Most valued car

[johnb]

My favorite streetcar


My favorite "passenger" car..

Favorite weathering job...

[Doug G.]

Same car but different road. Mine is the Monon composite gondola. Have the Norfolk Southern one too. A1G fans !😉

"Thumbs up"!

Doug

[robert3985]

My most valued freight car is easily (right now) my kit-bashed U.P. CA-1 caboose.  Got another more accurate one on the workbench awaiting me to get the end-railing and ladder etching artwork finished, and a kit-bashed CA-5 in the works too (made from a Golden West U.P. caboose kit and roof panels from a sacrificial Micro Trains boxcar) awaiting the same thing, but this is the first of about 15 wooden U.P. CA-1's I'll be making for the Ogden to Green River run...each one with specific features unique to their road numbers.  This caboose finds itself in a lot of my train photos, and runs at the shows since I don't think there's another N-scale U.P. CA-1 out there.  The kitbash is pretty extensive, especially if ya want a correct underbody on it, which my first one doesn't have, along with replacing the platform steps, a correct ladder and vertical brakewheel.  I'm posting a photo of my in-progress next "most valued" freight car to show what the kitbash entails, along with a photo of my first one...which should be familiar to many of you...

Photo (1) - U.P. CA-1 caboose kitbash in progress, includes moving the cupola, removing and relocating a couple of windows per side, and making new end windows, lengthening the roof and milling the frame and adding structures there.  Gold Medal Models brass etched heavyweight steps and Panamint Models U.P. wooden Q-truck frames really add to the model's accuracy and flavor:


Photo (2) - U.P. CA-1 caboose first kitbash finished.  I'll be replacing the ladder/railing and brakewheel when I get my etch artwork finished, and possibly mill the underbody like the one in-progress.  Z-scale couplers will be replaced with True Scale couplers too.  I'll be glazing the windows too as soon as my train buddy Greg gets his LASER cutter up and running.  However, this is the car I'd have a hard time selling...."most valued" for sure!


Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Cajonpassfan]

[ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] [ Guests cannot view attachments ] I have  not one, but two "most valued" cars, and treasure them equally because of the circumstances attached to them.

The first is an "Ethyl" tank given to me by my late good friend Chris Lane of Tempe, Arizona. Chris bashed the car using a commercial underframe and a few other parts, but the tank is scratchbuilt and painted and decaled in the distinctive EBAX scheme. He gave it to me just because I said I liked it...

The second is a Santa Fe homebuilt plow, scratchbuilt by an equally good friend, David Haines of Wichita, Kansas. The plow arrived some months after David's untimely passing, with a message that he "would have liked me to have it".
Although the plow is a Raton Pass appurtenance, it will always be at home here on Cajon...

These two models are priceless, as were the friendships of these two very talented men.
Otto K.

[lock4244]

I'd say this one probably or the second one but probably the third or fourth one when I finally finish them.

This is hotter than a scotch bonnet on the surface of the sun!

[randgust]

Cajonpassfan:

Great tribute and very nice equipment.   David Haines was my idol on that Raton Pass layout from the very start when I saw it in MR.    If I wasn't picking up on my Conditionaire, one of the alternates I was considering was a 50' flatcar I got from Verne Niner, with a pipe load.  Very special to me, as is all the stuff I picked up from his N layout, before and after his passing, as he sold a lot of his N stuff when he went to On30.    In fact, if you look at that Conditionaire shot, on the 'mobile home' on the hill in the back, is the retirement home of Verne's "N Scale Norm" character of the Atlas forum threads.   He was given to me by Verne, he's sitting on the porch, along with Sue, the dog, and the cat.

That layout scene of yours at Devore is equally impressive.   

[Cajonpassfan]

Randy @randgust,
brings back memories. I had the pleasure of hosting Verne and Chris during the Santa Fe convention in Pasadena a while back. The three of us were running trains here in (admittedly large) circles like little kids and had a blast. I miss Verne as well, a great guy with a great sense of humor. Glad to see "Norm" and Sue and the critters are still enjoying the Santa Fe. I tried to win Verne's super-detailed warbonnet FT set on EBay, but it went for a princely sum to some guy in Japan I believe...
Oh, and thanks for the compliment!
Otto

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I'd say this one probably or the second one but probably the third or fourth one when I finally finish them.

Bryan these are fantastic! Do you know the story behind the third car you posted? I never seen a waffle box like it.

[wazzou]

Daniel, thank you.  The 3rd car was one of a couple of varieties the NP built with waffle sides at their Brainerd, MN shops.
They, like the GN, CB&Q, the NYC and I'm sure others, utilized OEM parts from Pullman, Stanray, Youngstown etc., added to homebuilt frames and side construction.
This was done likely to save money, get small orders of purpose built cars in less time than the major car builders could supply and also keep communities employed.
NP #5300-5699 a 400 car order was built starting in 1966 by the NP at Brainerd.
If you note the SP car to the left of the NP car, you'll understand why many of the NP's cars of this period didn't survive all that long into the BN era.  They were built to Plate B specs. and lacked the cubic capacity of many cars built shortly after with the advent of the Per Diem and Railbox fleet of boxcars.







Just to show that there was paint applied...several years ago.  Again, both of these cars are in line to be re-painted in a more as built color.
Sorry for the crappy cell phone flash photo, but I didn't want to handle them by removing them from their dust free nest. 

[Ike the BN Freak]

That NP car would be nice to have, or in BN. Pretty sure they were all gone by my era, but its a cool looking car

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Here's my half of Josh's "bestie locket". It's my winner.



Although I have a few cars that are very special to me, all generally because they came from my friends.

[Bruce Bird]

If you model the WM, you need lots of open hoppers.  And nothing says '=WM=' more than a fishbelly hopper.  I think I'm up to 130 or so of them by now....



Bruce

[nkalanaga]

Finally made it back to the topic...

Wazzou and Bnsfdash8:  Thank you.  No wonder I've never seen one!

Unittrain:  Yes, that gon was Norfolk Southern - the original shortline.  It eventual became part of the modern NS, which took the name.

Freight Train: I have one of the Monon cars, now retired, but still serviceable.

Randgust:  The NP had a series of those Conditionaire cars, bought specifically for potato service.  They seem to have worked well enough, but, as you said, were never repeated.  The biggest problem they had was that the potato shippers already had conveyor system for loading reefers through the door, and didn't want to invest in all-new loading equipment.  In fact, ice reefers remained in service through the 70s, as ventilated insulated boxcars, for potatoes, even though icing ended in the early 70s. 

Of course, the BN didn't like to waste anything, so they also hauled wheat in the same reefers.  Remove the bunkers, plug the drains, load through the hatches, unload through the doors.  The reefer doors didn't even need grain doors, but most could only carry about 40 tons, so elevators didn't like them, even with a discount on shipping rates.  Covered hoppers were still in short supply then.

I don't actually have a favorite car, although if I had to name one, it would be my Nn3, ex-000, tankcar.  That thing has been built so many times it's surprising that it still exists.  Lone Star 000, fitted with wood body bolsters and Atlas trucks/Rapido couplers, detrucked and turned into a diesel storage tank for engine service, returned to standard gauge service, again turned into a storage tank, with a different base, and now in narrow gauge revenue service.  It's the second from the left, MORX 61.

[Doug G.]

If you model the WM, you need lots of open hoppers.  And nothing says '=WM=' more than a fishbelly hopper.  I think I'm up to 130 or so of them by now....



Bruce

Those look great!

Doug

[Bruce Bird]

Thanks Doug!  They run real well too- a real nice design from Atlas!

Bruce