Stand in cars

BNSF FAN May 19, 2019

  1. BNSF FAN

    BNSF FAN TrainBoard Supporter

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    Curious what you all think about using stand in cars for rolling stock you would like but don't want to kitbash? No pics at the moment but an example for was taking one of the BLMA modern UP(ARMN) mechanical reefer cars and repaint it into one in BNSF. The UP(ARMN) cars are shorter but still made a good stand in.
     
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  2. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    I would say the length would not be readily noticeable unless it was something over or under 3 or 4 scale feet and probably in a consist of like cars not noticeable at all.
     
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  3. JMaurer1

    JMaurer1 TrainBoard Member

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    Your RR, your rules. I have used stand-ins in the past and 99% of the people never realize that they are a stand in (or are even not the correct car). Do what you want and ENJOY this hobby. Trust me, nobody will notice and even if someone does, you just tell them how the railroad DID experiment with the shorter cars but decided to go with the longer cars at a later date...don't they realize this, I thought everyone knew about it. Just how much do you really KNOW about the RR anyways...(in other words, bluff).
     
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  4. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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    I dont see a problem with stand in cars. (y)
    They fill out a train nicely. JMO
     
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  5. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    When I was modeling the SP&S I had a devil of a time finding some of the freight cars especially boxcars. I ended up with a bunch of undec. wood boxcars that were close enough and with a bunch of NP and GN cars that were similar I filled out several trains.
     
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  6. bill pearce

    bill pearce TrainBoard Member

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    On my Cajon layout, set in 1966, I needed the York Canyon coal train, which terminated in Fontana. I was forced to put together an entire stand in train. There are no commercially available cars to represent the hoppers the ATSF used, and there are no Alco RSD-15 locos available either. I've go two shells for the Alco but have not found a mechanism, and the coal cars will be scratchbuilt, not a difficult task, but I would need to build 50 or so, which would culminate with me putting a gun to my head.

    Of course, none will be built until I get this all sorted out. I'm getting bitter with the manufacturer's attitudes that something isn't used by enough roads to be commercially viable. The RSD's were purchased new by ATSF, the SP and an east coast road, Pennsy I think, in a fair quantity, and later on many other smaller roads. Intermountain found some viability in making a loco that was purchased by one RR new, and only one, and Atlas has found some success in locos for smaller roads. Others have made things like UP reefers that while interchanged a lot were a one road product, and Walthers has made a career of knocking out a single run of something then storing the tooling for eternity.

    And don't get me started on most manufacturers devotion to only two eras, the transition and today.
     
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  7. SP-Wolf

    SP-Wolf TrainBoard Supporter

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    Well, unfortunately, not every type of car is commercially available. And, if you are modeling a unit train - kit bashing a number of cars is just not practical. For example - I wanted an SP early 50's Overnight train - well, the cars specific to that train are not commercially available. So, I am using the next best thing - Deluxe Innovations 1944 AAR boxcar. It is missing a row of rivets - per side panel. Like Jeff said -- no one (or - very very few) will know. It's all about compromise. Sometimes we have to compromise to get the look we want.

    So -- sometimes, close is what we go for.

    Regards,
    Wolf
     
  8. DCESharkman

    DCESharkman TrainBoard Member

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    As my great uncle once told me, he is amazed at the model railroaders and their semi fanaticism.

    Nothing was pure and consistent, the railroads just used whatever they had at the time when they needed it.

    He is especially amused at the arguments about colors. He ran one of the B&O paint shops, and his remark was great....

    "Most folks never know how many cars we painted using Ford Midnight Blue when we ran out of inventory, or other auto colors, and every railroad did this because we were all under the same pressures to put out the cars."

    So really, aren't we just following the prototype here?
     
  9. JMaurer1

    JMaurer1 TrainBoard Member

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    I just wish I had the patience to design cars for 3D printing. Wolf would have his SP Overnight car (and I would also have a set of the original OB black and orange overnight cars). I would also have whaleback tenders and SP 10 wheelers on a Bachmann chassis. Oh, and some SP AS-616 A and B units.
     
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  10. SP-Wolf

    SP-Wolf TrainBoard Supporter

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    Yeah - Jeff - that would be awesome. Designing for 3D is beyond my patience level as well.

    But, I think this gets the point across - (at least these aren't PS-1's):
    [​IMG]

    Wolf
     
  11. Onizukachan

    Onizukachan TrainBoard Supporter

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    Wolf:
    I just run a string of MT Overnights and that’s good enough for me. Especially on black cars at a scale 70 mph!

    Now on the PFE reefers, the wrong heralds or heralds the wrong way round are way more noticeable to me!
    I do have several of the IM which are supposedly a lot better representation of the prototype.

    Like you said, standings are a-ok.
    Sometimes it’s just getting the right feel instead of obsessing over the exact details.
     
  12. randgust

    randgust TrainBoard Member

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    I don't really consider mine 'stand in' cars, it's just the best available at the time. I've been cycling equipment up to the next level for about 30 years.

    I do remember when there were NO 89' piggybacks except the Trix container car and the rare Rapido cast-frame metal one that Con-Cor reintroduced. My first 1974 "Super C" was confined to Atlas and Trix 50' flats with 24' trailers. Now I'm down to a car-by-car, trailer-by-trailer train that's pretty darn accurate for a specific year, and since Trainworx came out with the Flexivan mail trailers, it's right. All that original equipment is long gone. My F-45's started out as a chopped Lima shell on a U28C chassis...

    I see lots of people getting really frustrated because a model they want isn't available, yet, or ever. So they wait, and gripe. Take the best shot now, and when the time comes (if it ever does), get the new best available and sell what you had, enjoy the ride.

    My YK unit coal train is still running with four repowered Model Power RSD15's, heavily rebuilt and detailed, and a whole string of MDC unit coal train hoppers that are still 'close enough' given that I had custom ATSF decals made for the entire train. I'm always hoping for a better RSD15 that can actually pull, have yet to see it, but I sure haven't waited 25 years waiting for it in the meanwhile. And sometimes the 'new shiny thing' really isn't really better than what you already had, and it goes right back out the door it came in through.

    So part of the philosophy also has to be a willingness to a) admit it and try it when something better is available b) be willing to sell off your first attempts rather than turning into a hoarder. I've decided that the auction sites are a great help in this approach, as the cost of upgrading can be greatly reduced.

    I'm always looking around my 'finished' layout for what thing needs replaced or upgraded, be it equipment, structures, or scenery. I have stuff that is from the original N layout I built in '73, not much, but even this week I looked at a scratchbuilt forklift I made out of a carved block of balsa (when NOBODY did forklifts) that dated back then and decided that it really was time to get rid of it, ordered a beautiful new kit from Shapeways. That balsa forklift was from the same era as the original ugly Bachmann tractor-trailer.
     
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  13. JMaurer1

    JMaurer1 TrainBoard Member

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    Wolf: Don't make fun of my PS-1 overnights! BTW: I actually have a t shirt at home that explains things very nicely: I have ADD and OCD so things need to be perfect...just not for very long.
     
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  14. Doug A.

    Doug A. TrainBoard Supporter

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    I remember my early years in N, I would drive myself crazy worrying about having that "right" freight car or loco. And I don't normally have a lot of MRR time so scratchbuilding is often not an option. To compound it, I have an interest in 1:1 freight cars so I have a lot more useless information bouncing around inside my head than is typical. I had HO (or O, or G, or 1:1) goals for N-scale freight cars and it was frustrating.

    I guess it really just boils down to your level of "fanaticism" versus your level of enjoyment. I found the former was unreasonably higher than the latter in my case...so I adjusted the fanaticism throttle a bit and found things to be a lot more fun. To your example, I did actually reletter a BLMA reefer in the BNSF scheme, and survived!!! Nothing a few months of therapy couldn't handle. :LOL:

    Now I'm in Z-Scale....talk about STAND-INS!!! :D Almost everything is a stand-in. And I'm still managing to have fun. I still cringe every once in a while, but for the moment Z is where I'm at and you have to accept the bad with the good. FACT: there is compromise in every scale.

    The reality is most people won't notice and/or wouldn't say anything insulting, so it's a tree falling in the forest.
     
  15. SP-Wolf

    SP-Wolf TrainBoard Supporter

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    Hey Jeff,

    Ha -- never.
    That's a great shirt -- describes me as well!!

    Wolf
     
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  16. DCESharkman

    DCESharkman TrainBoard Member

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    I have a different take, I am more operations based, so a box car is a box car, a coal car is a coal car and so on.
    Are they prototypical, sometimes, but does it have to be? No!

    So I do not get bogged down too much by details, just run the cars and enjoy the operations
     
  17. nscalestation

    nscalestation TrainBoard Supporter

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    I sometimes enjoy attempting to put together somewhat prototypical consists based on photos I have seen but it is of secondary importance to having things run well and enjoying the running.
     
  18. Carl Sowell

    Carl Sowell TrainBoard Supporter

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    Stand-ins or whatever we call them are great and necessary. As some have said "who knows the difference". What I get a kick out of is having a viewer at a show, as an example, expressing all of their "knowledge" regarding a loco, car, paint job or whatever and knowing just enough myself to realize that person knows squat about what he/she is talking about. I never attempt to "inform" them because that can turn into a real P---ing contest.

    Enjoy what we have today. Remember the "good old days"?

    Have fun,
    Carl
     
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  19. Onizukachan

    Onizukachan TrainBoard Supporter

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    You mean when every box car was the same Bachman car with rapido couplers, just different paint schemes.... :)
     
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  20. Run8Racing

    Run8Racing TrainBoard Member

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    If it wasn't for stand-ins, N scale would be a full-time, 6 day a week, 12-16 hour shift job. Could be a 7 day week, but on the seventh day God created Sprint Car racing !!! :LOL::LOL::LOL:
     
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