Need a little help, especially Arizona and California folks

So I've been looking at getting an N scale freight car related to some of the various cities & states I've visited. Since I model 1980s+, I'm looking at more modern freight cars, I can paint and decal, but I'd rather see whats out there first. I thought I'd throw the list of places out there to see if some locals have any suggestions. So here's my list so far:

Pittsburgh, PA (I have a Pittsburgh & Lake Erie boxcar)
Duluth, MN/Superior, WI (Atlas has a Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range ACF hopper car that looks nice, or I can get some DMIR ore cars)
Northfield, MN (grandfather's hometown, already have a MNS boxcar, not many options!)
Chicago, IL (I have a CNW boxcar, but anyone know of any boxcars for like Chicago Heights Terminal (aside from the Kato Bethgons) or cars for other local roads?)
Washington, DC (Richmond Fredericksburg & Potomac comes to mind first, if I can track down an Atlas reefer or something)
Los Angeles, CA (No idea)
Phoenix, AZ (There are one or two Apache Railway cars out there...other than that I donno)
St. Louis/Springfield, MO (Missouri Pacific or Cotton Belt, I'm thinking)

So if you know of any ready to run freight cars out there and have any suggestions, I'm all ears...pics or links to where I might find them would be excellent. I haven't come up with many good ideas for Los Angeles or Phoenix...I know there's the Arizona & California Railroad...but I haven't found any N scale freight cars for them...otherwise I might be decaling some boxcars soon!

 

Los Angeles would have to be Southern Pacific. The railroad (and its founders) practically built the city: Huntington, Shoup, etc.

There are older fallen flags that more locally represent the area, like Los Angeles & Salt Lake RR (Now part of UP). Also the Pacific Electric Railway (a subsidiary of the SP) had freight service and did have a boxcar fleet but it's way earlier than the era you're doing. Then there's the Harbor Belt Line which served the Los Angeles harbor area, but I don't know of any rolling stock that was painted up for that railroad, only locos.

 

For LA you just need to have some autoracks packed full with 150% more cars then they're supposed to hold, all honking at each other.
And the cars wouldn't even have to go anywhere!

There were so many orange & lemon packing houses mid-century, I'm sure you could "squeeze" in a Sunkist reefer to two.

 

Definitely. Also consider some cross-road possibilities like ttx and railbox. Really we see just about everything in California. I am up north, though. Today I saw a perfect Burlington Northern hopper in the UP yard that could have passed for just a few years old.

 

You can also take a SP Box Car and patch it out for the Arizona Eastern RR (AZER).

 

They take our water, so they can take our advice, too!
[Stand down, SoCal Soldiers! I'm a Bruin!]

Back to the OP: maybe something like SP sugar beet gons, or mysterious boxcars for L.A. defense industries Honeywell, Northrop Grumman or Hughes Aircraft, or San Pedro Harbor stuff.
Or, you could always take a tank car and label it "La Brea Tar"

 

For NorCal (either before or after the upcoming secession), in addition to the usual suspects (SP, WP, UP, AT&SF) you might look for the Tidewater Southern, Central California Traction, Sierra RR, Sacramento Northern or Amador Central.

Here's one place to start:

http://cencalrails.railfan.net/home.html

 

I think the only rolling stock they have are Gunderson 48' doublestack cars. At least, ten years ago that's what they had. I have one Athearn ran in HO scale. I haven't seen on in N.

You could also do Napa Valley Wine train, Northwestern Pacific, California Northern, Sierra, California Western, Eureka Southern.....

 

I now in las angles there is some tropicana reffers out there and alot of intermodel they run to.

 

Just for a point of information, NorCal starts at Redding. SFO, Union City etc is middle California (-:

 

Nope..dividing line is SLO - Fresno. Redding is FAR NorCal.

(Grew up in Beserkeley, school in SLO, my brother lives in Eureka. Don't know how I escaped alive!)

 

Hehe, I wasn't expecting so many responses this quick, thanks! PFE reefers might work...I already have a SPFE one and want more anyways...

The reason I was thinking of something other than SP, ATSF, UP, etc is because they're pretty common and don't really say CA to me. Sure, Southern Pacific was all over California, but as an example obviously an ATSF boxcar would work great if I'd been to Santa Fe, NM, etc. Like, I would get Milwaukee Road for Milwaukee, obviously, but not for Washington state...even though the Milw was a big railroad up there too.

But really I was hoping for something that had Los Angeles, Phoenix, California, or Arizona in the road name or on the car somehow.

 

...OK, how about the San Diego and Arizona Eastern?

http://sandiegoandarizonaeastern.blogspot.com/

 

I'm a Trojan...Them's fightin' words! Grrrrrr! arghh:

 

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
My brother went to the University of Spoiled Children, too, and if he and I are still on speaking terms, then there's hope for you and me, MRL.
(So I'll just get this out of the way now: "PUNCTURE THOSE TROJANS!" tongue


Back to the OP:

If you want "LA" somewhere on the car, then you might just have to go with "The City of Los Angeles"
("Sorry, Honey, but it's the ONLY thing out there with 'LA' on it, so I HAD to get it!")

Otherwise, this dude has a bunch o' LA LA LAND photos of rollng stock here on his "Los Angeles River Railroads" website.

 

AZER also runs an excursion train out of Globe AZ...

http://www.copperspike.com/

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