The "new" refers to the boxcar, by the way... not so much the research. But as long as I was doing this anyway I figured I'd share. I was wondering whether I could run any of the forthcoming steel rebuild boxcars on the Wilmington and New York Railroad, which is set in 1963. Using my "proxy," namely the Official Railway Equipment Register for January 1964, here's what I found for selected roads in which I was interested: Pennsylvania 104287 and 105200: Not really a problem. There were 2579 cars listed in the series 104261 to 107759, plus several subseries. The "circle keystone" paint was replaced with the "shadow keystone" which was introduced in 1954 according to the RPI website, but I think there were enough "circles" in 1963 that I'm not concerned. CMO "Omaha Road"/Chicago & North Western 1672 and 1701: There were only 10 cars left in the series 1658 to 1844, so that would be a long shot. The ORER has everything marked "C&NW" as well although the "CMO" reporting marks are also listed. EJ&E (Elgin, Joliet and Eastern) 7621 and 7627: Just two boxcars in the series 7300 to 7799. Rats. Unlikely that they'd make it to the Adirondacks. Vermont Railway 505 and 524: It didn't yet exist in 1963! I don't think these cars came from the Rutland either; I am wondering what the origin was. I didn't cover ATSF, T&P or UP from the first run since I feel I have enough of those roads as it is. Of course, the W&NY has been known to pick up used equipment and repaint it...
I did some research on the protypes of the Atlas rebuilt USRA 40' box and posted it on the Atlas site a week or so ago. And ordered two Santa Fe cars. Here is a Santa Fe car apparently similar to the Atlas model, ATSF exBX-33 in work service. Atlas car is a BX-36, classes supposed to be identical except for trucks. And a T&P car, different series from the one offered by Atlas but obviously a USRA rebuild. Out of service as storage unit in Corpus Christi T&P USRA rebuild I can't find photo dates, I may have accidently deleted them when I copied info for the www.atlasrr.com post.
