowered and the doors need to be replaced with taller ones.That is a lot of work for a car that will only run on my home layout.

I think I will live with it.

Thanks for the info guys.

[cv_acr]

Naw, it just needs to have the ride height appropriately lowered, the overall height _should_ end up about scale 6" lower than the Athearn car when done.

Note also the wider panel at the extreme ends of the car, where the ladders are, compared to the Athearn car. ( This is correct, this is an obvious spotting feature for the earliest version of the FMC car.) Of course, as noted, the Athearn car body is the match for the prototype SRN car.