OK piggyback trailer experts, help me out....

[randgust]

Digging around for that book - is that the one with the white cover and authored by Kinkaid?   It doesn't look like a typical Morning Sun cover but this has to be what you're talking about.  "Piggyback Color Guide Vol 1:  A to H" by Kinkaid (2014)

http://morningsunbooks.com/products/piggyback-color-guide-vol-1-a-to-h

(Does it have Santa Fe in it under "A" or "S"??)

Morning Sun puts so many out I missed those two entirely.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

That's it Randy. There are a few photos in V2 as well but all are in the background or cropped. The reasoning behind the waffle look is side stiffeners and sunken pockets for attachment points. This would leave the trailer with a smooth surface inside. I'm pretty sure this was an XTRA exclusive.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Randy, I am still trying to find good photos of the trailers online. It turns out XTRA actually has a cooperate Flickr account. I sent an email requesting vintage photos. Maybe we will get to see some.

[Roger Holmes]

We have the FlexiVan decals for NYC, PC and Milw vans too.

Contact me direct. I also think that Stone Creations has some that we delivered to him last June.

Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com

Peter-- I bought two of your Flexi-Van kits in January 2014 complete with nice decals.  I got the containers from Stone but was disappointed that the vans were not side door since I am modeling The Milwaukee Road.  Stone's website is "under construction" and all of the other alternative side door vans Randgust mentioned above are out of stock.

Do you know if Stone ever did a side door version?

Thanks.

[prbharris]

Peter-- I bought two of your Flexi-Van kits in January 2014 complete with nice decals.

Thanks

Stone's website is "under construction" Do you know if Stone ever did a side door version?

Roger - I think that Brian Stone's website developer has not completed the job. However, Brian, afaik, is still in business, although he has been ill recently but able to fulfil orders. Contact him by email and I am sure that he will respond. He did produce the side door van, from a pattern by us specifically for the FlexiVan.

Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
ww.nscalekits.com

[randgust]

I emailed Stone Creations directly and got four 'right out of the mold' as requested for container use.

I also contacted TrainWorx directly to get the undecorated ones as I couldn't find any at any dealers.

Both transactions have gone fine.

This has been a GREAT thread guys, thank you.

[prbharris]

This has been a GREAT thread guys, thank you.

I hope that I was able to help a little. Thank you.

that sure looks like what was known as a "Waffle Side Dry Van". Mont Switzer did a bash of an Athearn 40' van to one about 20 years back in Mainline or MRJournal... those type vans were generally painted Red similar to PRR red, and were usually lettered for REAZ. Spikre

You can get a rib count off of those shots, and the color off of the GN shot, ...Drawings would be perfect

Is there any interest in us patterning a waffle container for resin production. Let me know your views - and if you are engaged, some help with pictures [as I do not have access to the Morning Sun book here in the UK] would be very helpful perhaps PM me or send to the N Scale Kits address. If there is a potential market I will contact Stone Creations to see if it is viable from their point of view too.

Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com

[Mark5]

Since we've drifted to containers, does anyone know the prototype for this 40' container?







I think this was offered by Minitrix or Arnold way back when.

[u36b]

Mark,

Since we've drifted to containers, does anyone know the prototype for this 40' container?

http://southern.railfan.net/ties/1962/62-4/muscle.html

Stephan

[Mark5]

Mark,http://southern.railfan.net/ties/1962/62-4/muscle.html

Stephan

Thanks, but nothing there is even close to this container (ignore the paint job).

[cfritschle]

This is the container that came with the Aurora/Minitrix 85-foot flatcar, and I have been looking for a prototype for it since the early 1970s.   

It scales out at 40.4 feet long, 8.8 feet wide and 8.1 feet tall, so it does not mix well with other N scale containers.  But along with Mark, I would also like to know if there is a prototype for it.

Carter

[peteski]

Even to a non-expert (containers-wise) like me, the constructions doesn't look very prototypical for any container. Especially on the front - way too many ribs.  It might simply be a figment of some designer's imagination.

[nkalanaga]

This dates all the way back to the Arnold/Rapido piggyback of the late 60s, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was an early European prototype.  Arnold also used these, with a chassis, for their TOFC version, and the containers/chassis could be separated, if one wanted to model an early intermodal facility. 

I don't know what the relationship was between the Arnold metal flatcar and the Aurora/Minitrix car, but the much later Con-Cor "89 ft" car, which was actually longer than that, seems to have started as the Arnold car, with the mold stretched one underframe crossbearer.  Personally, I think the Arnold version was better...

[prbharris]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was an early European prototype.

That is possible.

.. the constructions doesn't look very prototypical for any container. Especially on the front - way too many ribs.

- even though I was not really looking at containers way back then, I do not recall seeing anything as remotely 'over-engineered' as this on European roads or ships. I think that I would have noticed.

However, there are still a lot of the old 40' containers in back lots and farms in the UK and Europe, so I will keep my eyes open so see if I can resolve this problem [and let Carter know too!]

Peter

Peter Harris
N Scale Kits
www.nscalekits.com

[Mark5]

Peter and Carter, thanks!

I suspect that if Carter has been looking all these years, then Peteski's guess may be right.

Mark