MDC a few years back...probably more than that now...made these cars in anticipation of the SP and ATSF Merger... that eventually failed.
Mike, Six of these MDC cars were on e-bay awhile ago,went for about $180! I was lucky enough to come across two of them & a couple club members always asking me to sell! BTW what type of camera do you have?very crisp/clean photo's! [ 02. June 2004, 11:30: Message edited by: JASON ]
And then didn't Paul Simon write a song protesting the failed merger? Something about not taking his Kodachrome away?
Good one Russ... I had no idea these were worth anything..other then some minor intrinsic value to SP / ATSF fans... The camera is a digital I recently purchased it is a Fuji Finepix S7000...takes very good pics...I just haven't mastered the depth of field function yet...what is interesting with the camera..it shows up alot of mistakes... ...and how large the ballast is. I used WS medium...man o man...is that large...looks like boulders in nscale!
I didn't know MDC did any of this. Concor painted just about everything in their line at that time, in SPSF. Never thought they would be collectors items.
Con-Cor did a series of these also. They were more of a sort of, shall we say, "Pre-Merger/Maintenance Needed" painting. All were labled 'Southern Pacific & Santa Fe Railway Company" but had either 'SP' or SF' road numbers (my one exception being a mechanical reefer with both 'SF' and SFRC' markings). The idea was (on the real railroads) that the other half would be painted on later as needed after the final merger. I've managed to collect six different versions over the years and if I manage to get a new way to get my camera images into my new computer, I'll share them. Stephan Priest writes of several ATSF waycars that were completely re-painted and got away from the shops at the time. ATSF got into trouble for interchanging cars with unofficial reporting marks at the time. Just to bend the direction of this thread, why is it that there does not seem to be any real 'collectability' (if there is such a word) to anything other than cars produced by the guys in the Great Northwest?
Those guys from Oregon? Don't know why...but I guess they have developed a strong reputation over the years...a cachet sort of...they do make good stuff...that is for sure..very good quality...if you compare their early stuff under the Kadee name, it still stands alone, especially as it relates to the Concor, Atlas, Trix, Roco, Bachmann products that were available at the time....BTW...after almost being a member for 2 years Wayne...congratulations on your 1st post!
Micro-Trains cars maintain their collectibility because MTL only produces them in limited runs (even more so than engines from Atlas and Kato). Because of the limited runs, they appeal to the pack-rat side in each of us. Some collect MTL because it's fun, others because they want to take advantge of appreciation of value. Still more don't care, and run the wheels off. Each reason is right; as long as MTL cars sell, more will be coming. And that's good for all of us! Pat
I'm not sure he meant boxcars, gons, etc. Didn't ATSF call cabeese "waycars?" I know they had a couple of cabooses painted for the merger and obviously locomotives. I thought I had read that these models were all "imaginary" schemes they designed and had no prototypes. As my signature says: V
To me, the true irony is that Atlas effectively did a recall of the ATSF Kodachrome B23-7 models where the "SF" was incorrectly positioned to the left side, instead of the right. One of the oddest features of the merger was the prepainting of the units with the 'other half' of the reporting marks missing - SP's had the SP and ATSF had the SF, each ready for the other missing blank half on the rolling stock. It's more than comical that this many years later, it's still creating headaches. To say that ATSF and SP were stunned on the 'sure thing' merger is an understatement, and nobody, no matter how optimistic, has pulled that stunt again. Perhaps the only thing any stranger is the recussitation of the "PRR" and "NYC" reporting marks in the Conrail breakup to identify who was getting what out of the split.
I sure remember Con-cor having a ton of that merger stuff. I think I may of even had a few of their engines in that scheme. I can honestly say, I never cared for that particular paint job.
