My Wheels of Time PC&F Boxes Have Arrived

[wazzou]

I hope that they will do the Great Northern cars in the Glacier Green scheme at some point. 
I'll have to pick up one or two.

[nkalanaga]

Jeff:  I don't need the COTS, but just out of curiosity, do you know who makes decals for the mid/late 70s version?  Walthers used to, decades ago, and MicroScale has the early 70s single panel version, most common on my mid-1974 cars, but I've never seen the late 70s version mentioned since Walthers discontinued their decals.

[ljudice]

Microscale makes the earlier COTS decals - in a different set:

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=60-5002&Product_Count=&Category_Code=

[sdodge]

Yeah, I ordered one of the Golden West cars from the second run and then thought...man, wish those would come with a little bit of fade. 

Yes, my preference would be the faded paint and patched SP markings but I ordered a couple GWS anyway. I will be semi pissed (maybe) if they do these in a future run.

[ai5629]

In regards to COTS:  Starting in early 1972, single panel COTS started to  be applied to freight cars.  Single panels were used until early 1974.  After this point, two panel COTS started to be used.  These could be a single large rectangle divided in two (oriented vertically or horizontally) or two single seperate panels.  This lasted until about July 81, when the COTS changed again to a single panel divided into four areas.  Think of it as three rectangles oriented up and down sitting on top of a long thin rectangle.  This lasted until mid 82 when it changed into a single panel that has two squares sitting on a long thin rectangle.  This is still the style in use today.  So, as far as late 70's COTS go, either MS 60-5002 or 60-5003 would fit the bill.  You would just not want to use the single panel COTS for a car reweighed in the late 70's.  All of this is based on observation of Conrail and Penn Central freight cars, and no official documents.  I hope this helps.

Jeff

[ai5629]

A question for the SP guys.  Since these cars were built in 11-69, would they have lasted in this scheme into the mid 80's?  Thanks.

Jeff

[jagged ben]

A question for the SP guys.  Since these cars were built in 11-69, would they have lasted in this scheme into the mid 80's?  Thanks.

Jeff

In the basic paint scheme, yes.  Many of them would have lasted much longer and there are probably some out there even today.    They are appropriate for the 70s through the 90s, aside from the AFCI plasts vs COTS, as discussed above, which is a small detail.    (Of course if you want them to look right for the last 15 years they'll need a lot of weathering and some graffiti.)

[ljudice]

Hmmm..... 

The 14 foot door cars are still around in SP paint, but I could not find a single double door car that was not painted in GWS.

I would love to be proven wrong!

[Wlal13again]

Just ordered an SP from Chuck..Gots to have my Espee fix..

[nkalanaga]

Ljudice:  Thank you.  I don't need them, having more than enough of the Walthers in storage, but it's good to know they're available.

Jeff:  Yes, there were a fair number, but far from a majority, of cars in my era with the 1972 version, and a very few with the 1974.  Basically, the only 1974-style COTS in June 1974 were on new or freshly repainted cars, so very few of mine have them.   I spend more time removing them from models of pre-BN cars...  I've put a few of the Microscale 1972 versions on earlier schemes as part of the weathering, where I've simulated partial repaints or repairs.

[bbussey]

Mine arrived today, one each of SP and BN#2.  They look sharp.

Question on the SP car though.  Mine has 100-ton ASF Ride-Control trucks with 33" wheelsets.  Is this correct for the prototype?  The BN car has the appropriate 70-ton ASF trucks.

[jagged ben]

My SPs have 100-ton trucks too.   BN and Frisco have 70-tons.   Hadn't noticed that.

Looks like the 100-ton truck might be appropriate for the SP cars though.

http://shastaroute.railfan.net/Photos/Boxcars/SP_698677.jpg
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=555763

[bbussey]

Excellent.  Good pics also to show how to weather the cars for later years.

[ljudice]

Thanks for those pics, especially #2 - which puts these cars in SP paint AFTER GWS....

Not sure how I missed this one, but thanks!

- Lou

[C855B]

Mine just arrived. I had to get all the SP numbers because these cars dominated a lot of trains through SoCal in the '70s, so they're nostalgic to me.

I picked up a couple in WP, just for the variety, and noticed an "oops" - U-1 stencil with a white dot. That's the bad one, meaning the the car has the Southern Wheel Co. wheels prone to spontaneous cracking. I can edu-guess that PC&F did not buy their wheels from Southern, plus the bad wheels were <1969, the build dates of these cars. Besides, white dots were very short-lived - like about 9 months. It basically signified it was necessary to get the car back to the owner ASAP for wheel replacement, as any cars with the bad wheels were to be out of service by the end of 1978.

Frankly, it's trivial to me, since I will want to patch out the U-1 and the consolidated stencils anyway since they post-date the cars after my operating era. But it's still interesting that WOT goofed with the wrong version of the stencil.