After 30 years, I think I'm finally going to start my model railroad this winter. Since it's my first, it will be fairly small but will use DCC. I grew up in Springfield, MO with a Frisco track right across from house. I plan to model the modern era, probably around the turn of this century. Since I grew up with Frisco I WILL have Frisco equipment. I'm not going to pretend that the mergers never happened but I am going to pretend that BNSF appreciates tradition and either left or painted locomotives in the colors of some the original railroads. BNSF happens to be my present day favorite so I think I'll be getting the best of both worlds. I do have a question for you right off. I've spent a lot of time reading but am still really confused about modern rolling stock. For instance, I can't figure out which box cars or tank cars would be appropriate for my era. I look in the catalogs but can't figure it out. Obviously the wood cars are too old but there's a lot of steel cars out there that are probably too old as well. Can anyone enlighten me or direct me to a good source? I look forward to learning on this forum. Thank you for making it available. Joe
Joe- Welcome to TrainBoard! There are some Frisco fans and modelers aboard. I am sure you will spot them, or hear from them as time rolls along. As to freight cars, it can be confusing. Especially with original owners selling or leasing to another operator, their used stock. I know it ahs been discussed, but do not recall how much in detail. A search of our message archives might help some. Boxcab E50
Welcome aboard Joe. As far as the proper cars to run in the Turn of the Century; I'm no expert but one nice part about Trainboard is there will be an expert around in short order so standby. I would think most of the Closed Hoppers, Gons, 50' Boxcars, 40' Boxes without Roofwalks, and most flatcars would be a good fit. Njoy most of all; it's built rite in." Glen
Welcome to the board Joe, you find that there is a wealth of information on this site. Although I cannot answer your questions I am sure someone will chime in shortly!! Congrats on making the first step in any good layout, asking questions!!! Good luck on the layout and keep us posted of your progress!! -Joel
Welcome abord Joe. The way I look at what the RR is running in the present era is to go to my local rail fan spot and look at what the locos are pulling most any boxcars are 50' today but they are smaller also and most have no roof walks and are a little taller then most older cars for more cubic space the tank cars are also 50' or larger and they are still using flat cars and most of the RR today and in the past are still using the auto racks. So you can get a lot of information just by looking at what the rail roads are running today. I hope this helps.
Stop, Caution, consider leaving now. This website has been known to be addictive causing weird behavior, where grown men end up suffering from childhood regression... playing with toy trains. It can be detrimental to your health. You'll end up discussing the pro's and con's of tight radius curves, turnouts versus switches, DCC versus analog DC, nuts and bolts counting versus toy caricatures. To avoid those sudden brain freezes, (which typically come with eating ice cream but has been known to happen here) or inflating your emotions into out of control raves and rants you might want to consider a different hobby. Never mind our engineering types who go on and on and on and on about something that makes absolutely no sense to the rest of us and doesn't much matter. I'd think twice about joining up here. These boy and girls are good but we can really twist the facts around and dance our logic all over the place. What you are still here? This might mean you will fit in just fine. I'm sorry what was your question....? Welcome to TrainBoard and don't say, "You haven't been warned". Grin! You are going to like it here I guarantee it.
A general rule of thumb is if the cars have roller bearing trucks and the box cars have short side ladders and no roof walks and are at least 50 foot long. Modern tank cars do not have the big domes on top any more either. Just watch the trains that roll by these days and you can get a pretty good idea what is out there. Not too much has changed in the last ten years.
Welcome to the "board". There are plenty of "experts" on just about every subject that post regularly and some of them know what they are talking about LOL. But, you have been warned, don't spend too much time here or you will never get that layout built.
Here is a list of web-pages and items on those pages. Most have thumbnail pics and/or links to pictures of the items - it will give you a good idea of what modern cars are available. Doesn't cover all manufacturers or all products. But, should be enough to keep you busy looking for awhile!!!!!! N Scale Assembled Boxcars Pullman-Standard 5277 Cubic Foot Boxcar N Scale Assembled Hoppers Cylindrical Covered Hopper - Trough Hatch Version Cylindrical Covered Hopper - Round Hatch Version 4750 Cubic Foot 3 Bay Covered Hopper ACF Center Flow 2-Bay Hopper ACF 4650 Cubic Ft. 3-Bay Hopper Trinity 5161 Cubic Foot Hopper N Scale Assembled Flat Cars 60' Wood Deck Flat Cars Red Caboose N Scale Products Red Caboose 3 Panel Centerbeam Car Red Caboose 3000 Cubic Foot Covered Hopper Red Caboose 4700 Cubic Foot Covered Hopper Red Caboose 4740 Cubic Foot Covered Hopper Red Caboose 4750 Cubic Foot Covered Hopper Red Caboose 5-Bay Ortner Hopper Red Caboose 73' Center Beam Flat Cars Red Caboose Opera Window Beam Cars Red Caboose Open Panel Beam Cars Red Caboose 62 Ft. Insulated Boxcars Red Caboose Thrall Boxcar Red Caboose Evans 100 Ton Coil Car Fox Valley Models Products Fox Valley Models FMC 5347 Single Door Boxcars Fox Valley Models FMC 5283 Double Door Boxcars Fox Valley Models Pullman Standard 5344 Boxcars Fox Valley Models SOO 7 Post Boxcars Fox Valley Models Trinity RD-4 Hopper Cars Trainworx Products Trainworx 100 Ton Quad Hopper Trainworx Thrall 86'6" High Cube Auto Parts Boxcar Atlas Model Railroad Co. 17,360 Gallon Tank Car 17,600 Gallon Trinity Corn Syrup Tank Car 2-Bay Centerflow Hoppers 23,500 Gallon Tank Car 33,000 Gallon Tank Car 4-Bay 5250 Centerflow Hopper 53' Evans Box Car 5701 Grain Centerflow Hopper 5701 Plastics Centerflow Hopper 5800/5748 Plastics & Grain Hoppers 60' Auto Parts Box Car Articulated Auto Carrier Coalveyor Bathtub Gondola Kaolin Tank Car Pressureaide Centerflow Hopper Thrall 2743 Gondola 2-Bay Centerflow Hopper Thrall 4750 Covered Hopper ExactRail - Welcome - The Next Generation Of Model Railroading (TM) all of their products BLMA Models - Details for the True Prototype Modeler http://www.esmc.com/ProdLine1300.html http://www.esmc.com/ProdLine1350.html Bluford Shops Home 86' auto parts boxcars two styles Athearn Auto-Max auto carrier 30K gallon ethanol tank cars 33.9K gallon LPG tankcars 60' Pullman Standard Auto Parts Thrall Hi-side Gon Bethgons Husky Stack well car DeLuxe...Innovations in N Scale Freight Cars for Over 16 Years! - DeLuxe Innovations Home Page Wood Chip car Coal Porter Thrall Lo-Pac Trinity 57' Spline car Lots of containers Hope this helps.
If you can go out and see your favorite operation, what I do is I take a bit of paper and a pencil and I write down the numbers on the sides of a bunch of the cars along with the AAR reporting marks (e.g., ABCX 23456) and then look up the cars when I get back to see what they were. That way I don't have to be an expert on exactly what model I saw just to know what I was seeing. This helps me put together reasonably good consists. For historic trains, it's a little tougher, but this doesn't sound like your primary area of interest.
Thanks to everyone, especially H Lee who really went above and beyond! I really appreciate all the help. Looks I made the right decision to join this group! Joe
