MARCH 2000

    Over the past little while, in addition to others, fellow modellers Pierre Oliver and Mark Beltrano have approached me with questions about assembling a credible freight car fleet for an HO-scale transition-era CNR layout.  I have chosen the time period 1946-59 on which to focus all my attention.  This era is bracketed by the end of the Second World War and the end of steam operation in Southern Ontario.

    In the September 1999 Topic of the Month, we addressed the subject of modelling CNR boxcars, with some background facts and figures to support decisions concerning the breakdown by type.  Many modellers have commented favourably on the information presented, and the universal request is "more, more, more!".   Developing a credible freight car roster for a model railway layout set in the 1946-59 time period is a task I am undertaking myself, and as I progress along the way I will share my findings with readers of this column.  While general overviews are appropriate for this forum, the topic deserves more in-depth treatment, something we will keep in mind for future Canadian Branchline Miniatures publications.

    This month, I will present some general information for the CNR (or CPR for that matter) modeller of the 1946-59 era in Southern Ontario, with a particular focus on HO scale American road 40' steel boxcars.  Questions which have come to mind as needing answers are:  What roadnames are most likely to appear?  What is a representative breakdown by roadname?  What models are on the market now?  What are the time periods and car types for which they are appropriate?  How can I find information on boxcar types for foreign roads?  Armed with straight-forward answers to these questions, the modeller will be able to assess his needs with respect to a given year, and make decisions on rolling stock purchases accordingly.

    Through the course of my research for books and articles, I have assembled some background information which yields clues as to the US roadname boxcars which show up in Southern Ontario over the 1946-59 time period.  Notwithstanding regional influences such as locale and shipping patterns, I have striven to apply some numerical analysis to our problem.  I have also applied some reasoning, whereby railroads with direct connections to the CNR in the time period would be more likely to appear in a summary of reporting marks on boxcars.  As was the case with last month's automobile discussion, the limits of practicality step in.  Namely, against the millions of boxcars in service on the real railways, most modellers are concerned with having a credible roster of fewer than one hundred boxcars (which would take several years to amass).  Even on large home or club layouts, the few hundred cars which may eventually be collected are a grain of sand compared to the numbers on the prototype.   So, practical reality dictates that we need not concern ourselves too much with modelling a vast variety of boxcars, when 90% of us will only need a couple dozen typical ones representing some of the larger US railroads.

    There is a wonderful reference manual available to modellers of the transition era, and I recommend the purchase of the January 1953 Official Railway Equipment Register reprint from the NMRA Headquarters. While most of us are choosing to model a time period before or after this date, it serves a great purpose for us:  landing in the middle of our era, it provides some basic numerical information for us on relative sizes of North American freight car fleets by car type.  Keeping in mind the tiny numbers involved, we may firstly assume that these proportions are representative of any date over the 1946-59 time period.  I have thus pored over the register, and tallied the numbers of boxcars for significant US railroads.  Secondly, to those figures I have applied a regional factor, namely doubling the numbers for any roads which connect directly with the CNR.  When compared with actual car information from the time period, these two assumptions have proven to be sound enough.

    It is beyond the scope of this monthly column to tabulate numbers, but for the CNR modeller of the Southern Ontario scene in the 1946-59 time period, here is a breakdown of roadnames for a roster of 27 American boxcars cars (which would be about the number required in a total fleet of about 100 cars):  New York Central (NYC) and Pennsylvania (PRR)--four cars each; Baltimore & Ohio (B&O)--two cars; Southern (SOU), Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O), Norfolk & Western (N&W), Erie (ERIE), Nickel Plate (NKP), Wabash (WAB), Rock Island (RI), Chicago & Northwestern (CNW), Illinois Central (IC), Milwaukee (MILW), Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q), Great Northern (GN), Northern Pacific (NP), Union Pacific (UP), Southern Pacific (SP), Santa Fe (ATSF) and Missouri Pacific (MP)--one car each.

    When it becomes clear that for the vast majority of American road cars we need only select one car, and at most four cars, our task is then to decide on suitable models.  Among other sources, in-depth discussions and product reviews of boxcars have been offered in the pages of RailModel Journal and its related publications and Railroad Model Craftsman, along with product reviews in Model Railroader.  Based on my reading and discussions with fellow modellers such as Stafford Swain and Ian Cranstone, here are my recommendations for purchase of plastic kits (resin kits are another animal, which most of us prefer to avoid unless there is no suitable mass-produced plastic model available):  for the early AAR 10' height boxcars, choose the kits offered by Red Caboose.  For the intermediate AAR designs between the 1937 (10') and 1947 (10'-6") standards, choose the InterMountain model.   For the 1950s-built 10'-6" height AAR boxcars, kits are presently available from Accurail (major drawback being molded-on ladders) and C&BT Shops.   Branchline Trains will be producing a kit shortly for these models.  Cars of 10'-6" height constructed from about 1955 onward are offered by Red Caboose.   Now, for the 10'-6" cars, the new Branchline kits will be a rage--buy them.   In the interest of economy and availability, the Accurail cars are hard to resist, if one is willing to overlook (or attempt to disguise) the cast-on ladders.  If it was a choice between the C&BT Shops model and the upcoming Branchline kit, I'd wait for the Branchline version.  Choose either the Red Caboose or Branchline model where appropriate for later cars.  For PS-1 boxcars (the other significant design), buy a couple of the Kadee cars, if only for inspiration on level of detailing to apply to lesser-expensive cars such as those offered by Accurail and InterMountain.  Finally, consider the purchase of Bowser, Red Caboose or Tichy kits to represent unique PRR designs.

    As they say, 'until next month...'  Happy modelling!

Ian Wilson 
   February 28, 2000

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