1860's - 1910 Rolling Stock

[Paul M.]

 ...also have one or two IHC cars (apparently IHC is completely out of business)

No they're not;
http://www.ihc-hobby.com/cgi-bin/bsc.cgi?sn=013

[Charlie Mutschler]

A latecomer's follow up.  I very highly recommend looking at John White's _The American Railroad Freight Car From the Wood Car Era to the Coming of Steel_  This is huge book, and an expensive one, but very useful for anyone trying to understand the nature of railroad car design and railroad freight operations up to World War I.  If you don't want to spend that much for a book, check academic libraries - you can probably find one there. 

I would offer one slight modification to the time frame offered, for reasons which are well documented in White's magnificent book:  The small wooden freight car era is effectively ended in 1903, not 1910.  Yes, some of the newer 36 foot cars and large quantities of all wood 40 foot cars remained in interchange service after 1903, but that year is a watershed, and it is unlikely much 1860's equipment remained in interchange service after 1903. 

1903 is the year the Safety Appliance Act finally went into effect, forcing railroads to adopt automatic couplers and air brakes on cars used in interstate service and in interchange service.  Freight cars from the 1860s had a much smaller capacity than cars from the mid to late 1880s, so the cost of rebuilding old, relatively low capacity cars was offset by the economic benefit of moving more freight per car with newer equipment - an argument for retiring 20 ton capacity cars in favor of 40 ton capacity cars which were becoming the standard after 1900.  Not to mention the all steel car, allowing 50 ton capacity hopper cars to become common after 1900. 

A fairly good selection of  all wood box, stock, and refrigerator cars from the mid 1880s to the 1910's have been offered by various manufacturers, especially in H-0 scale.  Scratch building isn't too difficult, either, and a fair number of drawings exist.  However, the early steel hopper and gondolas are much harder to find.  One manufacturer offers a number of hoppers, in resin kits in H-0 scale, but the lack of the Pressed Steel Car Company general service gondolas from the 1900s to 1930s is greatly noted by people modeling the western states.  The hopper bottom coal car was ubiquitous east of the Mississippi, but in the Rockies and west the 'coal car' was more often than not a flat bottomed general service gondola with doors to allow dumping coal or limestone.  The flat floor allowed the car to be used to carry pipe, lumber, and other commodities when it wasn't carrying coal. 

Happy researching and building all. 

Charlie Mutschler
-30-

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Very interesting history lesson!

Thanks, Charlie!