Freight cars for steam engines

[ejseider]

I'm modeling in HO steam engines.  I'd like to get freight cars from the 20's, 30's, 40's period.  All cars that I see advertised are modern day.  Where can I find cars from the period that I am modeling?

[RAM]

Athearn, Bowsor, and Bachman just to name a few companies that have cars 30s and 40s.  40 foot cars, cattle cars, box cars, flat cars Gondolas, tank cars.  It is not so much the cars that you need to watch for it is how are they painted.  A 1940 box car might have a paint job in 1960 that would not work for a 1940 car.  All box cars most have roof walks. 

[jbrock27]

You can go to EBay; for better or worse.  Most decent cars will have a date printed on the side of the car so you can tell when it was built or new, if you are not able to identify its era otherwise.  Be sure to look closely at the merchandise listed and ask any questions you feel is warranted.  Avoid Sellers that won't or don't like answering questions and those that have poor Feedback due to a history of misreps or poorly packed merchandise.
I am finding more and more know very little if anything about what they are selling-most likely tag, garage, yard and estate sale hawks who bought a car for a $1.00 or a loco for $5.00 and think they can sell them on EBay for $10 and $50.  The best is when they list silver colored track as "nickel silver"  
Many will show up here, asking how much a train set they just picked up, is worth; probably bc they bought it for $10 thinking they can resell it for $300

[Woody Elmore]

If old trains had value I'd be a millionaire!

Seriously look for old Athearn kits - also a company named Bev-Bel used Athearn cars to customize.

Kadee has nice older equipment - just save your pennies to buy one!

[MilwaukeeRoadfan261]

For the 1920's-1940's I would recommend mostly wood-side boxcars. Accurail makes a few types of wood-side type boxcars and reefers, WalthersMainline  released some 40ft wood-side outside braced boxcars that are good cars (as far as how they run and they era you want) as well as 40ft gondola cars in several roadnames that match the line of boxcars, both of which aren't very expensive. I got 2 of the boxcars for about $22 each and the gondolas for about $20 each from Walthers. As stated before, Athearn and Bachmann are also good places to go for cars from the era you want. Athearn makes good steel side boxcars that would have been around in the years shortly after WWII and some wood-side boxcars under their ready to roll line and a lot of wood-side stuff under their Roundhouse banner in 34ft and 40ft varieties. Bachmann makes steel-side cars that (again) would have been around shortly after WWII because after the war all wood boxcars were modified by the railroads by replacing the wood planking on the sides with steel plates.

[richg]

If you want something special, model the NYC PaceMaker freight train. NYC started this freight train around 1946. Pulled by a Niagara 4-8-2.
Specially painted freight cars and a caboose made from a 40 ft freight car. The NYC Pacemaker caboose versions were low profile and had plywood sides. I have the brass one. That will be hard to find. To my knowledge, a plastic version was not made. There is a plastic NYC caboose made for that era but not the Pacemeaker version.
You can find the cars on ebay. I have about thirty of them with different numbers. One issue, slightly different colors depending on the manufacturer.
I think the NYC ran the freights in 90 car sets.



Rich

[ebtnut]

I would also pay attention to the road names on the rolling stock.  The classic "fallen flags" often date from the mid-to late steam era.  Do some on-line research with the various railroad technical and historical societies.  Also look at books that cover the era - look behind the locos at the rolling stock that are in the trains.  Vintage videos from the steam era will also give you a decent handle as well.

[Doneldon]

If you want something special, model the NYC PaceMaker freight train. NYC started this freight train around 1946. Pulled by a Niagara 4-8-2.

Rich-

I think the Central called their Mountains (4-8-2) Mohawks. The Niagaras were what the Central called their 4-8-4 Northerns.

                                                                                                                                                                     -- D

[MilwaukeeRoadfan261]

If you want something special, model the NYC PaceMaker freight train. NYC started this freight train around 1946. Pulled by a Niagara 4-8-2.

Rich-

I think the Central called their Mountains (4-8-2) Mohawks. The Niagaras were what the Central called their 4-8-4 Northerns.

                                                                                                                                                                     -- D

You are correct Don. The NYC called the 4-8-2 locomotives Mohawks and the 4-8-4 locomotives Niagaras. Most railroads called 4-8-4's Northerns and 4-8-2's Mountains. But some did have different names for some wheel arrangements (i.e. Golden States on the Southern Pacific, Poconos on the Lakawana, Niagaras on the NYC, Confederations on the Canadian National).

[Len]

Central Valley, Funaro & Camerlengo, and Tichy all make some very nice kits for a variety of freight cars from the period your talking about. Ready to run you'll find them from Bachmann, Bowser, Accurail, Mantua, Con-Cor, and Model Power to name just a few.

In the 20's, 30's, and early 40's the cars will predominately be in the 36' to 40' size range. 50' box cars started showing up in the 30's, mainly for shipping automobiles. But they didn't become real common until the 40's, when more capacity was needed due to WW-II.

Len

[rogertra]

If you want something special, model the NYC PaceMaker freight train. NYC started this freight train around 1946. Pulled by a Niagara 4-8-2.

Rich-

I think the Central called their Mountains (4-8-2) Mohawks. The Niagaras were what the Central called their 4-8-4 Northerns.
                                                                                                                                                                   

The CNR may have called 4-8-4s "Confederations" (And BTW had more of them than all the other North American railroads combined) but everone called the "Northerns".

[genetk44]

I think Roundhouse makes some very nice cars from that era..in particular wood sided billboard reefers.

[Doneldon]

The CNR may have called 4-8-4s "Confederations" (And BTW had more of them than all the other North American railroads combined) but everone called the "Northerns".

Roger-

I don't think this is correct. The CN did have the largest 4-8-4 roster but it was no where near larger than the total Northern roster in the States. The best number I could find for the CN was 203, with a couple more on the CP, 45 on the GTW and 5 on the ON. Thus, there were about 255 Confederation locomotives rostered in Canada. There were 108 4-8-4s rostered in the US. Even allowing for used loco sales and renumbering, there were several times as many 4-8-4s in the US as in Canada.
                                                                                                                                                                                   -- D

[richg]

River City Railroad has some nice shake the box kits. 36 ft, 40ft, 50ft rolling stock. Easy to put together with a little plastic glue. I have used MEK with proper ventilation. I like MEK because it dries quickly.
I have bought from them. Steam era.
You need to add wheels to the trucks and couplers to the cars. I buy machined metal wheels in a bunch and Kadee couplers.
I don't like the Kadee sintered metal wheels or plastic wheels.
You have to add some weight to the car.
Some are unusual road names.

Rich

[ebtnut]

Re:  The total number of 4-8-4's - This site http://www.steamlocomotive.com/northern/ says there were 1,126 of them in North America.  Subtracting out the 203 in Canada leaves 923 in the lower 48.  I think the statement that the CN rostered more 4-8-4's than any other single railroad would be a correct statement.